Western Civilization Quotes - Page 2

• Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness: this triptych succinctly defines the attractiveness and superiority of Western civilization.

  Ibn Warraq

  Pursuit Of Happiness, Civilization, Liberty

  Ibn Warraq (2013). “Why the West is Best: A Muslim Apostate's Defense of Liberal Democracy”, p.15, Encounter Books

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• Our understanding of what constitutes intelligence is utterly relative. If an aborigine drafted an I.Q. test, for example, all of Western civilization would probably flunk. We have a very convenient and self-serving way of defining intelligence. If an animal does something, we call it instinct. If we do the same thing for the same reason, we call it intelligence.

  John Robbins

  Animal, Self, Civilization

  John Robbins (2011). “Diet for a New America: How Your Food Choices Affect Your Health, Happiness, and the Future of Life on Earth”, p.38, H J Kramer

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• I did have the resource of having taught Greek mythology and the history of Western civilization, and you can go back into the plays of Aeschylus and follow what happens when people seek revenge, and there are people plucking their eyes out. And Greek mythology is filled with all kinds of monsters and whatnot.

  Wes Craven

  Revenge, Eye, Civilization

  Interview with Scott Tobias, film.avclub.com. March 11, 2009.

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• Every great movement in the history of Western civilization from the Carolingian age to the nineteenth century has been an international movement which owed its existence and its development to the cooperation of many different peoples.

  Christopher Dawson

  Civilization, Age, Movement

  Christopher Dawson (1961). “The Crisis of Western Education”, New York : Sheed and Ward

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• Each of us in our own way can try to spread compassion into people's hearts. Western civilizations these days place great importance on filling the human brain with knowledge, but no one seems to care about filling the human heart with compassion. This is what the real role of religion is.

  Dalai Lama

  Inspirational, Real, Heart

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• Egypt gave birth to what later would become known as 'Western Civilization,' long before the greatness of Greece and Rome.

  John Henrik Clarke

  Greatness, Egypt, Rome

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• In Western Civilization, our elders are books.

  Gary Snyder

  Book, Civilization, Western

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• Unlike most heritages, Western civilization is not primarily a geographical place or a genetic bloodline. It is a state of mind. No matter where on earth one was born, to become heir to Western civilization's ancestry, one need only pledge allegiance to reason and individual liberty-the civilized, life-affirming values that represent the "West at its best."

  Terri Runnels

  Life, Civilization, Individuality

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• This world has seen a great many civilizations. And many of them have survived for longer periods than ours up to the present. They were all as sure as we are today of having founded the first eternal civilization. We today differ from them in having our western civilization spread to embrace the entire planet, leaving no room on any continent for any other culture to take over if we fail.

  Thor Heyerdahl

  Other Cultures, Civilization, Leaving

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• This freedom of political discussion on the highest level is something which Western civilization has in common with that of classical antiquity, but with no other

  Christopher Dawson

  Civilization, Political, Levels

  Christopher Dawson (2010). “The Crisis of Western Education (The Works of Christopher Dawson)”, p.95, CUA Press

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• No doubt Western civilization has in the past been full of wars and revolutions, and the national elements in our culture, even when they were ignored, always provided an unconscious driving force of passion and aggressive self-assertion

  Christopher Dawson

  War, Passion, Past

  Christopher Dawson (2010). “The Crisis of Western Education (The Works of Christopher Dawson)”, p.94, CUA Press

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• I believe that Western civilization, after some disgusting glitches, has become almost civilized. I believe it is our first duty to protect that civilization. I believe it is our second duty to improve it. I believe it is our third duty to extend it if we can.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Believe, Civilization, Glitches

  P. J. O'Rourke (2007). “Give War a Chance: Eyewitness Accounts of Mankind's Struggle Against Tyranny, Injustice, and Alcohol-Free Beer”, p.94, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• So-called Western Civilization, as practised in half of Europe, some of Asia and a few parts of North America, is better than anything else available. Western civilization not only provides a bit of life, a pinch of liberty and the occasional pursuance of happiness, it's also the only thing that's ever tried to. Our civilization is the first in history to show even the slightest concern for average, undistinguished, none-too-commendable people like us.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Average, Europe, Civilization

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• Western civilization was declining too fast for comfort, but too slowly to be very exciting.

  Tom Robbins

  Civilization, Comfort, Exciting

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• For the first time in its history, Western Civilization is in danger of being destroyed internally by a corrupt, criminal ruling cabal which is centered around the Rockefeller interests, which include elements from the Morgan, Brown, Rothschild, Du Pont, Harriman, Kuhn-Loeb, and other groupings as well. This junta took control of the political, financial, and cultural life of America in the first two decades of the twentieth century.

  Carroll Quigley

  Civilization, Two, America

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• You may have practical ethics and that kind of thing, but there is no spirituality in any aspect of our Western civilization. Our religious life is ethical, not mystical. The mystery has gone and society is disintegrating as a result.

  David Kudler

  Spiritual, Religious, Civilization

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• I believe in courtesy. It is the way we avoid hurting people's feelings. She thought that maybe, just maybe, western civilization was in decline because people did not take time to take tea at four o'clock.

  E. L. Konigsburg

  Hurt, Believe, Civilization

  E. L. Konigsburg (1999). “The View from Saturday”, p.125, Simon and Schuster

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• And do you know what a full-fledged war would look like, Percy?" "Bad?" I guessed. "Imagine the world in chaos. Nature at war with itself. Olympians forced to choose sides between Zeus amd Poseidon. Destruction. Carnage. Millions dead. Western civilization turned into a battleground so big it will make the Trojan War look like a water-balloon fight." "Bad," I repeated.

  Rick Riordan

  War, Fighting, Civilization

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• I’ve met plenty of embarrassing parents, but Kronos, the evil Titan Lord who wanted to destroy Western Civilization? Not the kind of dad you invited to school for Career Day.

  Rick Riordan

  Dad, School, Civilization

  Rick Riordan (2013). “Demigods and Monsters: Your Favorite Authors on Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series”, p.109, BenBella Books, Inc.

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• The famous Greek physician Hippocrates administered musical treatments to his patients in 400 B.C. Although this type of treatment did not originate with him, it found in him an exponent of the highest order. With the increasing materialism of Western civilization, the major tenants of ancient musical therapy have been either forgotten or discarded.

  Corinne Heline

  Inspiration, Order, Civilization

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• Somewhere in the world there was a young woman with such splendid understanding that she'd see him entire, like a poem or story, and find his words so valuable after all that when he confessed his apprehensions she would explain why they were in fact the very things that made him precious to her...and to Western Civilization! There was no such girl, the simple truth being.

  John Barth

  Girl, Simple, Civilization

  L. Rust Hills, John Barth (1974). “Writer's choice”, Modern Library

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• It is against their own insoluble problem of being human that the dull and base in humanity are in revolt in anti-Semitism. Judaism, nevertheless, together with Hellenism and Christianity is an inalienable component of our Christian Western civilization, the eternal "call to Sinai" against which humanity again and again rebels.

  Hermann Rauschning

  Christian, Civilization, Humanity

  "The Beast From the Abyss". Book by Hermann Rauschning, pp. 155-156, 1941.

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• To regret religion is to regret Western civilization.

  Theodore Dalrymple

  Regret, Civilization, Western

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• To provide its happy people with perpetual fun is now the deepest purpose of Western civilization.

  Jeremy Seabrook

  Fun, Civilization, People

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• The secret of success is to realize that the crisis on our planet is much larger than just deciding what to do with your own life, and if the system under which we live the structure of western civilization begins to collapse because of our selfishness and greed, then it will make no difference whether you have $1 million dollars when the crash comes or just $1.00. The only work that will ultimately bring any good to any of us is the work of contributing to the healing of the world.

  Marianne Williamson

  Success, Healing, Differences

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