Civilisation Quotes - Page 9

• Our civilisation cannot afford to let the censor-moron loose. The censor-moron does not really hate anything but the living and growing human consciousness.

  D. H. Lawrence

  Hate, Civilization, Doe

  D. H. Lawrence, James T. Boulton (2000). “The Selected Letters of D. H. Lawrence”, p.414, Cambridge University Press

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• The desire not to be impinged upon, to be left to oneself, has been the markof high civilisation both on the part of individuals and communities.

  Isaiah Berlin

  Community, Desire, Individual

  1959 Four Essays on Liberty.

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• I am one of those who believe that there is no permanent home for even a section of the Bantu in the white area of South Africa and the destiny of South Africa depends on this essential point. If the principle of permanent residence for the black man in the area of the white is accepted then it is the beginning of the end of civilisation as we know it in this country.

  P. W. Botha

  Country, Believe, Home

  The Guardian, February 7, 2006.

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• The idea of an Afrikaner people as a cultural entity and religious group with a special language will be retained in South Africa as long as civilisation stands.

  P. W. Botha

  Religious, Ideas, Long

  "Dictionary of South African Quotations" by Jennifer Crwys-Williams, Penguin Books, (p. 11), 1994.

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• Civilisation is a conspiracy.

  John Buchan

  Conspiracy

  John Buchan (2010). “The Leithen Stories”, p.29, Canongate Books

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• There is a physical, not moral, impossibility of supplying the wants of the intellect in the state of civilisation at which we have arrived.

  Florence Nightingale

  Want, Moral, States

  Florence Nightingale (2008). “The Collected Works of Florence Nightingale”

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• This faith in themselves was in the hearts of our ancestors, this faith in themselves was the motive power that pushed them forward and forward in the march of civilisation, and if there has been degeneration, if there has been defect, mark my words, you will find that degeneration to have started on the day our people lost faith in themselves.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Faith, Heart, People

  Swami Vivekananda, Vivekananda Kendra (2009). “Swami Vivekananda's Rousing Call to Hindu Nation”, p.91, Vivekananda Kendra

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• At every stage of understanding the universe better, the benefits to civilisation have been immeasurable. None of those big leaps were made with us knowing what was going to happen.

  Brian Cox

  Knowing, Understanding, Benefits

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• People sometimes tell me that they prefer barbarism to civilisation. I doubt if they have given it a long enough trial. Like the people of Alexandria, they are bored by civilisation; but all the evidence suggests that the boredom of barbarism is infinitely greater.

  Kenneth Clark

  Boredom, Long, People

  Kenneth Clark (2015). “Civilisation”, p.16, Hachette UK

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• All great civilisations, in their early stages, are based on success in war.

  Kenneth Clark

  Peace, War, Stage

  1969 Civilisation, ch.1.

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• We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation.

  Voltaire

  Scotland, Ideas, Looks

  Voltaire (1976). “Candide”, p.119, Lulu.com

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• Great works of art can be produced in barbarous societies - in fact the very narrowness of primitive society gives their ornamental art a peculiar concentration and vitality. At some time in the ninth century one could have looked down the Seine and seen the prow of a Viking ship coming up the river. Looked at today in the British Museum, it is a powerful work of art; but to the mother of a family trying to settle down in her little hut, it would have seemed less agreeable - as menacing to her civilisation as the periscope of a nuclear submarine.

  Kenneth Clark

  Mother, Art, Powerful

  "Civilisation" by Kenneth Clark, (Ch. 1), 1969.

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• We have written the evidence of our existence onto the surface of our planet. Our civilisation has become a beacon, that identifies our planet as home to life.

  Brian Cox

  Home, Surface, Beacons

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• Science devises ever bloodier means of war until humanity's powers of destruction overcome our powers of creation and our civilisation drives itself to extinction.

  David Mitchell

  War, Mean, Humanity

  David Mitchell (2012). “Cloud Atlas (Enhanced Movie Tie-in Edition): A Novel”, p.443, Random House Group

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• There are messages about civilisations and we are trying to be true to history as much as possible. We wanted all this to gel with some good theory about why these civilisations went down, why they weakened and crumbled. Because they did, they vanished.

  Mel Gibson

  Trying, Messages, Theory

  "Apocalypto - Mel Gibson interview". Interview with Jack Foley, www.indielondon.co.uk.

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• As civilisation advances, the deities lessen in number, the divine powers become concentrated more and more in one Being, and God rules over the whole earth, maketh the clouds his chariot, and reigns above the waterfloods as a king.

  Annie Besant

  Kings, Numbers, Clouds

  Annie Besant (2012). “The Theosophical Writings of Annie Besant”, p.225, Jazzybee Verlag

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• Education is the transformation of civilisation

  Will Durant

  Transformation

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• As Colin Wilson has written, "modern civilisation, with its mechanised rigidity is producing more outsiders than ever before-people who are too intelligent to do some repetitive job, but not intelligent enough to make their own terms with society." Those "intelligent enough" to make their own terms with society are what we will later refer to as artists of life. The outsider views himself as a product of a culture he rejects-the artist views himself as a culture-builder.

  Laurence Boldt

  Jobs, Artist, Intelligent

  Laurence G. Boldt (1999). “Zen and the Art of Making a Living: A Practical Guide to Creative Career Design”, p.94, Penguin

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• Anthropologists have often described what happens to a primitive society when its spiritual values are exposed to the impact of modern civilisation. Its people lose the meaning of their lives, their social organisation disintegrates, and they themselves morally decay. We are now in the same condition. But we have never really understood what we have lost, for our spiritual leaders unfortunately were more interested in protecting their institutions than in understanding the mystery that symbols present.

  Carl Jung

  Spiritual, Impact, People

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• Marriage: This terrible insoluble problem of civilisation, which created all the evil. This unnatural state of union in disunion which exacted impossibilities and forced together elements absolutely and inherently antagonistic to each other!

  Rosa Campbell Praed

  Evil, Together, Elements

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• The real cause of the great upheavals which precede changes of civilisations, such as the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of the Arabian Empire, is a profound modification in the ideas of the peoples .... The memorable events of history are the visible effects of the invisible changes of human thought .... The present epoch is one of these critical moments in which the thought of mankind is undergoing a process of transformation.

  Gustave Le Bon

  Real, Fall, Memorable

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• We must delve deep into history the better to engage a true dialogue of civilisations. Fear of the present can impose upon the past its own biased vision.

  Tariq Ramadan

  Past, Vision, Dialogue

  "Why I'm going to meet the Pope" by Tariq Ramadan, www.theguardian.com. November 3, 2008.

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• The collapse of the world's banking system and the impending disaster of accelerating climate change are not separate phenomena. They are simply the most visible symptoms of a particular model of capitalism that will bring civilisation to its knees. But those symptoms will not get sorted unless and until we commit to a radical transformation of the way we create and distribute wealth in the world today

  Jonathon Porritt

  Climate, Banking, World

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• We don't know the spiritual advancements long-term veganism - over generations - would have for human life. It would be certainly a different civilisation, and the first one in the whole of our history that would truly deserve the title of being a civilisation.

  Donald Watson

  Spiritual, Long, Titles

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• Personally I think that private property has a right to be defended. Our civilisation is built up on property, and can only be defended by private property.

  Winston Churchill

  Thinking, Property, Built

  Sir Winston Churchill (1954). “Sir Winston Churchill: a self-portrait”

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