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"Americans' great and secret fear is that America may turn out to be a phenomenon rather than a civilization."
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"I am especially grateful, however, to have known the fifties, before we began to poison our own civilization - or at least before the effects of the poison began to be felt."
"If this is called civilization, then I am afraid humanity is no more civilized than the Tyrannosaurus Rex."
"The majority of India's adult and elderly population is too medieval to think as civilized, rational and progressive human beings."
"In the world of primitive savages, religion and bigotry go hand in hand. But, in the world of civilized humans, religion and reason must go hand in hand."
"Advanced weaponry, victories in battle and space travel do not an advanced species or civilization make."
"After the monkeys came down from the trees and learned to hurl sharp objects, they had had to move into caves for protection--not only from the big predatory cats but, as they began to lose their monkey fur, from the elements. Eventually, they started transposing their hunting fantasies onto cave walls in the form of pictures, first as an attempt at practical magic and later for the strange, unexpected pleasure they discovered in artistic creation. Time passed. Art came off the walls and turned into ritual. Ritual became religion. Religion spawned science. Science led to big business. And big business, if it continues on its present mindless, voracious trajectory, could land those of us lucky enough to survive its ultimate legacy back into caves again."
"Old people have wisdom but not energy; young people have energy but not wisdom; energy and wisdom must be in the same body to create a much better civilisation! To do this, we will either give energy to the old or we will give wisdom to the young and for now the latter seems a more plausible action!"
"A civilization must be judged by its standards not by its expenditure."
"Civilization is unbearable, but it is less unbearable at the top."
"After the struggle for sheer existence, they had no energy left for a civilization."
Explore more quotes by Shirley Hazzard
"Sometimes, surely, truth is closer to imagination or to intelligence, to love than to fact? To be accurate is not to be right."
"Americans' great and secret fear is that America may turn out to be a phenomenon rather than a civilization."
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