“People often judge the level of a civilization by the amount of paper it uses. That, however, is simply a matter of volume, not…

noosphe-re:

“People often judge the level of a civilization by the amount of paper it uses. That, however, is simply a matter of volume, not quality. Quality is how the heart and soul of a civilization should be measured. How can bad paper and high civilization possibly be bedmates? One can gain a glimpse of the quality of a people’s life by the kind of paper they use for writing letters, for literary works, and for various other tasks. Paper should not be deprecated. To do so is to deprecate beauty itself.”

— Soetsu Yanagi, The Beauty of Everyday Things, translated by Michael Brase