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Civilization Quotes
"Tolerance and apathy are the last virtues of a dying society."
117
"Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder."
104
"If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism."
92
"Justice has nothing to do with victor nations and vanquished nations, but must be a moral standard that all the world's peoples can agree to. To seek this and to achieve it - that is true civilization."
85
"It is impossible to overlook the extent to which civilization is built upon a renunciation of instinct."
68
"Not a single piece of material culture - not a single object - has been found at Giza that can be interpreted to come from a lost civilization."
67
"I ascribe a basic importance to the phenomenon of language. To speak means to be in a position to use a certain syntax, to grasp the morphology of this or that language, but it means above all to assume a culture, to support the weight of a civilization."
62
"Real freedom lies in wildness, not in civilization."
62
"The Industrial Revolution was another of those extraordinary jumps forward in the story of civilization."
45
"A civilization which leaves so large a number of its participants unsatisfied and drives them into revolt neither has nor deserves the prospect of a lasting existence."
45
"America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between."
42
"China is a civilization pretending to be a nation."
39
"We must plant the sea and herd its animals using the sea as farmers instead of hunters. That is what civilization is all about - farming replacing hunting."
36
"To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization."
36
"Let us not forget that the cultivation of the earth is the most important labor of man. When tillage begins, other arts will follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of civilization."
35
"Civilization is a movement and not a condition, a voyage and not a harbor."
35
"I would say colonialism is a wonderful thing. It spread civilization to Africa. Before it they had no written language, no wheel as we know it, no schools, no hospitals, not even normal clothing."
33
"Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty and dies with chaos."
33
"The true law of the race is progress and development. Whenever civilization pauses in the march of conquest, it is overthrown by the barbarian."
32
"America may be unique in being a country which has leapt from barbarism to decadence without touching civilization."
31
"The perfect normal person is rare in our civilization."
30
"You know, our sense of individuality is just the number one target of civilization."
30
"The ultimate tendency of civilization is towards barbarism."
30
"The European talks of progress because by the aid of a few scientific discoveries he has established a society which has mistaken comfort for civilisation."
30
"Without adventure civilization is in full decay."
29
"I would seriously question whether anybody is really foolish enough to really say what they mean. Sometimes I think that civilization as we know it would kind of break down if we all were completely honest."
28
"Civilization and profit go hand in hand."
28
"Civilization is unbearable, but it is less unbearable at the top."
28
"Today, human civilization is drowning in a sea of lies."
28
"Hold fast to the Bible. To the influence of this Book we are indebted for all the progress made in true civilization and to this we must look as our guide in the future."
28
"Next to the striking of fire and the discovery of the wheel, the greatest triumph of what we call civilization was the domestication of the human male."
28
"Instead of the former divinely appointed aims of the Jewish, Greek, or Roman nations, which ancient historians regarded as representing the progress of humanity, modern history has postulated its own aims- the welfare of the French, German, or English people, or, in its highest abstraction, the welfare and civilization of humanity in general, by which is usually meant that of the peoples occupying a small northwesterly portion of a large continent."
28
"I believe with all my heart that civilization has produced nothing finer than a man or woman who thinks and practices true tolerance."
27
"Civilization is a youth with a molotov cocktail in his hand. Culture is the Soviet tank or L.A. cop that guns him down."
27
"The last struggle for our rights, the battle for our civilization, is entirely with ourselves."
27
"Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking of them."
27
"The market is not an invention of capitalism. It has existed for centuries. It is an invention of civilization."
26
"When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization."
26
"Civilization in its present form hasn't got long."
26
"The city has become a serious menace to our civilization... It has a peculiar attraction for the immigrant."
26
"Civilization, we shall find, like Universalism and Christianity, is anti evolutionary in its effects; it works against the laws and conditions which regulated the earlier stages of man's ascent."
26
"You think that a wall as solid as the earth separates civilization from barbarism. I tell you the division is a thread, a sheet of glass. A touch here, a push there, and you bring back the reign of Saturn."
26
"The destiny of world civilization depends upon providing a decent standard of living for all mankind."
25
"I do not believe that civilizations have to die because civilization is not an organism. It is a product of wills."
25
"The disease of mutual distrust among nations is the bane of modern civilization."
25
"It is just because civilization is ever evolving, changing, and becoming more complicated, that experts find it so difficult to define it in explicit terms."
24
"There is precious little in civilization to appeal to a Yeti."
24
"The moment you give up your principles, and your values, you are dead, your culture is dead, your civilization is dead. Period."
24
"A new civilization was not to be improvised by a single mind."
24
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