#pa

Religion did not exist for the saving of souls but for the preservation and welfare of society, and in all that was necessary to this end every man had to take his part, or break with the domestic and political community to which he belonged. ↗

— William Robertson Smith

#break #community #did #domestic #end

The myths connected with individual sanctuaries and ceremonies were merely part of the apparatus of the worship; they served to excite the fancy and sustain the interest of the worshipper... no one cared what he believed about its origin. ↗

— William Robertson Smith

#apparatus #believed #cared #ceremonies #connected

The scenic ideals that surround even our national parks are carriers of a nostalgia for heavenly bliss and eternal calmness. ↗

— Robert Smithson

#calmness #carriers #eternal #even #heavenly

The particle and the planet are subject to the same laws and what is learned of one will be known of the other. ↗

— James Smithson

#laws #learned #other #particle #planet

A vacant white room with lights is still a submission to the neutral. Works of art seen in such spaces seem to be going through a kind of esthetic convalescence. ↗

— Robert Smithson

#convalescence #going #kind #lights #neutral

Instead of causing us to remember the past like the old monuments, the new monuments seem to cause us to forget the future. ↗

— Robert Smithson

#causing #forget #future #instead #like

History is representational, while time is abstract; both of these artifices may be found in museums, where they span everybody's own vacancy. ↗

— Robert Smithson

#artifices #both #everybody #found #history

Objects in a park suggest static repose rather than any ongoing dialectic. Parks are finished landscapes for finished art . ↗

— Robert Smithson

#art #dialectic #finished #landscapes #objects

Painting, sculpture and architecture are finished, but the art habit continues. ↗

— Robert Smithson

#art #continues #finished #habit #painting

Parks are idealizations of nature, but nature in fact is not a condition of the ideal. ↗

— Robert Smithson

#fact #ideal #in fact #nature #parks