Will Durant Quotes

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Civilizations come and go; they conquer the earth and crumble into dust; but faith survives every desolation.

Will Durant

Dust, Civilization, Earth

Will Durant (2011). “The Life of Greece: The Story of Civilization”, p.75, Simon and Schuster

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A great civilization is not conquered from without, until it has destroyed itself from within. The essential causes of Rome's decline lay in her people, her morals, her class struggle, her failing trade, her bureaucratic despotism, her stifling taxes, her consuming wars.

Will Durant

War, Struggle, Rome

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”

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Forget mistakes. Forget failure. Forget everything except what you're going to do now and do it. Today is your lucky day

Will Durant

Inspirational, Life, Positive

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History is always repeating itself, but each time the price goes up.

Will Durant

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There have been only 268 of the past 3,421 years free of war.

Will Durant

War, Past, Years

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The soul of a civilization is its religion, and it dies with its faith.

Will Durant

Civilization, Soul, Dies

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It may be true that you can't fool all the people all the time, but you can fool enough of them to rule a large country.

Will Durant

Country, Time, People

Will Durant, Ariel Durant (2012). “The Lessons of History”, p.61, Simon and Schuster

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The greatest question of our time is not communism vs. individualism, not Europe vs. America, not even the East vs. the West; it is whether men can bear to live without God.

Will Durant

Men, Europe, America

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From barbarism to civilization requires a century; from civilization to barbarism needs but a day.

Will Durant

Civilization, Needs, Century

Will Durant (2011). “The Reformation: The Story of Civilization”, p.198, Simon and Schuster

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Those who know nothing about history are doomed forever to repeat it.

Will Durant

Forever, Repeats, Doomed

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To give life a meaning, one must have a purpose larger than self.

Will Durant

Self, Giving, Meaning Of Life

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The political machine triumphs because it is a united minority acting against a divided majority.

Will Durant

Political, Acting, Triumph

Will Durant (1929). “The Mansions of Philosophy: A Survey of Human Life and Destiny”, Garden City, N.Y. : Garden City Publishing Company

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War is one of the constants of history, and it has not diminished with civilization or democracy.

Will Durant

War, Civilization, Democracy

Will Durant, Ariel Durant (1968). “The Lessons of History”

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If we have never been amazed by the very fact that we exist, we are squandering the greatest fact of all.

Will Durant

Facts, Squandering, Amazed

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In my youth I stressed freedom, and in my old age I stress order. I have made the great discovery that liberty is a product of order.

Will Durant

Stress, Discovery, Order

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And last are the few whose delight is in meditation and understanding; who yearn not for goods, nor for victory, but for knowledge; who leave both market and battlefield to lose themselves in the quiet clarity of secluded thought; whose will is a light rather than a fire, whose haven is not power but truth: these are the men of wisdom, who stand aside unused by the world.

Will Durant

Men, Fire, Light

Will Durant (2012). “Story of Philosophy”, p.29, Simon and Schuster

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Education is the transmission of civilization.

Will Durant

Education, Teacher, Teaching

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

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To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves; let us be above such transparent egotism. If you can't say good and encouraging things, say nothing. Nothing is often a good thing to do, and always a clever thing to say.

Will Durant

Clever, Way, Speak

"We Have a Right To Be Happy Today". Will Durant's commencement address at the Webb School of Claremont in California, June 7, 1958.

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

Will Durant

Honesty, Fear, Integrity

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Those who have suffered much become very bitter or very gentle.

Will Durant

Bitter, Gentle

Will Durant (2012). “Story of Philosophy”, p.199, Simon and Schuster

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The time when you need to do something is when no one else is willing to do it, when people are saying it can't be done.

Will Durant

Nature, Motivation, People

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Sixty years ago I knew everything. Now I know nothing. Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.

Will Durant

Ignorance, Discovery, Years

"Books: The Great Gadfly". Time Magazine (review of "The Age of Voltaire" by Will and Ariel Durant), October 8, 1965.

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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

Civilization, History, Savages

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

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The only real revolution is in the enlightenment of the mind and the improvement of character, the only real emancipation is individual, and the only real revolutionists are philosophers and saints.

Will Durant

Real, Character, Individuality

"The Lessons of History". Book by Will Durant and Ariel Durant, 1968.

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When liberty exceeds intelligence, it begets chaos, which begets dictatorship.

Will Durant

Liberty, Chaos, Dictatorship

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Will Durant

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Born: November 5, 1885
Died: November 7, 1981
Occupation: Writer
Cite this Page: Citation

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