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Men decided that it was better to pay taxes than to fight among themselves better to pay tribute to one magnificent robber than to bribe them all.

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
Better
Magnificent
Men
Taxes
Decided
Among
Pay
Robber
Fight
Bribe
Fighting
Robbers
Society
Tribute

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Progress is the domination of chaos by mind and purpose, of matter by form and will. It need not be continuous to be real.
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Can a civilization hold together if man abandons his faith in God?
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There is nothing in socialism that a little age or a little money will not cure.
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Music and religion are as intimately related as poetry and love the deepest emotions require for their civilized expression the most emotional of arts.
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In philosophy, as in politics, the longest distance between two points is a straight line.
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In Constantinople, more Christians were slaughtered by Christians in the years 342-343 than by all the persecutions by pagans in the history of Rome.
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Man is an emotional animal, occasionally rational and through his feelings he can be deceived to his heart's content.
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Education is the transmission of civilization.
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Contentment is rare among men as it is natural among animals
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Civilization is the order and freedom is promoting cultural activity.
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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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Every state begins in compulsion but the habits of obedience become the content of conscience, and soon every citizen thrills with loyalty to the flag. The citizen is right for however the state begins, it soon becomes an indispensable prop to order.
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Read, think well of mankind, go to our libraries and rejoice.
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The soul of a civilization is its religion, and it dies with its faith.
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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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When liberty exceeds intelligence, it begets chaos, which begets dictatorship.
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It is one of the most culpable oversights of nature that virtue and beauty so often come in separate packages.
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The laws that Charondas gave to Catana,... A man might divorce his wife, or a wife her husband, said Charondas, but then he or she must not marry anyone younger than the divorced mate.
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A civilization is born Stoic and dies Epicurean.
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We teach more by what we are than by what we teach.
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