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Civilization Quotes

Browse 3690 quotes about Civilization.

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Civilization Quotes

“You have to know accounting. It's the language of practical business life. It was a very useful thing to deliver to civilization. I've heard it came to civilization through Venice which of course was once the great commercial power in the Mediterranean. However, double entry bookkeeping was a hell of an invention.”

KnowsCoursesLanguageBusinessPowerHellHeardCivilizationPracticalsInventionCommerceVeniceEntryAccountingAccountantsUseful ThingsBusiness LifeBookkeeping
Author:Charlie Munger
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“But once we recognize that many ideas that are taken to be quintessentially Western have also flourished in other civilizations, we also see that these ideas are not as culture-specific as is sometimes claimed. We need not begin with pessimism, at least on this ground, about the prospects of reasoned humanism in the world.”

WorldNeedsIdeasSometimesCultureTakenCivilizationDiversityWesternHumanismPessimismBrotherhoodProspectsUnity In Diversity
Author:Amartya Sen
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“In principle as a philosophy, a model of organising society, Communism has to be respected. As regards the use of certain methods to advance social justice and greater regulation by the state, there are certain methods that are useful. What we need is a new society, a new civilization and convergence of all that is best in both [Communism and Capitalism]”

NeedsStatesPhilosophyUseCertainSocialJusticePrinciplesGreaterCommunicationCivilizationModelsCapitalismRegardMethodSocial JusticeCommunismRegulationConvergence
Author:Mikhail Gorbachev
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“New approaches are needed, new orientations in both thought and action. We must make the transition to a new civilization...We are talking of a transition toward a new civilization. No one knows what it will be like. What is important is to orient in that direction... I am convinced that a new civilization will inevitably take on certain features that are characteristic of, or inherent in, the socialist ideal.”

KnowsImportantActionCertainTalkingCommunicationNeededCivilizationApproachIdealsConvincedFeaturesCharacteristicsTransitionInherentSocialistOrientationThoughts And ActionsNew Approach
Author:Mikhail Gorbachev
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“The years ahead will be great ones for our country, for the cause of freedom and the spread of civilization. The West will not contain Communism, it will transcend Communism. We will not bother to denounce it, we'll dismiss it as a sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages are even now being written.”

YearsHumansCountryLastsPoliticsCausesPresidentWrittenCommunicationCivilizationPagesWestSpreadOur CountryCommunismBotherChaptersBizarreHuman HistoryGreat Ones
Author:Ronald Reagan
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“Every child is born sane, and then, slowly slowly, we civilize him - we call it the process of civilization. We prepare him to become part of the great culture, the great church, the great state to which we belong. Our whole politics is stupid, and then HE becomes stupid. Our whole education is ugly. Our politics means nothing but ambition, naked ambition - ambition for power. And only the lowest kind of people become interested in power.”

PeopleKindMeanChildrenStatesWholeCultureProcessBornChurchStupidCivilizationAmbitionUglyNakedSaneLowest
Author:Rajneesh
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“When it comes to the common rights and needs of men and women, there is no clash of civilizations. The requirements of freedom apply fully to Africa and Latin America and the entire Islamic world. The peoples of the Islamic nations want and deserve the same freedoms and opportunities as people in every nation. And their governments should listen to their hopes.”

PeopleMenWorldWantNeedsShouldInspirationGovernmentAmericaOpportunityNationsCommonRightsCivilizationMen And WomenDeserveIslamHuman RightsIslamicLatinRequirementsClashLatin AmericaClash Of Civilizations
Author:George W. Bush
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“The teachings of many faiths share much in common. And people of many faiths are united in our commitments to love our families, to protect our children, and to build a more peaceful world. In the coming year, let us resolve to seize opportunities to work together in a spirit of friendship and cooperation. Through our combined efforts, we can end terrorism and rid our civilization of the damaging effects of hatred and intolerance, ultimately achieving a brighter future for all.”

PeopleWorldYearsChildrenEndsInspirationTogetherSpiritOpportunityUnitedCommonEffortShareTeachingAchieveEffectsCivilizationProtectCommitmentHatredOur ChildrenIslamTerrorismPeacefulOur FamilyWorking TogetherResolveCooperationIntoleranceBrighterPeaceful WorldSeize The OpportunityBrighter FutureCombined EffortIslam Is PeaceLove Our Family
Author:George W. Bush
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“Will not perhaps the temporal power of Islam return and with it the menace of an armed Mohammedan world, which will shake off the domination of Europeans - still nominally Christian - and reappear as the prime enemy of our civilization? The future always comes as a surprise, but political wisdom consists in attempting at least some partial judgment of what that surprise may be. And for my part I cannot but believe that a main unexpected thing of the future is the return of Islam.”

WorldBelieveMayStillsChristianPoliticalEnemyReturnCivilizationJudgmentSurpriseIslamShakesUnexpectedPrimeDominationAttemptingMenaceUnexpected ThingsPolitical Wisdom
Book:The Great Heresies
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“Angels appear to transcend all cultures, races, and systems. They are a part of human history and civilization, sometimes at the forefront, other times in the shadows, but they are always there. They don't belong to any one particular religion, although many modern people try to associate them with Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. No one religion holds total responsibility for the belief in angels. In truth, these religions only support the existence of angels, they didn't create them.”

PeopleTryingHumansSometimesCultureBeliefRaceExistenceResponsibilityChristianitySupportModernParticularCivilizationAngelShadowIslamAssociatesJudaismHuman History
Author:Silver RavenWolf
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“The richest person in the world - in fact. All the riches in the world - couldn't provide you with anything like the endless, incredible loot available at your local library. You can measure the awareness, the breadth and the wisdom of a civilization, a nation, a people by the priority given to preserving these repositories of all that we are, all that we were, or will be.”

PeopleWorldPersonsFactsGivenNationsAwarenessCivilizationLibraryIncrediblesAvailableRichesPrioritiesEndlessLocalsBreadth
Author:Malcolm Forbes
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“Access to knowledge is the superb, the supreme act of truly great civilizations. Of all the institutions that purport to do this, free libraries stand virtually alone in accomplishing this mission. No committee decides who may enter, no crisis of body or spirit must accompany the entrant. No tuition is charged, no oath sworn, no visa demanded. Of the monuments humans build for themselves, very few say - touch me, use me, my hush is not indifference, my space is not barrier. If I inspire awe, it is because I am in awe of you and the possibilities that dwell in you.”

IfsHumansMayUseBodySpiritSpacePossibilityInspireCivilizationCrisisInstitutionsLibraryMissionsAccessSupremeIndifferenceAweBarriersCommitteesMonumentOathAccompanyUsing MeTouch MeHushSuperbVisaTuitionMy Space
Author:Toni Morrison
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“Geology is part of that remarkable dynamic process of the human mind which is generally called science and to which man is driven by an inquisitive urge. By noticing relationships in the results of his observations, he attempts to order and to explain the infinite variety of phenomena that at first sight may appear to be chaotic.”

MenMindFirstsHumansMayHas BeensScienceOrderProcessResultsFireTreeTypeCivilizationEatingScientistSightInfiniteDrivenStealingObservationVarietyRemarkableHeavenlyUrgesProgressiveHuman MindAdamAcheChaoticNoticingGeologyInquisitivePrometheusTree Of Knowledge
Author:Reinout Willem van Bemmelen
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“We must ask whether our machine technology makes us proof against all those destructive forces which plagued Roman society and ultimately wrecked Roman civilization. Our reliance - an almost religious reliance - upon the power of science and technology to forever ensure the progress of our society, might blind us to some very real problems which cannot be solved by science and technology.”

RealProblemMightAsksForceReligiousTechnologyForeverProgressCivilizationMachinesBlindProofDestructiveOur SocietyRelianceReal ProblemsScience And TechnologyRoman Civilization
Author:Robert Strausz-Hupe
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“And this is the ultimate lesson that our knowledge of the mode of transmission of typhus has taught us: Man carries on his skin a parasite, the louse. Civilization rids him of it. Should man regress, should he allow himself to resemble a primitive beast, the louse begins to multiply again and treats man as he deserves, as a brute beast. This conclusion would have endeared itself to the warm heart of Alfred Nobel. My contribution to it makes me feel less unworthy of the honour which you have conferred upon me in his name.”

MenFeelsShouldHeartScienceNamesKnowledgeTeachingTaughtCivilizationLessonsDeserveSkinsUltimateTreatsWarmConclusionBeastContributionCarrieHonourPrimitiveBrutesUnworthyNobelTaught UsTransmissionParasitesWarm HeartTyphus
Author:Charles Nicolle
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“Why do they [Americans] quarrel, why do they hate Negroes, Indians, even Germans, why do they not have science and poetry commensurate with themselves, why are there so many frauds and so much nonsense? I cannot soon give a solution to these questions ... It was clear that in the United States there was a development not of the best, but of the middle and worst sides of European civilization; the notorious general voting, the tendency to politics... all the same as in Europe. A new dawn is not to be seen on this side of the ocean.”

GivingStatesScienceHateSidesUnitedUnited StatesClearMiddleWorstDevelopmentCivilizationOceanSolutionsEuropeVoteAccountsTendenciesDawnVotingNonsenseFraudQuarrelsNotorious
Author:Dmitri Mendeleev
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“It is a terrible commentary on Christian civilization that the longest period of slave-raiding known to history was initiated by the action of Spain, Portugal, France, Holland and Britain, after the Christian faith had for more than a thousand years been the established religion of Europe.”

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Author:H. A. L. Fisher
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“The nineteenth century will ever be known as the one in which the influences of science were first fully realised in civilised communities; the scientific progress was so gigantic that it seems rash to predict that any of its successors can be more important in the life of any nation.”

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Book:Education and National Progress
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“Civilization can only revive when there shall come into being in a number of individuals a new tone of mind, independent of the prevalent one among the crowds, and in opposition to it - a tone of mind which will gradually win influence over the collective one, and in the end determine its character. Only an ethical movement can rescue us from barbarism, and the ethical comes into existence only in individuals.”

MindEndsCharacterWinningIndividualNumbersExistenceInfluenceMovementIntegrityCivilizationEthicsIndependentDetermineCrowdsToneOppositionCollectivesEthicalRescueBarbarismReviveIntegrity And CharacterIntegrity Character
Book:A Treasury of Albert Schweitzer
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“During the reign of Rameses III (the Twentieth Dynasty) Egypt saw a flowering of its civilization and the harp became the royal instrument of priests and kings. Often times they had as many as 21 strings. Under the manipulation "the Minstrels of the Gods" the music was of rare potency. "Musical Medicine" was an actuality. Healing, along with numerous so-called "supernatural feats" was attributed to this art.”

ArtInspirationHealingSawsKingsCivilizationInstrumentsMedicineMusicalContemplationPriestsStringsManipulationReignEgyptRoyalFeatsFloweringActualityHarpsDynastyPotencyMinstrels
Author:Corinne Heline
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“The famous Greek physician Hippocrates administered musical treatments to his patients in 400 B.C. Although this type of treatment did not originate with him, it found in him an exponent of the highest order. With the increasing materialism of Western civilization, the major tenants of ancient musical therapy have been either forgotten or discarded.”

Has BeensInspirationOrderFoundTypeCivilizationMajorsHighestWesternPatientMusicalForgottenAncientGreekTherapyContemplationTreatmentMaterialismPhysiciansWestern CivilizationDiscardedTenantsExponents
Author:Corinne Heline
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“If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life, and I was faced with the duty of choosing between the natural way of my forefathers and that of the... present way of civilization, I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet in the path of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian!”

IfsWayMindChildrenTodayYoungNaturalPathJourneyFeetDutyCivilizationDirectRaisesIndianWelfareNativeNative AmericanLife JourneyForefathersNative AmericaNative American IndianGreat Native AmericanIndian WisdomYoung Minds
Author:Tom Brown, Jr.
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“As agonizing a disease as cancer is, I do not think it can be said that our civilization is threatened by it. ... But a very plausible case can be made that our civilization is fundamentally threatened by the lack of adequate fertility control. Exponential increases of population will dominate any arithmetic increases, even those brought about by heroic technological initiatives, in the availability of food and resources, as Malthus long ago realized.”

ThinkingLongMadeSaidScienceCasesCivilizationDiseaseResourcesIncreasePopulationCancerRealizationHeroicInitiativeLong AgoTechnologicalThreatenedAdequateArithmeticPlausibleFertilityAvailabilityAgonizingMalthus
Author:Carl Sagan
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“Civilization is a disease produced by the practice of building societies with rotten material.”

PracticeBuildingMaterialsCivilizationDiseaseRebelliousRottenMan And Superman
Book:The Collected Works of George Bernard Shaw: Plays, Novels, Articles, Letters and Essays: Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, Arms and The Man, Man and Superman, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion, The New York Times Articles on War, Memories of Oscar Wilde and more
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