"The torrent of centuries rolling over the human race has continually brought new perfections, the cause of which, ever active though unseen, is found in the demands made by our senses, which always in their turns demand to be occupied"
About this Quote
The sly move is his treatment of causality. The “cause” of improvement is “ever active though unseen” - not Providence, not Reason with a capital R, but the quiet tyranny of sensation. Our senses “demand to be occupied,” and when one desire is met, another steps forward. That circular phrasing (“always in their turns”) captures consumption as a relay race, not a destination. “Perfections” start to sound less like moral betterment and more like refinements in how we feed, entertain, and stimulate ourselves.
As a lawyer-turned-gastronomic philosopher, Brillat-Savarin isn’t arguing for shallow hedonism; he’s diagnosing how culture actually upgrades itself: better kitchens, better rituals, better technologies of pleasure, then better manners to manage the chaos those pleasures create. The subtext is almost modern: innovation is driven by attention, novelty, and the economics of desire. Underneath the rhetoric of progress sits a simple engine - humans, restlessly optimizing the ways we feel.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Brillat-Savarin, Jean Anthelme. (2026, February 17). The torrent of centuries rolling over the human race has continually brought new perfections, the cause of which, ever active though unseen, is found in the demands made by our senses, which always in their turns demand to be occupied. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-torrent-of-centuries-rolling-over-the-human-106508/
Chicago Style
Brillat-Savarin, Jean Anthelme. "The torrent of centuries rolling over the human race has continually brought new perfections, the cause of which, ever active though unseen, is found in the demands made by our senses, which always in their turns demand to be occupied." FixQuotes. February 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-torrent-of-centuries-rolling-over-the-human-106508/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The torrent of centuries rolling over the human race has continually brought new perfections, the cause of which, ever active though unseen, is found in the demands made by our senses, which always in their turns demand to be occupied." FixQuotes, 17 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-torrent-of-centuries-rolling-over-the-human-106508/. Accessed 22 Feb. 2026.
