Human History Quotes - Page 7

• One of the most pathetic aspects of human history is that every civilization expresses itself most pretentiously, compounds its partial and universal values most convincingly, and claims immortality for its finite existence at the very moment when the decay which leads to death has already begun.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Civilization, Decay, Moments

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• Modern art is a disaster area. Never in the field of human history has so much been used by so many to say so little.

  Banksy

  Art, Graffiti, Littles

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• It is clear that this essential Christian doctrine gives a new value to human nature, to human history and to human life which is not to be found in the other great oriental religions.

  Christopher Dawson

  Christian, Giving, Essentials

  Christopher Dawson (2008). “The Formation of Christendom”, p.159, Ignatius Press

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• Extending over more than a century and including most nations of the globe, the cause of woman suffrage has been one of the great democratic forces in human history.

  Ellen DuBois

  Words Of Wisdom, Empowerment, Causes

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• Americans and other Westerners who want their families to enjoy the blessings of life in a free society should understand that the life we've led since 1945 in the Western world is very rare in human history. Our children are unlikely to enjoy anything so placid, and may well spend their adult years in an ugly and savage world unless we decide that who and what we are is worth defending.

  Mark Steyn

  Children, Blessing, Years

  Mark Steyn (2006). “America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It”, p.207, Regnery Publishing

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• The progressive Left can be in favor of Big Government or population control but not both. The mutual incompatibility is about to plunge Europe into societal collapse. There is no precedent in human history for economic growth on declining human capital - and that's before anyone invented unsustainable welfare systems.

  Mark Steyn

  Government, Europe, Growth

  Mark Steyn (2006). “America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It”, p.3, Regnery Publishing

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• Knowing how to deal with change effectively is a primary requirement for living successfully in perhaps the most exciting time in all of human history

  Brian Tracy

  Knowing, Requirements, Exciting

  Brian TRACY (2009). “Reinvention: How to Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life”, p.3, AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn

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• To be hopeful in bad times is based on the fact that human history is not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand Utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.

  Howard Zinn

  Hope, Kindness, Future

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• We will soon create intelligences greater than our own ... When this happens, human history will have reached a kind of singularity, an intellectual transition as impenetrable as the knotted space-time at the center of a black hole, and the world will pass far beyond our understanding.

  Vernor Vinge

  Space, Understanding, Black

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• Here I had tried a straightforward extrapolation of technology, and found myself precipitated over an abyss. It's a problem we face every time we consider the creation of intelligences greater than our own. When this happens, human history will have reached a kind of singularity - a place where extrapolation breaks down and new models must be applied - and the world will pass beyond our understanding.

  Vernor Vinge

  Technology, Understanding, World

  Vernor Vinge (2002). “The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge”, p.44, Macmillan

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• It is already becoming clear that a chapter which had a Western beginning will have to have an Indian ending if it is not to end in self-destruction of the human race. At this supremely dangerous moment in human history , the only way of salvation is the ancient Hindu way. Here we have the attitude and spirit that can make it possible for the human race to grow together in to a single family.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Attitude, Race, Self

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• Every civilization sees itself as the center of the world and writes its history as the central drama of human history.

  Samuel P. Huntington

  Drama, Writing, Civilization

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• The creation story unfurling within the scientific enterprise provides the fundamental context, the fundamental arena of meaning, for all the peoples of the Earth. For the first time in human history, we can agree on the basic story of the galaxies, the stars, the planets, minerals, life forms, and human cultures. This story does not diminish the spiritual traditions of the classical or tribal periods of human history. Rather, the story provides the proper setting for the teachings of all traditions, showing the true magnitude of their central truths.

  Brian Swimme

  Spiritual, Stars, Teaching

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• The Second World War is the largest single event in human history, fought across six of the world's seven continents and all it oceans. It killed 50 million human beings, left hundreds of millions of others wounded in mind or body and materially devastated much of the heartland of civilization.

  John Keegan

  War, Ocean, Heart

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• True religion is a universal and (necessarily) ego-transcending psycho-physical motivation of human beings. However, up to the present stage in human history, only relatively few individuals in any generation have been willing and able to make the gesture that is true religion (or, otherwise, true esotericism). In their great numbers, most people have, up to now, never yet been ready or willing to adapt to the true (and progressive) practical, moral, devotional, Spiritual, and Transcendental Wisdom-culture of right life.

  Adi Da

  Spiritual, Motivation, Numbers

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• The 20th century gave rise to one of the greatest and most distressing paradoxes of human history: that the greatest intolerance and violence of that century were practiced by those who believed that religion caused intolerance and violence.

  Alister E. McGrath

  Violence, Paradox, Intolerance

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• Within a few decades, machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence, leading to The Singularity -- technological change so rapid and profound it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history. The implications include the merger of biological and nonbiological intelligence, immortal software-based humans, and ultra-high levels of intelligence that expand outward in the universe at the speed of light.

  Ray Kurzweil

  Light, Technological Change, Profound

  "Want to impress your friends? Tell them internet growth is sigmoidal, not exponential" by Charles Arthur, www.theguardian.com. November 26, 2007.

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• The idea of nature contains, though often unnoticed, an extraordinary amount of human history.

  Raymond Williams

  Ideas, Unnoticed, Humans

  Raymond Williams (2005). “Culture and Materialism: Selected Essays”, p.67, Verso

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• The apologists for space science always seem over-impressed by engineering trivia and make far too much of non-stick frying pans and perfect ball-bearings. To my mind, the outstanding spin-off from space research is not new technology. The real bonus has been that for the first time in human history we have had a chance to look at the Earth from space, and the information gained from seeing from the outside our azure-green planet in all its global beauty has given rise to a whole new set of questions and answers.

  James Lovelock

  Real, Technology, Space

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• The tragedy of human history is decreasing happiness in the midst of increasing comforts.

  Chinmayananda Saraswati

  Tragedy, Comfort, Midst

  "Quotations From Gurudev's Writings". Collected by Chinmaya Mission, Chicago, www.mychinmaya.org.

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• It is my opinion that human history can make no sense unless evil doings are recognized for what they are, and that they are bearable only if somehow they may be redeemed.

  Simon Conway Morris

  Evil, May, Opinion

  "The Crucible of Creation: The Burgess Shale and the Rise of Animals". Book by Simon Conway Morris, 1998.

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• Technology is closing the gap between what one can imagine and what one can do and as a result the equality of opportunity is unmatched in human history.

  Matt Mullenweg

  Technology, Opportunity, Gaps

  "Steppin' off the Edge". Podcast Interview, January 2011.

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• The steep ride up the and down the energy curve is the most abnormal thing that has ever happened in human history. Most of human history is a no-growth situation. Our culture is built on growth and that phase of human history is almost over and we are not prepared for it. Our biggest problem is not the end of our resources. That will be gradual. Our biggest problem is a cultural problem. We don't know how to cope with it.

  M. King Hubbert

  Curves, Growth, Energy

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• Then, when the Fed's fire hoses started spraying an elephant soup of liquidity injections in every direction, and its balance sheet grew by $1.3 trillion in just thirteen weeks compared to $850 billion during its first ninety-four years, I became convinced that the Fed was flying by the seat of its pants, making it up as it went along. It was evident that its aim was to stop the hissy fit on Wall Streetm and that the thread of a Great Depression 2.0 was just a cover story for a panicked spree of money printing that exceeded any other episode in recorded human history.

  David Stockman

  Wall, Years, Elephants

  "The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America". Book by David Stockman, 2013.

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• Humanitarianism needs no apology, even when its objects are Russians or Communists. Unless we recover that concern and feel it toward all men without exception, including those who are on the other side in every fratricidal dispute, we shall have lost the chief redeeming force in human history.

  Ralph Barton Perry

  Apology, Men, Needs

  "The Citizen Decides: A Guide to Responsible Thinking in Time of Crisis".

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