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In argument about moral problems, relativism is the first refuge of the scoundrel.

Roger Scruton

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Roger Scruton
Age: 75 †
Born: 1944
Born: February 27
Died: 2020
Died: January 12
Aesthetician
Composer
Journalist
Novelist
Philosopher
Political Scientist
Politician
University Teacher
Writer
Roger Vernon Scruton
Professor Sir Roger Vernon Scruton
Refuge
Argument
Problems
Moral
Problem
Firsts
Scoundrel
First
Relativism
Scoundrels

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The culture of a civilization is the art and literature through which it rises to consciousness of itself and defines its vision of the world.
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Freedom can reside only in a point of view, a way of looking upon the system of necessity.Surely this is the one freedom that we may attain to: not to be released from physical reality, but to understand reality and ourselves as part of it, and so be reconciled to what we are.
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The sexual parts are not only vivid examples of the body's dominion they are also apertures whose damp emissions and ammoniac smells testify to the mysterious putrefaction of the body.
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Something of the child's pure delight in creation survives in every true work of art.
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Beauty matters. It is not just a subjective thing but a universal need of human beings. If we ignore this need we find ourselves in a spiritual desert.
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Private property is one of the best institutions which has ever evolved, to protect us from the bullying of others.
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The art establishment has turned away from the old curriculum which puts beauty and craft at the top of the agenda.
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A philosopher who says, 'There are no truths, only interpretations,' risks the retort: 'Is that true, or only an interpretation?'
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The abstract, unreal freedom of the liberal intellect was really nothing more than childish disobedience, amplified into anarchy.
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Modernist buildings exclude dialogue, and the void that they create around themselves is not a public space but a desertification
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There are no chords in modernist architecture, only lines - lines that may come to an end, but that achieve no closure
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When many people individually get what they want, the result may be something they collectively dislike.
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To teach virtue we must educate the emotions, and this means learning what to feel in the various circumstances that prompt them.
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If you consider only utility, the things you build will soon be useless... nobody wants to be in it.
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The conservative response to modernity is to embrace it, but to embrace it critically, in full consciousness that human achievements are rare and precarious, that we have no God-given right to destroy our inheritance, but must always patiently submit to the voice of order, and set an example of orderly living.
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Science proposes something and then does everything it can to disprove it. Religion is not like that. It proposes something and does everything it can to keep it from being disproved.
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Affect not to despise beauty: no one is freed from its dominion But regard it not a pearl of price--it is fleeting as the bow in the clouds.
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In the absence of organized religion, the only vehicle for redemption is art - not just the fragmentary arts of painting or music or poetry, but the kind of art that creates a whole world in itself and in that world we see ourselves reflected and see our religious life perfected.
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Architecture, like dress, is an exercise in good manners, and good manners involve the habit of skillful insincerity - the habit of saying good morning to those whose mornings you would rather blight, and of passing the butter to those you would rather starve.
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Through the pursuit of beauty we shape the world as a home, and in doing so we both amplify our joys and find consolation for our sorrows.
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