Max Weber

The 'disenchantment of the world' is a central theme in Weber's analysis of modernity.

Man is a being suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun. I take culture to be those webs, and the analysis of it to be therefore not an experimental science in search of law, but an interpretive one in search of meaning.

Not summer's bloom, nor autumn's blight, but winter's ice, makes the tree strong.

The most important thing is to have a clear conscience and to be able to look oneself in the eye.

The calling of science is to make us aware of the limits of our knowledge.

The decisive reason for the advance of bureaucratic organization has always been its purely technical superiority over any other form of organization.

It is not the 'what' but the 'how' that matters.

The fate of an epoch which has eaten of the tree of knowledge is that it must know that we cannot learn the meaning of the world from the results of its analysis.

The world is a chaos of facts, and we can only make sense of it by imposing our own categories upon it.

The most important thing is to remain true to oneself, even when it is difficult.

The 'iron cage' of bureaucracy is a future from which we cannot escape.

The true politician must be a man of faith, not in the sense of a religious dogma, but in the sense of an inner conviction.

The academic life is a strange mixture of freedom and constraint.

The problem of value-freedom in social science is not about whether values exist, but about how they are handled.

The world is full of suffering, and it is our duty to alleviate it where we can.

The charisma of a leader is a gift, but it must be cultivated and maintained.

The modern world is characterized by an increasing rationalization of all spheres of life.

The task of the sociologist is to understand the subjective meaning that individuals attach to their actions.

The intellectual's duty is to speak truth to power, even when it is unpopular.

The pursuit of knowledge is a lonely path, but it is a rewarding one.