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There is hardly an absurdity of the past that cannot be found flourishing somewhere in the present.

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
Found
Cannot
Past
Flourishing
Absurdity
Hardly
Somewhere
Present

More quotes by Will Durant

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There is nothing in socialism that a little age or a little money will not cure.
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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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History is always repeating itself, but each time the price goes up.
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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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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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Who will dare to write a history of human goodness?
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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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Knowledge is power but only wisdom is liberty.
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Freedom and equality are naturan born enemies.
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Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos.
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No man who is in a hurry is quite civilized.
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If our economy of freedom fails to distribute wealth as ably as it has created it, the road to dictatorship will be open to any man who can persuasively promise security to all.
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Grow strong, my comrade … that you may stand Unshaken when I fall that I may know The shattered fragments of my song will come At last to finer melody in you That I may tell my heart that you begin Where passing I leave off, and fathom more.
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The Institutional Church (ecclesia) has killed only two kinds of people: Those who do not believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ, and those who do.
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As knowledge grew, fear decreased men thought less of worshiping the unknown, and more of overcoming it.
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If man asks for many laws it is only because he is sure that his neighbor needs them privately he is an unphilosophical anarchist, and thinks laws in his own case superfluous.
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Contentment is rare among men as it is natural among animals
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Nature smiles at the union of freedom and equality in our utopias. For freedom and equality are sworn and everlasting enemies, and when one prevails the other dies.
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Wherever men do things, other men will arise who will explain to them how things should be done.
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History is mostly guessing the rest is prejudice.
Will Durant