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Civilization Quotes

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Civilization Quotes

“In spite of all the refinements of civilization that conspired to make art--the dizzying perfection of the string quartet or the sprawling grandeur of Fragonard's canvases--beauty was savage. It was as dangerous and lawless as the earth had been eons before man had one single coherent thought in his head or wrote codes of conduct on tablets of clay. Beauty was a Savage Garden.”

Men Art Earth Dangerous Civilization Garden Perfection Code Spite Strings Savages Clay Grandeur Refinement Tablets Quartets String Quartets

Book:The vampire Lestat

Source: The vampire Lestat

“Coal, oil and gas are called fossil fuels, because they are mostly made of the fossil remains of beings from long ago. The chemical energy within them is a kind of stored sunlight originally accumulated by ancient plants. Our civilization runs by burning the remains of humble creatures who inhabited the Earth hundreds of millions of years before the first humans came on the scene. Like some ghastly cannibal cult, we subsist on the dead bodies of our ancestors and distant relatives. - Dr. Carl Sagan”

Source: Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium

“It was if the city knew about Percy's dream of Gaea. It knew that the earth goddess intended on razing all human civilization, and this city, which had stood for thousands if years, was saying back at her: You wanna dissolve this city, Dirt Face? Give it a shot. In other words, it was the Coach Hedge of mortal cities- only taller.”

Ifs Giving Years Humans Dream Earth Faces Cities Civilization Shots Coaches Mortals Goddess Dirt Human Civilization Coach Hedge Gaea

Author:Rick Riordan

“A tree is beautiful, but what's more, it has a right to life; like water, the sun and the stars, it is essential. Life on earth is inconceivable without trees. Forests create climate, climate influences peoples' character, and so on and so forth. There can be neither civilization nor happiness if forests crash down under the axe, if the climate is harsh and severe, if people are also harsh and severe. ... What a terrible future!”

“You think that a wall as solid as the earth separates civilization from barbarism. I tell you the division is a thread, a sheet of glass. A touch here, a push there, and you bring back the reign of Saturn.”

Thinking Life Earth Wall Civilization Glasses Live Life Division Thread Reign Sheets Barbarism Saturn

Author:John Buchan

“We Christians must simplify our lives or lose untold treasures on earth and in eternity. Modern civilization is so complex as to make the devotional life all but impossible. The need for solitude and quietness was never greater than it is today.”

“The world we know at present is in no fit state to take over the dreariest little meteor ... If we have the courage and patience, the energy and skill, to take us voyaging to other planets, then let us use some of these to tidy up and civilize this earth. One world at a time, please.”

Ifs Knows World Littles States Use Earth Science Energy Planets Fit Please Civilization Skills Tidy Meteors

Author:J. B. Priestley

“Our insatiable drive to rummage deep beneath the surface of the earth is a willful expansion of our dysfunctional civilization into Nature.”

Earth Energy Environment Civilization Climate Change Surface Expansion Eugenics Insatiable Beneath The Surface Enviromental Enviroment

Book:Earth in the Balance: Forging a New Common Purpose

Source: Earth in the Balance: Forging a New Common Purpose

“We the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency-a threat to the survival of our civilization that is gathering ominous and destructive potential...the earth has a fever. And the fever is rising...Indeed, without realizing it, we have begun to wage war on earth itself.”

Humans War Earth Energy Realizing Environment Civilization Survival Threat Species Climate Change Rising Destructive Gathering Emergencies Fever Confronting Human Species Ominous

Author:Al Gore