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Quotable quotes from Max Weber (1864 – 1920)

A Truncate !ense of !elf"#I experience myself as being, in these matters also, a cripple, amutilated being, whose fate it is to be compelled in all honor to admit

that I understand what is being talked about, without – like a tree-stump, which is able to put out buds, again and again – withoutplaying the part of being a whole tree.

- Letters from Weber to Ferdinand onnies

T$e %nterm&nable Quest for Mean&n'#!any "arieties of belief ha"e, of course, existed. #ehind them alwayslies a stand towards something in the actual world, which isexperienced as speci$cally %senseless&. hus, the demand had beenimplied' that the world order in its totality is, could, and shouldsomehow be a meaningful cosmos. his (uest, the core of genuinereligious rationalism, had been borne precisely by strata of intellectuals.

- %he )ocial *sychology of the World+eligions&

eon a Mater&al&st *once+t&on of ,&stor#ot ideas, but material and ideal interests, directly go"ern mensconduct. et "ery fre(uently the %world images& that ha"e been

created by %ideas& ha"e, like switchmen, determined the tracks alongwhich action has been pushed by the dynamic of interest. %Fromwhat& and %for what& one wished to be redeemed and, let us notforget, %could be&, redeemed, depended upon ones image of theworld.

- %he )ocial *sychology of the World+eligions&

T$e -ot&on of a .*all&n'/##ut al least one thing was un(uestionable new' the "aluation of theful$llment of duty in worldly a/airs as the highest form which the

moral acti"ity of the indi"idual could assume. his it was whichine"itable ga"e e"ery-day worldly acti"ity a religious signi$cance, andwhich $rst created the conception of a calling in this sense0 he onlyway of li"ing acceptable to 1od was not to surpass worldly morality inmonastic asceticism, but solely through the ful$llment of theobligations imposed upon the indi"idual by his position in the world. hat was his calling.

- %he *rotestant 2thic and the )pirit of 3apitalism&

 he *sychological Impact of the his-Worldly 4sceticism'5n the other hand, though the means by which it 6grace7 wasattained di/ered for di/erent doctrines, it could not be guaranteed by

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any magical sacraments, by relief in the confession, nor by indi"idualgood works. hat was only possible by proof in a speci$c type of conduct unmistakably di/erent from the way of life of the naturalman. From that followed for the indi"idual an incenti"e methodicallyto super"ise his own state of grace in his own conduct, and this to

penetrate it with asceticism. #ut, as we ha"e seen, this asceticconduct meant a rational planning of the whole of one8s life inaccordance with 1od8s will. 4nd this asceticism was no longer an opussupererogationis, but something which could be re(uired of e"eryonewho would be certain of sal"ation. he religious life of the saints, asdistinguished from the natural life, was – the most important point -no longer li"ed outside the world in monastic communities, but withinthe world and its institutions. his rationali9ation of conduct within theworld, but for the sake of the world beyond, was the conse(uence of the concept of calling of ascetic *rotestantism.

- %he *rotestant 2thic and the )pirit of 3apitalism&

T$e %nexorable .%ron *a'e/ of Moern&t he *uritan wanted to work in a calling: we are forced to do so. Forwhen asceticism was carried out of monastic cells into e"eryday life,and began to dominate worldly morality, it did its part in building thetremendous cosmos of the modern economic order. his order is nowbound to the technical and economic conditions of machineproduction which today determine the li"es of all the indi"iduals whoare born in this mechanism, not only those directly concerned with

economic ac(uisition, with irresistible force. *erhaps it will sodetermine them until the last ton of fossili9ed coal is burnt. In #axters"iew the care of external goods should only lie on the shoulders of the%saint like a light cloak, which can be thrown aside at any moment.&#ut fate decreed that the cloak should become an iron cage. )inceasceticism undertook to remodel the world and to work out its idealsin the world, material goods ha"e gained an increasing and $nally aninexorable power o"er the li"es of men as at no precious period inhistory.

- %he *rotestant 2thic and the )pirit of 3apitalism&

 he !alaise of !odernity and the Futility of +eligion' he fate of our times is characteri9ed by rationali9ation andintellectuali9ation and, abo"e all, by the %disenchantment of theworld.& *recisely the ultimate and most sublime "alues ha"e retreatedfrom public life wither into the transcendental real of mystic life orinto the brotherliness of direct and personal human relations0 o theperson who cannot bear the fate of the times like a man, one mustsay' may he rather return silently, without the usual publicity build-upof renegades, but simply and plainly. he arms of the old churches areopened widely and compassionately for him. 4fter all, they do notmake it hard for him. 5ne way or another he gas to bring his%intellectual sacri$ce& – that is ine"itable.

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- %)cience as a;ocation&