Portable Wisdom

Author: Herb Bowie

Brief Info: American author and software developer

Years Lived: 1951-

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Quotations


The Tautness of this Resonant Connection

No matter what the form, all art seems to produce a similar sensation – of timelessness, of implicit order, of connectedness. It is as if the work of art had sounded some deep note, and caused sympathetic vibration in a hidden string, a string whose one end is secured in the human heart, and from there ascends towards some unknowable summit, the existence of the termination point affirmed only by the tautness of this resonant connection.

From the book Reason to Rock: Rock Music as Art Form

— 2010


Capitalists who worship only at the feet of capitalism

Democratic capitalism is a wonderful device precisely because it maximizes the ability of individuals within society to singly and collectively pursue the ends that they find to be important and meaningful; the accomplishments of a capitalistic society are noble and grand to the extent that the ends pursued by its individuals aspire to these lofty goals, and bereft to the extent that the intentions of its citizens are mean and unworthy; nothing makes capitalism appear more hollow than capitalists who worship only at the feet of capitalism: they are like workmen who have fallen in love with their tools, while blind to the glories of the cathedrals these tools have built and can yet build.


Having Fewer Children and Grandchildren

On the subject of climate change, I think we need to not only think of what sort of planet we will be leaving to our children and grandchildren, but start to think about leaving fewer children and grandchildren for our planet to have to sustain. We cannot stop and reverse climate change if the human population of the planet continues to climb; in fact, it is exceedingly improbably that we can save our planet while maintaining the same number of people we have alive today.

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