“Europeans, since the days when they began to believe in ‘progress’ and in ‘evolution’, that is to say since a little more than a century ago, profess to see a sign of inferiority in this absence of change, whereas, for our part, we look upon it as a balanced condition which Western civilisation has failed to achieve. Moreover, this stability shows itself in small things as well as in great; a striking example of this is to be found in the fact that ‘fashion’, with its continual changes is only to be met with in the West. In short, Westerners, and especially modern Westerners, appear to be endowed with changeable and inconsistent natures, hankering after movement and excitement, whereas the Eastern nature shows quite the opposite characteristics.”
• René Guénon, An Introduction to the Study of the Hindu Doctrines (Sophia Perenis, 2001 [1921]) extract from page 13.
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