Georg Simmel

problem modern life individual social forces heritage culture

“The deepest problems of modern life derive from the claim of the individual to preserve the autonomy and individuality of his existence in the face of overwhelming social forces, of historical heritage, of external culture, and of the technique of life.”

― Georg Simmel (1858-1918)

educated find knowledge

“A man is well educated when he knows where to find what he doesn’t know.”

― Georg Simmel (1858-1918)

calculative exactness money economy natural science

"The calculative exactness of practical life which the money economy has brought about corresponds to the ideal of natural science: to transform the world by mathematical formulas. Only money economy has filled the days of so many people with weighing, calculating, with numerical determinations, with a reduction of qualitative values to quantitative ones."

― Georg Simmel (1858-1918)

division labor individual one-sided personality

"For the division of labor demands from the individual an ever more one-sided accomplishment, and the greatest advance in a one-sided pursuit only too frequently means dearth to the personality of the individual."

― Georg Simmel (1858-1918)

individual cog organization subjective progress spirituality

"The individual has become a mere cog in an enormous organization of things and powers which tear from his hands all progress, spirituality, and value in order to transform them from their subjective form into the form of a purely objective life."

― Georg Simmel (1858-1918)

gratitude moral memory

"Gratitude is the moral memory of mankind."

― Georg Simmel (1858-1918)

relationship individual group secrecy

"Every relationship between two individuals or two groups will be characterized by the ratio of secrecy that is involved in it."

― Georg Simmel (1858-1918)

ugly repugnant vogue fashion atrocious

"Judging from the ugly and repugnant things that are sometimes in vogue, it would seem as though fashion were desirous of exhibiting its power by getting us to adopt the most atrocious things for its sake alone."

― Georg Simmel (1858-1918)

city economic divisio labor

"Cities are, first of all, seats of the highest economic division of labor."

― Georg Simmel (1858-1918)

wandering detachment point space

"...wandering, (is) considered as a state of detachment form every given point in space..."

― Georg Simmel (1858-1918)

metropolis money economy

"The metropolis has always been the seat of the money economy."

― Georg Simmel (1858-1918)

superior personality performance average mankind mysterious

"Every superior personality, and every superior performance, has, for the average of mankind, something mysterious."

― Georg Simmel (1858-1918)