Quote

Progress is the domination of chaos by mind and purpose, of matter by form and will. It need not be continuous to be real.

Will Durant

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Matter
Need
Real
Continuous
Needs
Domination
Mind
Chaos
Progress
Purpose
Form

More quotes by Will Durant

Image
Moral codes adjust themselves to environmental conditions.
Will Durant
Image
Science gives us knowledge, but only philosophy can give us wisdom.
Will Durant
Image
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.
Will Durant
Image
That a few simple men should in one generation have invented so powerful and appealing a personality, so lofty ethic, and so inspiring a vision of human brotherhood, would be a miracle far more incredible than any recorded in the Gospels.
Will Durant
Image
by and large the poor have the same impulses as the rich, with only less opportunity or skill to implement them
Will Durant
Image
A statesman cannot afford to be a moralist.
Will Durant
Image
I came to think of myself, not as a dance and chaos of molecules, but as a brief and minute portion of that majestic process
Will Durant
Image
We conclude that the concentration of wealth is natural and inevitable, and is periodically alleviated by violent or peaceable partial redistribution. In this view all economic history is the slow heartbeat of the social organism, a vast systole and diastole of concentrating wealth and compulsive redistribution.
Will Durant
Image
The ego is willing but the machine cannot go on. It's the last thing a man will admit, that his mind ages.
Will Durant
Image
The fear of capitalism has compelled socialism to widen freedom, and the fear of socialism has compelled capitalism to increase equality. East is West and West is East, and soon the twain will meet.
Will Durant
Image
Who will dare to write a history of human goodness?
Will Durant
Image
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.
Will Durant
Image
The political machine triumphs because it is a united minority acting against a divided majority.
Will Durant
Image
The finger that turns the dial rules the air.
Will Durant
Image
Forget mistakes. Forget failure. Forget everything except what you're going to do now and do it. Today is your lucky day
Will Durant
Image
History is so indifferently rich, that a case for almost any conclusion from it can be made by a selection of instances.
Will Durant
Image
There is hardly an absurdity of the past that cannot be found flourishing somewhere in the present.
Will Durant
Image
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
Image
Caesar's armies marched on vegetarian foods.
Will Durant
Image
Rome remained great as long as she had enemies who forced her to unity, vision, and heroism. When she had overcome them all she flourished for a moment and then began to die.
Will Durant