Civilization Quotes - Page 10

• Cities have always been the fireplaces of civilization, whence light and heat radiated out into the dark.

  Theodore Parker

  Dark, Cities, Light

  Theodore Parker “The Works of Theodore Parker: Lessons from the world of matter and the world of man”

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• There is something even more valuable to civilization than wisdom, and that is character.

  H. L. Mencken

  Character, Religion, Liberty

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• Civilization in its present form hasn't got long.

  James Lovelock

  Long, Form

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• Mankind is not likely to salvage civilization unless he can evolve a system of good and evil which is independent of heaven and hell.

  George Orwell

  Independent, Evil, Heaven

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• If civilization has an opposite, it is war.

  Ursula K. Le Guin

  War, Opposites, Ifs

  Ursula K. Le Guin (2000). “The Left Hand of Darkness”, p.77, Penguin

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• Only in a free society do individuals have the best chance to seek virtue, strive for excellence, improve their economic well-being, and achieve personal happiness. The worthy goals of civilization can only be achieved by freedom-loving individuals. When government uses force, liberty is sacrificed and the goals are lost. It is freedom that is the source of all creative energy.

  Ron Paul

  Freedom, Government, Goal

  Ron Paul Video Address Announcing 2008 Presidential Exploratory Committee, blog.4president.org. February 19, 2007.

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• America is the civilization of people engaged in transforming themselves. In the past, the stars of the performance were the pioneer and the immigrant. Today, it is youth and the Black.

  Harold Rosenberg

  Change, Stars, Past

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• In his scientific genius, man has wrought material miracles and has transformed his world. He has harnassed nature and has developed great civilizations. But he has never learned very well how to live with himself. The values he has created have been predominantly materialistic; his spiritual values have lagged far behind. He has demonstrated little spiritual genius and has made little progress toward the realization of human brotherhood. In the contemporary atomic age, this could prove man's fatal weakness.

  Ralph Bunche

  God, Spiritual, Men

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• If the battle for civilization comes down to the wimps versus the barbarians, the barbarians are going to win.

  Thomas Sowell

  Winning, Battle, Liberty

  Thomas Sowell (2013). “Ever Wonder Why?: and Other Controversial Essays”, p.328, Hoover Press

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• Art is like a border of flowers along the course of civilization.

  Lincoln Steffens

  Art, Flower, Borders

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• ...if we want to meet the obligations of our civilization and our culture which are to create communities for our children that provide them with the same opportunities for dignity and enrichment as the communities that our parents gave us, we've got to start by protecting that infrastructure; the air that we breathe, the water that we drink, the landscapes that enrich us.

  Robert Kennedy

  Children, Opportunity, Air

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• Primitiveness and civilization are degrees of the same thing. If civilization has an opposite, it is war.

  Ursula K. Le Guin

  War, Opposites, Degrees

  Ursula K. Le Guin (2000). “The Left Hand of Darkness”, p.77, Penguin

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• 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.

  Daniel Webster

  Art, Men, Important

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• We know next to nothing about virtually everything. It is not necessary to know the origin of the universe; it is necessary to want to know. Civilization depends not on any particular knowledge, but on the disposition to crave knowledge

  George Will

  Knowledge, Science, Want

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• But once we recognize that many ideas that are taken to be quintessentially Western have also flourished in other civilizations, we also see that these ideas are not as culture-specific as is sometimes claimed. We need not begin with pessimism, at least on this ground, about the prospects of reasoned humanism in the world.

  Amartya Sen

  Taken, Ideas, Diversity

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• From the first day to this, sheer greed was the driving spirit of civilization.

  Friedrich Engels

  Philosophical, Greed, Firsts

  Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels (2016). “Delphi Collected Works of Karl Marx (Illustrated)”, p.1120, Delphi Classics

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• Classes struggle, some classes triumph, others are eliminated. Such is history; such is the history of civilization for thousands of years.

  Mao Zedong

  Struggle, Years, Class

  Zedong Mao (1972). “Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung”, p.8, China Books

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• Our civilization depends largely on paper.

  Pliny the Elder

  Paper, Depends

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• Every civilization depends upon the quality of the individuals it produces.

  Frank Herbert

  Quality, Individual, Produce

  Frank Herbert (2008). “Children of Dune”, p.312, Penguin

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• Civilization is the way one's own people live. Savagery is the way foreigners live.

  Octavia Butler

  People, Way, Foreigners

  Octavia E. Butler (2012). “Seed to Harvest: Wild Seed, Mind of My Mind, Clay's Ark, and Patternmaster”, p.134, Open Road Media

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• The great question is, can war be outlawed from the world? If so, it would mark the greatest advance in civilization since the Sermon on the Mount.

  Douglas MacArthur

  War, World, Mark

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• Where there are humans, You'll find flies, And Buddhas.

  Kobayashi Issa

  Garden, Humans

  Issa Kobayashi (1991). “The dumpling field: haiku of Issa”, Swallow Press

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• War is a damnable, filthy thing and has destroyed civilization after civilization

  Philip Noel-Baker, Baron Noel-Baker

  War, Filthy, Destroyed

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• Our civilization is locked in the grip of an ideology - corporatism. An ideology that denies and undermines the legitimacy of individuals as the citizen in a democracy. The particular imbalance of this ideology leads to a worship of self-interest and a denial of the public good. The practical effects on the individual are passivity and conformism in the areas that matter, and non-conformism in the areas that don't

  John Ralston Saul

  Self, Democracy, Citizens

  John Ralston Saul (2012). “The Unconscious Civilization”, p.186, Simon and Schuster

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• I think governments are the cancer of civilization.

  Chuck D

  Cancer, Thinking, Government

  "Rapping the Vote With Chuck D". Interview with Jeff Chang, www.motherjones.com. September/October 2004.

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