Maximilian Karl Emil Weber (born April 21, 1864, in Erfurt, Germany – died June 14, 1920, in Munich, Germany) was a German sociologist and political economist regarded as one of the foremost social theorists of the twentieth century.
Weber is best known for his “Protestant Ethic” thesis and his ideas on bureaucracy.
During his lifetime, Weber wrote numerous essays and books. In 1905, he published his most famous work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
Along with Émile Durkheim and Karl Marx, he is considered the founder of modern sociology.
The fate of our times is characterized by rationalization and intellectualization and, above all, by the disenchantment of the world.From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (Oxford University Press, ed. 1946), Part I, Chapter V. Science as A Vocation, Page 154
The fully developed bureaucratic mechanism compares with other organizations exactly as does the machine with the non-mechanical modes of production.From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (Oxford University Press, ed. 1946), Part II, Chapter VIII. Bureaucracy, Page 214
Power is the probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a position to carry out his own will despite resistance, regardless of the basis on which this probability rests.Economy and Society (1922), (University of California Press, ed. 1978), Volume I, Part I, Chapter I, Section 16, Page 53
All knowledge of cultural reality, as may be seen, is always knowledge from particular points of view.The Methodology of the Social Sciences (The Free Press, ed. 1949), Chapter 2, Page 81
Politics is a strong and slow boring of hard boards. It takes both passion and perspective.From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (Oxford University Press, ed. 1946), Part I, Chapter IV. Politics as A Vocation, Page 128
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 (Oxford University Press, ed. 1946), Introduction, Chapter II. Political Concerns, Page 42
The state is an association that claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of violence.From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (Oxford University Press, ed. 1946), Part III, Chapter XIII. Religious Rejections of the World and Their Directions, Page 334
Every scientific ‘fulfillment’ raises new ‘questions’; it asks to be ‘surpassed’ and outdated.From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (Oxford University Press, ed. 1946), Part I, Chapter V. Science as A Vocation, Page 138
Politics for us means striving to share power or striving to influence the distribution of power, either among states or among groups within a state.From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (Oxford University Press, ed. 1946), Part I, Chapter IV. Politics as A Vocation, Page 78
Either one lives for politics or one lives off politics.From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (Oxford University Press, ed. 1946), Part I, Chapter IV. Politics as A Vocation, Page 84
Nothing is worthy of man as man unless he can pursue it with passionate devotion.From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (Oxford University Press, ed. 1946), Part I, Chapter V. Science as A Vocation, Page 135
The organization of offices follows the principle of hierarchy; that is, each lower office is under the control and supervision of a higher one.Economy and Society (1922), (University of California Press, ed. 1978), Volume I, Part I, Chapter III, Page 218
The primary task of a useful teacher is to teach his students to recognize ‘inconvenient’ facts.From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (Oxford University Press, ed. 1946), Part I, Chapter V. Science as A Vocation, Page 146
Not everybody realizes that a really good journalists accomplishment requires at least as much ‘genius’ as any scholarly accomplishment.From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (Oxford University Press, ed. 1946), Part I, Chapter IV. Politics as A Vocation, Page 96
It is not true that good can follow only from good and evil only from evil, but that often the opposite is true.From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (Oxford University Press, ed. 1946), Part I, Chapter IV. Politics as A Vocation, Page 123
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It is the intellectual who transforms the concept of the world into the problem of meaning.Economy and Society (1922), (University of California Press, ed. 1978), Volume I, Part II, Chapter VI, Page 506
It is not accidental that our greatest art is intimate and not monumental.From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (Oxford University Press, ed. 1946), Part I, Chapter V. Science as A Vocation, Page 155
Laws are important and valuable in the exact natural sciences, in the measure that those sciences are universally valid.The Methodology of the Social Sciences (The Free Press, ed. 1949), Chapter 2, Page 80
In the lecture-rooms of the university no other virtue holds but plain intellectual integrity.From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (Oxford University Press, ed. 1946), Part I, Chapter V. Science as A Vocation, Page 155
A man does not “by nature” wish to earn more and more money.The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905), (Scribner, ed. 1950), Part I, Chapter II, Page 60
Beware of thinking all your own that you possess, and of living accordingly. It is a mistake that many people who have credit fall into.The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905), (Scribner, ed. 1950), Part I, Chapter II, Page 50
Whenever the man of science introduces his personal value judgment, a full understanding of the facts ceases.From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (Oxford University Press, ed. 1946), Part I, Chapter V. Science as A Vocation, Page 146
For the true mystic the principle continues to hold: the creature must be silent so that God may speak.From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (Oxford University Press, ed. 1946), Part III, Chapter XIII. Religious Rejections of the World and Their Directions, Page 326
Ideas come when we do not expect them, and not when we are brooding and searching at our desks. Yet ideas would certainly not come to mind had we not brooded at our desks and searched for answers with passionate devotion.From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (Oxford University Press, ed. 1946), Part I, Chapter V. Science as A Vocation, Page 136
For those who most frequently think of themselves as leaders often qualify least as leaders.From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (Oxford University Press, ed. 1946), Part I, Chapter V. Science as A Vocation, Page 150
The intellect, like all cultural values, has created an aristocracy based on the possession of rational culture and independent of all personal ethical qualities of man. The aristocracy of intellect is hence an unbrotherly aristocracy.From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (Oxford University Press, ed. 1946), Part III, Chapter XIII. Religious Rejections of the World and Their Directions, Page 354
Charisma is a gift that inheres in an object or person simply by virtue of natural endowment.Economy and Society (1922), (University of California Press, ed. 1978), Volume I, Part II, Chapter VI, Page 400
An ethic of ultimate ends and an ethic of responsibility are not absolute contrasts but rather supplements, which only in unison constitute a genuine man – a man who can have the ‘calling for politics.’From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (Oxford University Press, ed. 1946), Part I, Chapter IV. Politics as A Vocation, Page 127
The decisive means for politics is violence.From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (Oxford University Press, ed. 1946), Part I, Chapter IV. Politics as A Vocation, Page 121
All historical experience confirms the truth – that man would not have attained the possible unless time and again he had reached out for the impossible.From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (Oxford University Press, ed. 1946), Part I, Chapter IV. Politics as A Vocation, Page 128