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[H]istory assures us that civilizations decay quite leisurely.

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
Quite
Leisurely
Assures
Civilizations
Apathy
Decay
Civilization

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Drunkenness was in good repute in England till Bloody Mary frowned upon it it remained popular in Germany. The French drank more stably, not being quite so cold.
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Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos.
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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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Power dements even more than it corrupts, lowering the guard of foresight and raising the haste of action.
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Education is the transformation of civilisation
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The greatest question of our time is not communism vs. individualism, not Europe vs. America, not even the East vs. the West it is whether men can bear to live without God.
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Most of us spend too much time on the last twenty-four hours and too little on the last six thousand years.
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A cat has a reputation to protect. If it had a halo, it would be worn cocked to one side.
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Who will dare to write a history of human goodness?
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Science gives us knowledge, but only philosophy can give us wisdom.
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Science without philosophy, facts without perspective and valuation, cannot save us from havoc and despair. Science gives us knowledge, but only philosophy can give us wisdom.
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So I should say that civilizations begin with religion and stoicism: they end with scepticism and unbelief, and the undisciplined pursuit of individual pleasure. A civilization is born stoic and dies epicurean.
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Education is the transmission of civilization.
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Freedom and equality are naturan born enemies.
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Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.
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A statesman cannot afford to be a moralist.
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Forced to choose, the poor, like the rich, love money more than political liberty and the only political freedom capable of enduring is one that is so pruned as to keep the rich from denuding the poor by ability or subtlety and the poor from robbing the rich by violence or votes.
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To rulers religion, like almost everything else, is a tool of power.
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Can a civilization hold together if man abandons his faith in God?
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An emperor knows how to govern when poets are free to make verses, people to act plays, historians to tell the truth, ministers to give advice, the poor to grumble at taxes, students to learn lessons aloud, workmen to praise their skill and seek work, people to speak of anything, and old men to find fault with everything.
Will Durant