best quotations about
Civilization |
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Quotations
 | A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within. — Will Durant, 1885-1981, American historian & philosopher 72 likes |
| Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos. — Will Durant, 1885-1981, American historian & philosopher 40 likes |
| From barbarism to civilization requires a century; from civilization to barbarism needs but a day. — Will Durant, 1885-1981, American historian & philosopher 20 likes |
| Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice. — Will Durant, 1885-1981, American historian & philosopher 14 likes |
| Civilization is not inherited; it has to be learned and earned by each generation anew; if the transmission should be interrupted for one century, civilization would die, and we should be savages again. — Will Durant, 1885-1981, American historian & philosopher 12 likes |
| So I should say that civilizations begin with religion and stoicism: they end with scepticism and unbelief, and the undisciplined pursuit of individual pleasure. A civilization is born stoic and dies epicurean. — Will Durant, 1885-1981, American historian & philosopher 10 likes |
 | Civilization is a limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessaries. — Mark Twain, 1835-1910, American writer 10 likes |
 | Our entire much-praised technological progress, and civilization generally, could be compared to an axe in the hand of a pathological criminal. — Albert Einstein, 1879-1955, German-Jewish physicist 9 likes |
| The South creates the civilizations, the North conquers them, ruins them, borrows from them, spreads them: this is one summary of history. — Will Durant, 1885-1981, American historian & philosopher 9 likes |
 | Of all the small nations of this earth, perhaps only the ancient Greeks surpass the Scots in their contribution to mankind. — Winston Churchill, 1874-1965, British Prime Minister, Nobel 1953 8 likes |
 | America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization. — Georges Clemenceau, 1841-1929, French Prime Minister 7 likes |
 | The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization. — Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1884, American philosopher 7 likes |
 | Wherever an altar is found, there civilization exists. — Joseph De Maistre, 1753-1821, Savoyard diplomat & philosopher 7 likes |
 | The most civilized people are as near to barbarism as the most polished steel is to rust. Nations, like metals, have only a superficial brilliancy. — Antoine Rivarol, 1753-1801, French author of maxims 6 likes |
 | A general definition of civilization: a civilized society is exhibiting the five qualities of truth, beauty, adventure, art, peace. — Alfred North Whitehead, 1861-1947, British philosopher & mathematician 6 likes |
| It is not the race that makes the civilization, it is the civilization that makes the people: circumstances geographical, economic, and political create a culture, and the culture creates a human type. — Will Durant, 1885-1981, American historian & philosopher 6 likes |
| In the last analysis civilization is based upon the food supply. — Will Durant, 1885-1981, American historian & philosopher 5 likes |
 | One of the tests of the civilization of people is the treatment of its criminals. — Rutherford B. Hayes, 1822-1893, American President [1877-1881] 5 likes |
 | Civilization is the process of setting man free from men. — Ayn Rand, 1905-1982, American writer & philosopher 5 likes |
 | War, as we know, was for a long time the surest and fastest vehicle of civilization. — Jules Verne, 1826-1905, French writer 5 likes |
 | The superiority of Western culture is sustained only by the desire of the rest of the world to join it. — Jean Baudrillard, 1929-2007, French intellectual 4 likes |
 | Sex appeal is the keynote of our civilization. — Henri Bergson, 1859-1941, French philosopher, Nobel 1927 4 likes |
 | First there was Greek civilization. Then there was the Renaissance. Now we’re entering the Age of the Ass. — Jean-Luc Godard, 1930-2022, French film director 4 likes |
 | Jesus wept; Voltaire smiled. From that divine tear and from that human smile is derived the grace of present civilization. — Victor Hugo, 1802-1885, French writer 4 likes |
 | If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships - the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace. — Franklin Roosevelt, 1882-1945, American President [1936-1945] 4 likes |
 | The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself. — Albert Camus, 1913-1960, French writer, Nobel 1957 4 likes |
 | Civilization and profits go hand in hand. — Calvin Coolidge, 1872-1933, American President [1923-1929] 3 likes |
 | Civilization will reach maturity only when it learns to value diversity of character and of ideas. — Arthur Clarke, 1917-2008, British Sci-Fi writer 3 likes |
 | The degree of civilization which a people has reached, no doubt, is marked by their anxiety to do as they would be done by. — Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., 1841-1935, 3 likes |
 | Civilization begins with distillation. — William Faulkner, 1897-1962, American writer, Nobel 1949 3 likes |
 | Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock. — Sigmund Freud, 1856-1939, Austrian psychologist, founder of psychoanalysis 2 likes |
 | Culture is what makes man more than an accident of the universe. |
 | The three great elements of modern civilization, gunpowder, printing, and the Protestant religion. |
 | Civilization is an insufficiently protected camp surrounded by insubordinate tribes. |
 | If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism. |
| Civilization is an enormous device for economizing on knowledge. |
| If the battle for civilization comes down to the wimps versus the barbarians, the barbarians are going to win. |
 | If there hadn't been women we'd still be squatting in a cave eating raw meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our girlfriends. |
| In Italy, for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed – they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love and 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock! |
 | Civilization is the process of reducing the infinite to the finite. |
| Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society. |
 | Asia is not going to be civilised after the methods of the West. There is too much Asia and she is too old. |
| Culture is the sum of all the forms of art, of love, and of thought, which, in the course of centuries, have enabled man to be less enslaved. |
 | Civilizations should be measured by the degree of diversity attained and the degree of unity retained. |
 | In the Bible there are images, myths, a religion; only there is no thought, no reflection. It was the Greeks who first really started to think, the first to create a sophisticated civilization. |
 | A civilization comes about through the successive contributions of generations that support each other, like the stones of a building. |
| Civilization never recedes; the law of necessity ever forces it onwards. |
 | Civilization: a scheme to hide nakedness. — Marty Rubin, 1930-1994, Canadian gay activist, author & journalist |
 | Barbarism recommences by the excess of civilization. |
 | A strange thing: The Enlightenment period in Italy ended when petty bloodthirsty tyrants were replaced by moderate monarchs. |
 | Our civilization: a beautiful girl, powdered and made up, sitting on a pile of shit. |
| Anguish over the decline of civilization is the affliction of a conservative. The leftist cannot lament the disappearance of something of which he is ignorant. |
| Violence is not necessary to destroy a civilization. Each civilization dies from indifference toward the unique values which created it. |
| Civilizations are the summer noise of insects between two winters. |
| Each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late. |
Special Quotes
 | The antidote for civilization. — Slogan of Club Med resorts 5 likes |
