Ariel Durant Quotes

• A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.

  Ariel Durant

  Women, Memorable, Civilization

  Will Durant, Ariel Durant (1944). “The Story of Civilization: Caesar and Christ, a history of Roman civilization and of Christianity from their beginnings to A.D. 325”

  77 Copy quote

• Today's rebel is tomorrow's tyrant.

  Ariel Durant

  Tyrants, Rebel, Today

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• If you have character, endeavor, personality, courage and the capacity for concentrated labor, you will do what is your destiny – and, perhaps, even do it well.

  Ariel Durant

  Character, Destiny, Personality

  8 Copy quote

• The present is the past rolled up for action, and the past is the present unrolled for understanding.

  Ariel Durant

  Past, History, Understanding

  Will Durant, Ariel Durant (2012). “The Lessons of History”, p.6, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• No man who is in a hurry is quite civilised.

  Ariel Durant

  Men, Civilised

  Will Durant, Ariel Durant (1939). “The Story of Civilization: The life of Greece; being a history of Greek civilization from the beginnings, and of civilization in the Near East from the death of Alexander, to the Roman conquest; with an introduction on the prehistoric culture of Crete”

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• It is good a philosopher should remind himself, now and then, that he is a particle pontificating on infinity.

  Ariel Durant

  Infinity, Philosopher, Now And Then

  Will Durant, Ariel Durant (1975). “The Story of Civilization: The age of Napoleon; a history of European civilization from 1789 to 1815”

  17 Copy quote

• The conservative who resists change is as valuable as the radical who proposes it.

  Ariel Durant

  Conservative, Radical, Valuable

  Will Durant, Ariel Durant (2012). “The Lessons of History”, Simon and Schuster

  8 Copy quote

• Only a fool would try to compress a hundred centuries into a hundred pages of hazardous conclusions. We proceed.

  Ariel Durant

  Trying, Fool, Pages

  Will Durant, Ariel Durant (1968). “The lessons of history”, Simon & Schuster

  8 Copy quote

• Man, not the earth, makes civilization.

  Ariel Durant

  Men, Civilization, Earth

  Will Durant, Ariel Durant (2012). “The Lessons of History”, Simon and Schuster

  9 Copy quote

• The influence of geographic factors diminishes as technology grows. The character and contour of a terrain may offer opportunities for agriculture, mining, or trade, but only the imagination and initiative of leaders, and the hardy industry of followers, can transform the possibilities into fact...Man, not the earth, makes civilization.

  Ariel Durant

  Character, Technology, Opportunity

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• The laws of biology are the fundamental lessons of history.

  Ariel Durant

  Science, Law, Fundamentals

  Will Durant, Ariel Durant (2012). “The Lessons of History”, p.3, Simon and Schuster

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• Mozart began his works in childhood and a childlike quality lurked in his compositions until it dawned on him that the Requiem he was writing for s a stranger was his own.

  Ariel Durant

  Writing, Childhood, Quality

  Will Durant, Ariel Durant (1967). “Rousseau and Revolution: A History of Civilization in France, England, and Germany from 1756, and in the Remainder of Europe from 1715 to 1789”

  7 Copy quote

• When his apprenticeship was finished (the candidate for Knighthood) was received into the Knightly Order by a ritual of sacramental awe.

  Ariel Durant

  Order, Knighthood, Chivalry

  8 Copy quote

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