The Lost Sense of Quality

"We need all along the line to recover the lost sense of quality and a social order based on quality.  Quality is the greatest enemy of any kind of mass leveling. Socially it means the renunciation of all place-hunting, a break with the cult of the 'star', an open eye both upwards and downwards, especially in the choice of one's more intimate friends, and pleasure in private life as well as courage to enter public life. Culturally it means a return from the newspaper and the radio to the book, from feverish activity to unhurried leisure, from dispersion to concentration, from sensationalism to reflection, from virtuosity to art, from snobbery to modesty, from extravagance to moderation.  Quantities are competitive, qualities are complementary."

     -Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Letters and Papers from Prison)