Quotes & anectdotes from
the wise,
the foolish,
the courageous &
the drunk

Herbert Read Art critic

  • Gender: Male
  • Citizenship: England
  • Born: Dec 4, 1893
  • Died: Jun 12, 1968

Sir Herbert Edward Read, DSO, MC was an English anarchist, poet and literary critic, best known for numerous books on art, which included influential volumes on the role of art in education. Read was co-founder of the Institute of Contemporary Arts. He was one of the earliest English writers to take notice of existentialism.

The characteristic political attitude of today is not one of positive belief, but of despair.

I call religion a natural authority, but it has usually been conceived as a supernatural authority.

I can imagine no society which does not embody some method of arbitration.

The slave may be happy, but happiness is not enough.

What I do deny is that you can build any enduring society without some such mystical ethos.

Progress is measured by the degree of differentiation within a society.

The farther a society progresses, the more clearly the individual becomes the antithesis of the group.