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civilization quotes

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“When any civilization is dust and ashes . . . art is all that’s left over.” Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake
“Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.” Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead
“Civilization is a product of the cerebral cortex.” Carl Sagan, Cosmos
“The amount of civilization is measured by the quantity of imagination.” Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
“You can't have a lasting civilization without plenty of pleasant vices.” Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
“The great advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science or literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government. Columbus did not set out to seek a new route to China in response to a...” Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom
“They had generally acquired some of the vices of civilization, but none of the virtues, except in individual cases.” Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant
“The cradles of civilization are the putrid sinks of the world, the charnel house to which the stinking wombs confide their bloody packages of flesh and bone.” Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer
“Religion is one of the great civilizing influences of history” Isaac Asimov, Foundation
“you're over-civilized. You should look on death as the Oriental does. It's a mere incident—hardly noticeable.” Agatha Christie, Death on the Nile
“To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilisation, and at present very few people have reached this level.” Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness
“Only the language of civilized people may be spoken, thus no German.” Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl
“Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.” Herman Melville, Moby-Dick
“Whatever my own practice may be, I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other when they came in contact...” Henry David Thoreau, Walden
“INVENTOR, n. A person who makes an ingenious arrangement of wheels, levers and springs, and believes it civilization.” Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
“Our civilization is flinging itself to pieces. Stand back from the centrifuge.” Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
“The passage from the state of nature to the civil state produces a very remarkable change in man, by substituting justice for instinct in his conduct, and giving his actions the morality they had formerly lacked.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract
“There's many a beast, then, in a populous city, and many a civil monster.” William Shakespeare, Othello
“Classes struggle, some classes triumph, others are eliminated. Such is history, such is the history of civilization for thousands of years.” Mao Zedong, Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung
“While there are two ways of contending, one by discussion, the other by force, the former belonging properly to man, the latter to beasts, recourse must be had to the latter if there be no opportunity for employing the former.” Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Duties
“If youth were not ignorant and timid, civilization would be impossible.” Honoré de Balzac, Father Goriot
“The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn, and Egypt, Greece, Rome, Gaul, Britain, America, lie folded already in the first man.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, History
“I think the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture and our concern for the future can all be tested by how well we support our libraries.” Carl Sagan, Cosmos
“Savages! where are there not any? Besides, are they worse than others, these whom you call savages?” Jules Verne, Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea
“I ate civilization. . . . It poisoned me; I was defiled. And then . . . I ate my own wickedness.” Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
“The modern world would grind to a halt if there weren't men with enough advanced training to keep the complicated parts of civilization working smoothly.” Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano
“There are many humorous things in the world; among them the white man's notion that he is less savage than the other savages.” Mark Twain, Following the Equator
“She was so evidently the victim of the civilization which had produced her, that the links of her bracelet seemed like manacles chaining her to her fate.” Edith Wharton, House of Mirth
“And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.” William Shakespeare, As You Like It

Related topics

imagination fate savagery progress nature vice cannibalism men Christianity freedom morality death religion ignorance government virtue justice youth equality art

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William Shakespeare (2)
Carl Sagan (2)
Aldous Huxley (2)
Milton Friedman (1)
Margaret Atwood (1)
Herman Melville (1)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1)
Mark Twain (1)
Henry David Thoreau (1)
Ayn Rand (1)
Victor Hugo (1)
Anne Frank (1)
Bertrand Russell (1)
Kurt Vonnegut (1)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1)
Ray Bradbury (1)
Isaac Asimov (1)
Ambrose Bierce (1)
Mao Zedong (1)
Henry Miller (1)

Related sources

Brave New World (2)
Cosmos (2)
Oryx and Crake (1)
Moby-Dick (1)
Capitalism and Freedom (1)
The Diary of a Young Girl (1)
Walden (1)
Following the Equator (1)
The Conquest of Happiness (1)
The Social Contract (1)
As You Like It (1)
The Fountainhead (1)
Othello (1)
Tropic of Cancer (1)
Fahrenheit 451 (1)
Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (1)
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea (1)
Father Goriot (1)
On Duties (1)
Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant (1)