--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Mozart, Pascal, Boolean algebra…" description: "\"Mozart, Pascal, Boolean algebra, Shakespeare, parliamentary government, baroque churches, Newton, the emancipation of women, Kant, Balanchine ballets, ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/dd4/susan-sontag-332_algebra_mozart-pascal-boolean-algebra-shakespear_953043.jpg" --- # Mozart, Pascal, Boolean algebra, Shakespeare… ![“Mozart, Pascal, Boolean algebra, Shakespeare, parliamentary government, baroque churches, Newton, the emancipation of women, Kant, Balanchine ballets, et al. don’t redeem what this particular civilization has wrought upon the world. The white race is the cancer of human history.” quote by Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/dd4/susan-sontag-332_algebra_mozart-pascal-boolean-algebra-shakespear_953043.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/dd4/susan-sontag-332_algebra_mozart-pascal-boolean-algebra-shakespear_953043.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/dd4/susan-sontag-332_algebra_mozart-pascal-boolean-algebra-shakespear_953043.jpg) > “Mozart, Pascal, Boolean algebra, Shakespeare, parliamentary government, baroque churches, Newton, the emancipation of women, Kant, Balanchine ballets, et al. don’t redeem what this particular civilization has wrought upon the world. The white race is the cancer of human history.” [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The quote condemns the dominant culture's historical harms, labeling the white race as a destructive force in humanity's progress. **In simple terms:** It criticizes Western civilization’s impact and calls it a disease. Key Takeaway Recognize and challenge systemic oppression. Themes racism history civilization power gender culture Mood critical provocative somber Type political philosophical controversial When to use this quote - academic discourse - social activism - policy reform - education curricula - media representation Key Concepts colonialism systemic oppression cultural hegemony gender emancipation artistic influence Questions to Reflect On - How can we address systemic injustice without essentializing groups? - What alternative narratives can reshape historical understanding? A Different Perspective The statement is sweeping and may overlook individual diversity and positive contributions. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Algebra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/algebra/) [Baroque](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/baroque/) [Cancer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/cancer/) [Church](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/church/) [Civilization](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/civilization/) [Emancipation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/emancipation/) [Government](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/government/) [Human history](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/human-history/) [Humans](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/humans/) [Judaism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/judaism/) [Newton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/newton/) [Politics](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/politics/) [Race](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/race/) [Racism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/racism/) [White race](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/white-race/) [World](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/world/) ## Related quotes > [The white race is the cancer of human history.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-white-race-is-the-cancer-of-human-history/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The Indians are a civilization wrought with culture and a beautiful, deep spirituality.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cree-summer/the-indians-are-a-civilization-wrought-with-culture-and-a-beautiful/) [Cree Summer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/cree-summer/) > [The white race is the cancer of human history; it is the white race and it alone — its ideologies and inventions — which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-white-race-is-the-cancer-of-human-history-it-is-the-white-race/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The problem is there are people in this country - maybe 10%, I don't know what the number, maybe 20% on a bad day…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chris-matthews/the-problem-is-there-are-people-in-this-country-maybe-10-i-don-t-know/) [Chris Matthews](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/chris-matthews/) > [Well, the white race in America is the same way. As individuals it is impossible for them to escape the collective crime committed against…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/malcolm-x/well-the-white-race-in-america-is-the-same-way-as-individuals-it-is/) [Malcolm X](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/malcolm-x/) > [Whiteness is not a culture . . . Whiteness has nothing to do with culture and everything to do with social position . .…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/noel-ignatiev/whiteness-is-not-a-culture-whiteness-has-nothing-to-do-with-culture/) [Noel Ignatiev](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/noel-ignatiev/) > [“The white race increasingly deserves the name given by the American Indians: palefaces.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emil-m-cioran/the-white-race-increasingly-deserves-the-name-given-by-the-american/) [Emil M. Cioran](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emil-m-cioran/) > [The key to solving the social problems of our age is to abolish the white race. Until that task is accomplished, even partial reform…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/noel-ignatiev/the-key-to-solving-the-social-problems-of-our-age-is-to-abolish-the/) [Noel Ignatiev](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/noel-ignatiev/) > [In colleges throughout America, students are taught to have disdain for the white race. I know this sounds incredible, or at least exaggerated. It…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dennis-prager/in-colleges-throughout-america-students-are-taught-to-have-disdain/) [Dennis Prager](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dennis-prager/) > [Now the long-feared Asiatic colossus takes its turn as world leader, and we--the white race--have become the yellow man's burden.Let us hope that he…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gore-vidal/now-the-long-feared-asiatic-colossus-takes-its-turn-as-world-leader/) [Gore Vidal](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gore-vidal/) > [If there is one thing in this wonderful world of ours that is worth preserving, defending, and promoting, it is the White Race.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ben-klassen/if-there-is-one-thing-in-this-wonderful-world-of-ours-that-is-worth/) [Ben Klassen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ben-klassen/) > [People keep telling me about the white race and the black race - and it really doesn't make sense. I played Miami, met a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dick-gregory/people-keep-telling-me-about-the-white-race-and-the-black-race-and-it/) [Dick Gregory](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dick-gregory/) > [Now, suppose a Negro does something really magnificent, and I glory, not in the benefit to mankind, but in the fact that the doer…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/zora-neale-hurston/now-suppose-a-negro-does-something-really-magnificent-and-i-glory-not/) [Zora Neale Hurston](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/zora-neale-hurston/) > [The Indian is but a sketch in red crayon of a rudimental manhood. To the problem of his relation to the white race, there…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/the-indian-is-but-a-sketch-in-red-crayon-of-a-rudimental-manhood-to/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [We Muslims believe that the white race, which is guilty of having oppressed and exploited and enslaved our people here in America, should and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/malcolm-x/we-muslims-believe-that-the-white-race-which-is-guilty-of-having/) [Malcolm X](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/malcolm-x/) ## More by Susan Sontag > [the appetite for thinking must be regulated, as all sensible people know, for it may stifle one's life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-appetite-for-thinking-must-be-regulated-as-all-sensible-people/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [We are ruled by quotations.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/we-are-ruled-by-quotations/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Unfortunately, moral beauty in art - like physical beauty in a person - is extremely perishable. It is nowhere so durable as artistic or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/unfortunately-moral-beauty-in-art-like-physical-beauty-in-a-person-is/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Like the collector, the photographer is animated by a passion that, even when it appears to be for the present, is linked to a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/like-the-collector-the-photographer-is-animated-by-a-passion-that/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [ Anthropology has always struggled with an intense, fascinated repulsion towards its subject… \[The anthropologist\] submits himself to the exotic to confirm his own inner… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/anthropology-has-always-struggled-with-an-intense-fascinated/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [“Why not eliminate schooling between age 12-16? It’s biologically + psychologically too turbulent a time to be cooped up inside, made to sit all…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/why-not-eliminate-schooling-between-age-12-16-it-s-biologically/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them that they can never…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/to-photograph-people-is-to-violate-them-by-seeing-them-as-they-never/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [One set of messages of the society we live in is: Consume. Grow. Do what you want. Amuse yourselves. The very working of this…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/one-set-of-messages-of-the-society-we-live-in-is-consume-grow-do-what/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Currently intellectuals in Western Europe and North America are extremely demoralized and shaken by the rise of a virulent conservative tendency (which some have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/currently-intellectuals-in-western-europe-and-north-america-are/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [With the modern diseases (once TB, now cancer) the romantic idea that the disease expresses the character is invariably extended to assert that the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/with-the-modern-diseases-once-tb-now-cancer-the-romantic-idea-that/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [As objects of contemplation, images of the atrocious can answer to several different needs. To steel oneself against weakness. To make oneself more numb.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/as-objects-of-contemplation-images-of-the-atrocious-can-answer-to/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The creative phase of an idea coincides with the period during which it insists, cantankerously, on its boundaries, on what makes it different; but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-creative-phase-of-an-idea-coincides-with-the-period-during-which/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Photographs objectify: they turn an event or a person into something that can be possessed.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/photographs-objectify-they-turn-an-event-or-a-person-into-something/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [I'm not interested in giving aid and comfort to the neo­-Conservatives.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/i-m-not-interested-in-giving-aid-and-comfort-to-the-neo-conservatives/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The feminist movement has been important to me because it's made me feel less odd and also because it has made me understand some…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-feminist-movement-has-been-important-to-me-because-it-s-made-me/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Explore all 644 Susan Sontag quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ## More Algebra quotes > [“Who cares for Algebra? Who delights in solving math? I only want to live my life Along the creative path.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-niven/who-cares-for-algebra-who-delights-in-solving-math-i-only-want-to/) [Jennifer Niven](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-niven/) > [I write emotional algebra.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anais-nin/i-write-emotional-algebra/) [Anais Nin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anais-nin/) > [...the science of calculation also is indispensable as far as the extraction of the square and cube roots: Algebra as far as the quadratic…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/the-science-of-calculation-also-is-indispensable-as-far-as-the/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [Great people create great acts of kindness.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/miguel-de-cervantes/great-people-create-great-acts-of-kindness/) [Miguel de Cervantes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/miguel-de-cervantes/) > [Algebra applies to the clouds.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/victor-hugo/algebra-applies-to-the-clouds/) [Victor Hugo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/victor-hugo/) > [ \[On refusing to do nude movie scenes:\] There are certain people who should know what you look like naked. I just don't think your… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/julia-roberts/on-refusing-to-do-nude-movie-scenes-there-are-certain-people-who/) [Julia Roberts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/julia-roberts/) > [Hmm. I'm still not very good at algebra. I just can't figure out Y.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/hmm-i-m-still-not-very-good-at-algebra-i-just-can-t-figure-out-y/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Astronomy, that micography of heaven, is the most magnificent of the sciences. ... Astronomy has its clear side and its luminous side; on its…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/victor-hugo/astronomy-that-micography-of-heaven-is-the-most-magnificent-of-the/) [Victor Hugo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/victor-hugo/) > [No one fully understands spinors. Their algebra is formally understood but their general significance is mysterious. In some sense they describe the 'square root'…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-atiyah/no-one-fully-understands-spinors-their-algebra-is-formally-understood/) [Michael Atiyah](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-atiyah/) > [Cryptography has generated number theory, algebraic geometry over finite fields, algebra, combinatorics and computers.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/vladimir-arnold/cryptography-has-generated-number-theory-algebraic-geometry-over/) [Vladimir Arnold](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/vladimir-arnold/) > [There's nothing in your life you can't learn from, if you respond with the right attitude.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rick-warren/there-s-nothing-in-your-life-you-can-t-learn-from-if-you-respond-with/) [Rick Warren](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rick-warren/) > [ALGEBRA is a general Method of Computation by certain Signs and Symbols which have been contrived for this Purpose, and found convenient.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/colin-maclaurin/algebra-is-a-general-method-of-computation-by-certain-signs-and/) Colin Maclaurin > [A child in the 4th grade who's just learning algebra is not imperfect. While there may be a child in the 12th grade who's…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frederick-lenz/a-child-in-the-4th-grade-who-s-just-learning-algebra-is-not-imperfect/) [Frederick Lenz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frederick-lenz/) > [When I was at school, I was terrible at algebra and arithmetic, but I was always the best at English and literature. And acting,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-collins/when-i-was-at-school-i-was-terrible-at-algebra-and-arithmetic-but-i/) [Joan Collins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-collins/) > [Algebra goes to the heart of the matter at it ignores the casual nature of particular cases.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-charles-titchmarsh/algebra-goes-to-the-heart-of-the-matter-at-it-ignores-the-casual/) [Edward Charles Titchmarsh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-charles-titchmarsh/) [Browse all 235 Algebra quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/algebra/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Mozart, Pascal, Boolean algebra, Shakespeare, parliamentary government, baroque churches, Newton, the emancipation of women, Kant, Balanchine ballets, et al. don’t redeem what this particular civilization has wrought upon the world. 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