Will Durant Quotes - Page 7

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

  Will Durant

  Civilization, Apathy, Decay

  Will Durant, Ariel Durant (2012). “The Lessons of History”, Simon and Schuster

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• Cultural creation... begins where chaos and insecurity end.

  Will Durant

  Insecurity, Culture, Chaos

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• Wherever men do things, other men will arise who will explain to them how things should be done.

  Will Durant

  Men, Done, Arise

  Will Durant, Ariel Durant (1954). “The story of civilization”

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• A history of civilization shares the presumptuousness of every philosophical enterprise: it offers the ridiculous spectacle of a fragment expounding the whole. Like philosophy, such a venture has no rational excuse, and is at best but a brave stupidity; but let us hope that, like philosophy, it will always lure some rash spirits into its fatal depths.

  Will Durant

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Civilization

  Will Durant (2011). “Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization”, p.44, Simon and Schuster

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• The failure of the Reformation to capture France had left for Frenchmen no half-way house between infallibility and infidelity; and while the intellect of Germany and England moved leisurely in the lines of religious evolution, the mind of France leaped from the hot faith which had massacred the Huguenots to the cold hostility with which La Mettrie, Helvetius, Holbach, and Diderot turned upon the religion of the fathers.

  Will Durant

  Religious, Father, House

  "Story of Philosophy".

  12 Copy quote

• India will teach us the tolerance and gentleness of mature mind, understanding spirit and a unifying, pacifying love for all human beings.

  Will Durant

  Understanding, Tolerance, Mind

  "The Case for India". Book by Will Durant, 1930.

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• Who will dare to write a history of human goodness?

  Will Durant

  Writing, Goodness, Dare

  Will Durant, Ariel Durant (1968). “The lessons of history”, Simon & Schuster

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• 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

  East, West, Socialism

  Will Durant, Ariel Durant (1968). “The lessons of history”, Simon & Schuster

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• Hunting is now to most of us a game, whose relish seems based upon some mystic remembrance, in the blood, of ancient days when to hunter as well as hunted it was a matter of life and death.

  Will Durant

  Hunting, Blood, Games

  Will Durant (2011). “Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization”, p.61, Simon and Schuster

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• Art lies in conceiving and designing, not in the actual execution' - this was left for lesser minds.

  Will Durant

  Art, Lying, Design

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• Civilization is the order and freedom is promoting cultural activity.

  Will Durant

  Order, Civilization, Promoting

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• 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

  Men, Ego, Mind

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• As to harmonizing the theory of evolution with the Biblical account of creation, I do not believe it can be done, and I do not see why it should be. The story of Genesis is beautiful, and profoundly significant as symbolism: there is no good reason to torture it into conformity with modern theory.

  Will Durant

  Beautiful, Believe, Biblical

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• What if it is for life's sake that we must die? In truth we are not individuals; and it is because we think ourselves such that death seems unforgivable. We are temporary organs of the race, cells in the body of life; we die and drop away that life may remain young and strong. If we were to live forever, growth would be stifled, and youth would find no room on earth. Death, like style, is the removal of rubbish, the circumcision of the superfluous. In the midst of death life renews itself immortally.

  Will Durant

  Strong, Struggle, Thinking

  "Fallen Leaves: Last Words on Life, Love, War, and God".

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• Every vice was once a virtue, and may become respectable again, just as hatred becomes respectable in wartime.

  Will Durant

  Hatred, Vices, May

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• We are living in the excesses of freedom. Just take a look at 42nd Street and Broadway.

  Will Durant

  Freedom, Looks, Excess

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• Knowledge that does not generate achievement is a pale and bloodless thing, unworthy of mankind.

  Will Durant

  Achievement, Doe, Pale

  Will Durant (2012). “Story of Philosophy”, p.172, Simon and Schuster

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• For you will sorely miss civilization if it is sacrificed in the turbulence of change.

  Will Durant

  Civilization, Missing, Turbulence

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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.

  Will Durant

  Art, Emotional, Expression

  Will Durant (2011). “The Age of Faith: The Story of Civilization”, p.408, Simon and Schuster

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• Education is the transformation of civilisation

  Will Durant

  Transformation, Civilisation

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• Progress is the increasing control of the environment by life.

  Will Durant

  Progress, Environment

  Will Durant, Ariel Durant (1968). “The Lessons of History”

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• Science tells us how to heal and how to kill; it reduces our death rate in retail and then kills us wholesale in war; but only wisdom - desire coordinated in the light of all experience - can tell us when to heal and when to kill.

  Will Durant

  Wisdom, War, Light

  Will Durant (1961). “Story of Philosophy”, p.2, Simon and Schuster

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• A cat has a reputation to protect. If it had a halo, it would be worn cocked to one side.

  Will Durant

  Cat, Halos, Would Be

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• It is one of the most culpable oversights of nature that virtue and beauty so often come in separate packages.

  Will Durant

  Virtue, Oversight, Packages

  Will Durant (2011). “Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization”, p.814, Simon and Schuster

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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.

  Will Durant

  Drinking, Germany, England

  Will Durant, Ariel Durant (1957). “The Story of Civilization: The Reformation”

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