"Civilizations are the generations of the racial soul. As family-rearing, and then writing, bound the generations together, handing down the lore of the dying to the young, so print and commerce and a thousand ways of communication may bind the civilizations together, and preserve for future cultures all that is of value for them in our own. Let us, before we die, gather up our heritage, and offer it to our children."

Civilization, Wisdom, Heritage, Future, Truth

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"Civilizations are the generations of the racial soul. As family-rearing, and then writing, bound the generations together, handing down the lore of the dying to the young, so print and commerce and a thousand ways of communication may bind the civilizations together, and preserve for future cultures all that is of value for them in our own. Let us, before we die, gather up our heritage, and offer it to our children."

Exlpore more Civilization quotes

"To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization."

Arnold J. Toynbee, British Historian

Civilization, Leisure

"A civilization is built upon the edifice of genuine human minds, not the primitive and deluded minds of barbarian apes, who in most cases read one book of opinions written hundreds or thousands of years ago and think that they have factual answers to all the questions in the world."

Abhijit Naskar, Indian Author

Civilization, Wisdom, Power, Truth, Future

"Every civilization depends on the quality of the individuals it produces. If you over-organize humans, over-legalize them, suppress their urge to greatness-- they cannot work and their civilization collapses."

Frank Herbert, American Writer

Civilization, Quality, Freedom, Greatness

"Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder."

Arnold J. Toynbee, British Historian

Civilization, Murder, Suicide

"Good breeding differs, if at all, from high breeding only as it gracefully remembers the rights of others, rather than gracefully insists on its own rights."

Thomas Carlyle, Scottish Philosopher

Civilization, Breeding, Rights

"It ain't technology that enhances the civilization..but the way mankind perceives nature from all standpoints."

Toba Beta, Indonesian Author

Civilization, Technology, Perception, Nature

"In essence the Renaissance was simply the green end of one of civilization's hardest winters."

John Fowles, English Novelist

Civilization, End

"The collective consciousness of mankind defines the existence and sustainability of this civilization."

Toba Beta, Indonesian Author

Civilization, Truth, Power, Future, Consciousness

"Civilization in its present form hasn't got long."

James Lovelock, English Scientist

Civilization, Present

"What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a very good idea."

Mahatma Gandhi, Indian Leader

Civilization, Idea, Thought, Culture

Explore more quotes by Will Durant

"Every form of government tends to perish by excess of its basic principle."

Government

"Grow strong, my comrade that you may standUnshaken when I fall; that I may knowThe shattered fragments of my song will comeAt last to finer melody in you;That I may tell my heart that you beginWhere passing I leave off, and fathom more."

Friendship

"Virtue is not news, and virtuous men, like happy nations, have no history."

Ethics

"The trouble with most people is that they think with their hopes or fears or wishes rather than with their minds."

People

"Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance."

Education

"But now and then liberty, in the slogans of the strong, means freedom from restraint in the exploitation of the weak."

Society

"To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves. Nothing is often a good thing to say, and always a clever thing to say."

Nothing

"We are living in the excesses of freedom. Just take a look at 42nd Street an Broadway."

Freedom

"Nothing is often a good thing to do and always a good thing to say."

Wisdom

"We are tossed about by external causes in many ways, and like waves driven by contrary winds, we waver and are unconscious of the issue and our fate.' We think we are most ourselves when we are most passionate, whereas it is then we are most passive, caught in some ancestral torrent of impulse or feeling, and swept on to a precipitate reaction which meets only part of the situation because without thought only part of a situation can be perceived."

Behavior