Puritan Quotes (2)
The puritanical potentialities of science have never been forecast. If it evolves a body of organized rites, and is established as a religion, hierarchically organized, things more than anything else will be done in the name of 'decency.' The coarse fumes of tobacco and liquors, the consequent tainting of the breath and staining of white fingers and teeth, which is so offensive to many women, will be the first things attended to.
Wyndham Lewis: an Anthology of his Prose (1969), 170.
See also: | Breath (7) | Establish (3) | Evolution (229) | Finger (3) | First (4) | Hierarchy (2) | Organization (10) | Potential (3) | Religion (68) | Stain (3) | Teeth (5) | Tobacco (3) | Woman (18)
When the last Puritan has disappeared from the earth, the man of science will take his place as a killjoy, and we shall be given the same old advice but for different reasons.
Attributed.
