---
title: "1 Meaningful Structures Quotes By Ivan Illich"
description: "1 Meaningful Structures quotes by Ivan Illich. Plus more from Ivan Illich and more Meaningful Structures sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d8b/ivan-illich-3546_architecture_traditional-society-was-more-like-a-set_444286.jpg"
---

> [Traditional society was more like a set of concentric circles of meaningful structures, while modern man must learn how to find meaning in many structures to which he is only marginally related. In the village, language and architecture and religion…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/traditional-society-was-more-like-a-set-of-concentric-circles-of/)

[Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d8b/ivan-illich-3546_architecture_traditional-society-was-more-like-a-set_444286.jpg)

## More by Ivan Illich

> [“Universal education through schooling is not feasible. It would be no more feasible if it were attempted by means of alternative institutions built on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/universal-education-through-schooling-is-not-feasible-it-would-be-no/)

[Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/)

> [The re-establishment of an ecological balance depends on the ability of society to counteract the progressive materialization of values. The ecological balance cannot be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/the-re-establishment-of-an-ecological-balance-depends-on-the-ability/)

[Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/)

> [The new experience that has replaced dignified suffering is artificially prolonged, opaque, depersonalized maintenance.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/the-new-experience-that-has-replaced-dignified-suffering-is/)

[Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/)

> [Losses of a kind of satisfaction that have no market equivalent don't show up in the calculations of economists.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/losses-of-a-kind-of-satisfaction-that-have-no-market-equivalent-don-t/)

[Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/)

> [Schools are designed on the assumption that there is a secret to everything in life; that the quality of life depends upon knowing that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/schools-are-designed-on-the-assumption-that-there-is-a-secret-to/)

[Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/)

> [The State shall make no law with respect to the establishment of education.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/the-state-shall-make-no-law-with-respect-to-the-establishment-of/)

[Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/)

> [What kinds of things and people might learners want to be in contact with in order to learn?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/what-kinds-of-things-and-people-might-learners-want-to-be-in-contact/)

[Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/)

> [The pupil is ... 'schooled' to confuse teaching with learning, grade advancement with education, a diploma with competence, and fluency with the ability to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/the-pupil-is-schooled-to-confuse-teaching-with-learning-grade/)

[Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/)

> [To deschool means to abolish the power of one person to oblige another.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/to-deschool-means-to-abolish-the-power-of-one-person-to-oblige-another/)

[Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/)

> [Societies in which most people depend for most of their goods and services on the personal whim, kindness, or skill of another are called…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/societies-in-which-most-people-depend-for-most-of-their-goods-and/)

[Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/)

> [“P3- modernised poverty combines the lack of power over circumstances with a loss of personal potency”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/p3-modernised-poverty-combines-the-lack-of-power-over-circumstances/)

[Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/)

> [“Today, one must either be isolated and cut off, or a carefully guarded, affluent drop-out, to allow one's children to play in an environment…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/today-one-must-either-be-isolated-and-cut-off-or-a-carefully-guarded/)

[Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/)

> [The household became the place where the consumption of wages takes place.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/the-household-became-the-place-where-the-consumption-of-wages-takes/)

[Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/)

> [Man must choose whether to be rich in things or in the freedom to use them.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/man-must-choose-whether-to-be-rich-in-things-or-in-the-freedom-to-use/)

[Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/)

> [“Welfare bureaucracies claim a professional, political, and financial monopoly over the social imagination, setting standards of what is valuable and what is feasible. This…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/welfare-bureaucracies-claim-a-professional-political-and-financial/)

[Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/)

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