Mary Douglas Quotes

Order, unity, and continuity are human inventions, just as truly as catalogues and encyclopedias.

A place for everything, everything in its place.

I like things in their proper places.

Never label anything 'Miscellaneous.'

I like organizing things. I like organizing my closets, so that I know where everything is. And and I used to color code it.

A classification is a definition comprising a system of definitions.

But what is classification but the perceiving that these objects are not chaotic, and are not foreign, but have a law which is also the law of the human mind?

There was nothing medieval people liked better, or did better, than sorting out and tidying up. Of all our modern inventions I suspect that they would most have admired the card index.

I don't function well in chaos, whether it be my sheets or the dishwasher.

I have rules for everything.

I thrive on structure. I find my freedom in structure.

Order is the sanity of the mind, the health of the body, the peace of the city, the security of the state. Like beams in a house or bones to a body, so is order to all things.

We are a species that must try to impose and find systems - systems of thought, ways of organizing and categorizing reality.

I'm a very routine-oriented guy.

Now equilibrium is the very opposite of disorder.

Lists have always implied social order.

I like things to have rules, I like order and I like schedules.

Order is the first law of heaven, and you have to have order to survive on Earth. Figure out what has to be done each day, each week, each year and develop a system to achieve it.

Order and tidiness is the first law of Heaven.

Order is a necessary condition for anything the human mind is to understand.

But instead I usually say that, though it may surprise them, I too believe in the necessity of organization.

Good order is the foundation of all good things.

Let all things be done decently and in good order.

There is no instant step from disorder to order.

You guys, line up alphabetically by height.