Allan Bloom Quotes

A collection of quotes by Allan Bloom.

Allan Bloom (1930-1992) was an American philosopher, classicist, and academic. Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, he showed immense intellectual promise from a young age. Graduating from the University of Chicago with both a bachelor's and a master's degree, Bloom went on to earn his Ph.D. in political science from the same institution.

Bloom's scholarly work focused primarily on political theory and the great works of Western philosophy. He became widely known for his critical examination of contemporary American education and his critique of moral relativism. In 1987, he gained significant attention with the publication of his best-selling book, "The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students." This seminal work criticized the decline of liberal education in the United States and argued for the importance of studying the great works of literature and philosophy.

Throughout his career, Bloom held prestigious positions at universities, including the University of Chicago and Cornell University. He was a captivating lecturer known for his passionate teaching style and immense knowledge. His influence extended beyond the academic realm, for he was often sought after as a cultural commentator.

Allan Bloom's work continues to inspire debates and discussions on education, democracy, and the importance of liberal arts in contemporary society. His contributions to political philosophy and classical studies remain influential, making him a significant figure in the intellectual history of the United States.

It is easy today to deny God's creativity as a thing of the

It is easy today to deny God's creativity as a thing of the benighted past, overcome by science, but man's creativity, a thing much more improbable and nothing but an imitation of God's, exercises a strange attraction.

The failure to read good books both enfeebles the vision and

The failure to read good books both enfeebles the vision and strengthens our most fatal tendency - the belief that the here and now is all there is.

Science is itself one of the modifications of amour-propre,

Science is itself one of the modifications of amour-propre, the love of inequality.

The real community of man is the community of those who seek

The real community of man is the community of those who seek the truth, of the potential knowers.

Truth Man Community

First radio, then television, have assaulted and overturned

First radio, then television, have assaulted and overturned the privacy of the home, the real American privacy, which permitted the development of a higher and more independent life within democratic society.

Life Home Society Privacy

The Ciceros and Bacons would not have been what they were if

The Ciceros and Bacons would not have been what they were if they had been professors. It was in living life as it really is, rather than in the artificially structured and protected universities, that they were able to grasp the human situation as a whole.

The issue is what is the social science atom.

The issue is what is the social science atom.

The scholar cannot understand the will to power, not a cause

The scholar cannot understand the will to power, not a cause recognized by science, which made Alexander different from others, because the scholar neither has it nor does his method permit him to have it or see it.

Power Science Method

love of virtue is only an imagination, a kind of perversion

love of virtue is only an imagination, a kind of perversion of desire effected by society's (i.e., others') demands on us.

Imagination Love Society Virtues

The distinction between private and public undermines the un

The distinction between private and public undermines the unity of spiritual strength, draining the public of the transcendent energies while trivializing them because the merely private life provides no proper stage for their action.

Life Strength Unity Action Thepublic

The expectation of substantive unity between natural science

The expectation of substantive unity between natural science and social science has faded.... Gone is the cosmic intention of placing man in the universe.

Science Man Unity

There is a perennial and unobtrusive view that morality cons

There is a perennial and unobtrusive view that morality consists in such things as telling the truth, paying one's debts, respecting one's parents and doing no voluntary harm to anyone. Those are all things easy to say and hard to do; they do not attract much attention, and win little honor in the world.

The spirit is at home, if not entirely satisfied, in America

The spirit is at home, if not entirely satisfied, in America.

Fathers and mothers have lost the idea that the highest aspi

Fathers and mothers have lost the idea that the highest aspiration they might have for their children is for them to be wise... specialized competence and success are all that they can imagine.

Education in our times must try to find whatever there is in

Education in our times must try to find whatever there is in students that might yearn for completion, and to reconstruct the learning that would enable them autonomously to seek that completion.

There is no real teacher who in practice does not believe in

There is no real teacher who in practice does not believe in the existence of the soul, or in a magic that acts on it through speech.

Nothing is more singular about this generation than its addi

Nothing is more singular about this generation than its addiction to music.

The most important function of the university in an age of r

The most important function of the university in an age of reason is to protect reason from itself.

We are like ignorant shepherds living on a site where great

We are like ignorant shepherds living on a site where great civilizations once flourished. The shepherds play with the fragments that pop up to the surface, having no notion of the beautiful structures of which they were once a part.

The failure to read good books both enfeebles the vision and

The failure to read good books both enfeebles the vision and strengthens our most fatal tendency --the belief that the here and now is all there is.