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Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.

Will Durant

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Will Durant
Age: 96 †
Born: 1885
Born: November 5
Died: 1981
Died: November 7
Historian
Philosopher
Writer
North Adams
Massachusetts
William James Will Durant
William James Durant
Without
Consent
Notice
Exists
Subject
Civilization
Subjects
Geologist
Existence
Geological
Change
Geology

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Christianity did not destroy paganism it adopted it.
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In the last analysis civilization is based upon the food supply.
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History repeats itself in the large because human nature changes with geological leisureliness.
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The experience of the past lives little doubt that every economic system must sooner or later rely upon some form of the profit motive to stir individuals and groups to productivity. Substitutes like slavery, police supervision, or ideological enthusiasm prove too unproductive, too expensive, or too transient.
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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.
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We are living in the excesses of freedom. Just take a look at 42nd Street and Broadway.
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Knowledge is power but only wisdom is liberty.
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Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos.
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When liberty destroys order the hunger for order will destroy liberty.
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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
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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.
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India will teach us the tolerance and gentleness of mature mind, understanding spirit and a unifying, pacifying love for all human beings.
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We have conferred a mystic popularity upon officials whose only virtue is their timidity while our scorn of rebels and reformers is so great that we have ceased to persecute them. The capitals and governments of the world are in the hands of caution and change comes over them only in the night, unseen.
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Our knowledge is a receding mirage in an expanding desert of ignorance.
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War is one of the constants of history, and it has not diminished with civilization or democracy.
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The Islamic conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precious good, whose delicate complex of order and freedom, culture and peace, can at any moment be overthrown by barbarians invading from without or multiplying within.
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If I were rich I would have many books, and I would pamper myself with bindings bright to the eye and soft to the touch, paper generously opaque, and type such as men designed when printing was very young. I would dress my gods in leather and gold, and burn candles of worship before them at night, and string their names like beads on a string.
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Science tells us how to heal and how to kill it reduces our death rate in retail and then kills us wholesale in war but only wisdom - desire coordinated in the light of all experience - can tell us when to heal and when to kill.
Will Durant
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The great snare of thought is uncritical acceptance of irrational assumptions.
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It came to me that reform should begin at home, and since that day I have not had time to remake the world.
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