Max Weber Quotes
Max Weber was a German sociologist, jurist, and political economist, one of the founders of modern social science. His Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism argued for an elective affinity between Calvinist asceticism and the rationalizing logic of modern capitalism, while Economy and Society laid out a vast comparative analysis of forms of authority, rationality, and law. The quotes below are attributed to Max Weber, organized by topic.
Browse Max Weber by topic
Max Weber on Death
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“"Politics means a strong slow drilling of hard boards, with passion and judgment at the same time." ([ [1] ]: "Die Politik bedeutet ein starkes langsames Bohren von harten Brettern mit Leidenschaft und Augenmaß zugleich.")”
"Politics as a Vocation" (1919)
Max Weber on Freedom
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“In a democracy the people choose a leader in whom they trust. Then the chosen leader says, 'Now shut up and obey me.' People and party are then no longer free to interfere in his business.”
From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology(1946) | p. 42;
Max Weber on God
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“Only on the assumption of belief in the validity of values is the attempt to espouse value-judgments meaningful. However, to judge the validity of such values is a matter of faith .”
Max Weber (1949/2011), Methodology of Social Sciences, Edward E. Shils & Henry A. Finch (transl. & ed.). p. 55 -
“The more a religion is aware of its opposition in principle to economic rationalization as such, the more apt are the religion’s virtuosi to reject the world, especially its economic activities.”
Sociology of Religion(1922) | p. 217
Max Weber on Knowledge
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“The capacity to distinguish between empirical knowledge and value-judgments , and the fulfillment of the scientific duty to see the factual truth as well as the practical duty to stand up for our own ideals constitute the program to which we wish to adhere with ever increasing firmness.”
Max Weber, “Objectivity in Social Science and Social Policy” (1904) -
“Max Weber, “Objectivity in Social Science and Social Policy” (1904)”
The capacity to distinguish between empirical knowledge and value-judgments , and the fulfillment of the scientific duty to see the factual truth as well as the practical duty to stand up for our own ideals constitute the program to which we wish to adhere with ever increasing firmness. -
“Max Weber (1949/2011), Methodology of Social Sciences, Edward E. Shils & Henry A. Finch (transl. & ed.). p. 55”
Only on the assumption of belief in the validity of values is the attempt to espouse value-judgments meaningful. However, to judge the validity of such values is a matter of faith .
Max Weber on Life
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“What interests us here is the assimilative power of the Hindu life order due to its legitimation of social rank.”
Religion of India(1916) | p. 20 -
“The ultimately possible attitudes toward life are irreconcilable, and hence their struggle can never be brought to a final conclusion.”
From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology(1946) | p. 152 (in 2009 edition) -
“Academic life is a mad hazard. If the young scholar asks for my advice with regard to habilitation, the responsibility of encouraging him can hardly be borne. If he is a Jew, of course one says lasciate ogni speranza ("abandon all hope").”
"Science as a Vocation" (1917)
Max Weber on Mind
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“When I studied modern Catholic literature in Rome a few years ago, I became convinced how hopeless it is to think that there are any scientific results this church cannot digest... I could not honestly participate in such anti-clericalism. It is true that I am absolutely unmusical in matters religious and that I have neither the need nor the ability to erect any religious edifices within me — that”
Max Weber, letter to Ferdinand Tönnies , Feb. 19, 1909; As cited in: James T. Kloppenberg . Uncertain Victory: Social Democracy and Progressivism in European and American Thought, 1870-1920. Oxford University Press, 24 mrt. 1988. p. 498
Max Weber on Nature
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“The fate of our times is characterized by rationalization and intellectualization and, above all, by the disenchantment of the world.”
Science as a Vocation -
“Max Weber, The Rejection of the World and Theodicy , 1916.”
Mysticism intends a state of "possession," not action, and the individual is not a tool but a "vessel" of the divine. Action in the world must thus appear as endangering the absolutely irrational and other-worldly religious state. Active asceticism operates within the world; rationally active asceticism, in mastering the world, seeks to tame what is creatural and wicked through work in a worldly " -
“Max Weber, The Nature of Social Action, 1922”
Sociology is the science whose object is to interpret the meaning of social action and thereby give a causal explanation of the way in which the action proceeds and the effects which it produces. By "action" in this definition is meant the human behaviour when and to the extent that the agent or agents see it as subjectively meaningful [...] the meaning to which we refer may be either (a) the mean
Max Weber on Politics
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“Politics is a strong and slow boring of hard boards.”
Politics as a Vocation -
Attributed to Max Weber:
“He who lets himself in for politics, that is, for power and force as means, contracts with diabolical powers.”
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Attributed to Max Weber:
“The Puritan wanted to work in a calling; we are forced to do so.”
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Attributed to Max Weber:
“An iron cage of bureaucratic rationality.”
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Attributed to Max Weber:
“Three pre-eminent qualities are decisive for the politician: passion, a feeling of responsibility, and a sense of proportion.”
Max Weber on Time
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“Max Weber, General Economic History , trans. by Frank Knight , 1961. p 265”
Since Judaism made Christianity possible and gave it the character of a religion essentially free from magic, it rendered an important service from the point of view of economic history. For the dominance of magic outside the sphere in which Christianity has prevailed in one of the most serious obstructions to the rationalization of economic life. Magic involves a stereotyping of technology and ec -
“No sociologist , for instance, should think himself too good, even in his old age, to make tens of thousands of quite trivial computations in his head and perhaps for months at a time”
From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology(1946) | p. 135 (in 2009 edition) -
“"Rationalism" is a historical concept that contains within itself a world of contradictions.”
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism(1905; 1920) | Ch. 2 : The "Spirit" of Capitalism
Max Weber on Truth
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“The Truth is the Truth.”
Max Weber's last words (1920), as quoted in Prophets of Yesterday : Studies in European Culture, 1890-1914 (1961) by Gerhard Masur, p. 201