The following quote by Oliver Wendell Holmes was used by Jane Jacobs to open her groundbreaking book, "The Death and Life of American Cities." You know, the one that shuffled all of those International Style architects I admire off the scene, as far as residential architecture is concerned.
Something keeps biting me when I read this quote, and I'm not sure what it is. It looks like a cool crick with a pebbly bed on a hot day that you wade right into, full of self satisfaction. But there's something in there that's nipping at your toes. Maybe drawing a little blood.
The chief worth of civilization is just that it makes the means of living more complex, because the more complex and intense intellectual efforts mean a fuller and richer life. They mean more life. Life is an end in itself, and the only question as to whether it is worth living is whether we have enough of it.
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