Quotessence
Home / Topics / Civilization Quotes

Civilization Quotes

Browse 3690 quotes about Civilization.

Related topics

MenIfsWorldHumansPeopleWesternThinkingWestern CivilizationWayCultureHas BeensWarKnowsMayArtYearsModernNationsMeanFirstsShouldIndividualCivilizedEndsProgressDoeStatesCountryBelieveWholeLongNeedsAmericaCenturyFactsRaceAgeForceSocialWantEarthHuman CivilizationIdeasModern CivilizationTwoWellsLawFormMadeMankindMindGivingHumanityChildrenSeemsStillsValuesChristianUseLastsPastGovernmentImportantOrderRealSelfAncientPlanetsBarbarismLibertyCitiesScienceTechnologyDependsFoundKindTogetherCoursesLiteratureMoralProblemProcessEconomicNaturalPoliticalReasonSpiritualBookLooksMatterPrinciplesWould BeDiesInstitutionsLittlesSavagesHandsMaterialsCertainCharactermore

Civilization Quotes

“there is a danger, when thinking of the earliest civilized people, of putting too much emphasis on technology. One tends to assume that if you don't have, at least, a lavatory and perhaps something that will take you a lot faster than your own feet, or a certain number of gadgets in the house, then you must be in some way, a bit backward and defective ... the important thing to remember is that technology is not necessarily the same thing as civilization.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWayImportantRememberCertainHouseBitsNumbersTechnologyToo MuchFeetDangerCivilizationImportant ThingsAssumingFasterCivilizedEmphasisGadgetsDefective
Author:Jacquetta Hawkes
Create image

“It is inherent in human consciousness to improve. So there is nothing unique about a people searching for and creating ways to make their life better - all civilizations throughout history have done this. What is unique about us in America is the accelerated rate at which we continually search for novelty and progress.”

PeopleWayHumansDoneAmericaConsciousnessUnited StatesProgressCivilizationCreatingUniqueRateInherentNoveltyHuman ConsciousnessNewness
Book:Real Moments
Create image

“The time has come for everybody -capitalists, communists, socialists- to ask themselves what 'civilization' really means. If not, whether a country calls itself capitalist or communists, in the pursuit of 'progress' , it will visit genocide either on its own people or on another people whose country must be plundered for resources to feed the Progress industry.”

PeopleIfsMeanCountryAsksProgressIndustryCivilizationResourcesPursuitCommunistGenocideCapitalistReally Mean
Author:Arundhati Roy
Create image

“It is a characteristic of any decaying civilization that the great masses of the people are unconscious of the tragedy. Humanity in a crisis is generally insensitive to the gravity of the times in which it lives. Men do not want to believe their own times are wicked, partly because it involves too much self-accusation and principally because they have no standards outside of themselves by which to measure their times.”

PeopleMenWantBelieveSelfHumanityToo MuchCivilizationMassStandardsTragedyCrisisCharacteristicsUnconsciousWickedGravityAccusationInsensitive
Author:Fulton J. Sheen
Create image

“I am a great believer in what we've been told time and time again by people like Joseph Campbell, "find your bliss." Find out what it is that touches you most deeply. Pursue it, learn about it, explore it, expand on it. Live with it and nurture it. Find your own way and make your own contribution. Find a way to make a contribution to this society because God knows we need contributions from the coming generation. This planet and this civilization is in need. I see it as a time of need.”

PeopleKnowsWayNeedsGenerationsPlanetsCivilizationBelieverPursueBlissContributionNurtureGod KnowsThis SocietyTime Of NeedOld Time
Author:Leonard Nimoy
Create image

“I think if I were to express my wish, it would be that we are more regionally self-reliant. And I dont mean people being survivalists, I mean regionally self-reliant. So that you have these individual cells. The idea of having different solutions in different areas, so that we have a very robust, durable civilization.”

PeopleIfsThinkingMeanIdeasDifferentSelfWould BeIndividualWishCivilizationSolutionsAreasCellsRobustMean PeopleMy WishSelf Reliant
Author:Daniel Suarez
Create image

“They can say that abortion is alright. They can vote to sustain gay marriage. And that will take western civilization, indeed other nations because people look to our country as one nation as under God and whenever we legislate sin and we say abortion is permissible and we say gay unions are permissible, then average citizens who are not Christians, because they don't know better, we are leading them astray and it's wrong.”

PeopleKnowsLooksCountryChristianNationsSinCitizensCivilizationGayVoteUnionsWesternAverageScaryOur CountryAbortionGay MarriageAlrightWestern Civilization
Author:Katherine Harris
Create image

“For most of Western civilization there was no real division between the realms of science, divinity, and artistic endeavor - they were just three strands of the same braid, all of them pulling toward the same beautiful desire: to try to understand the workings of this curious and beautiful world. There were many people who would have called themselves all three things at once: men of god, men of science, men of the arts.”

PeopleMenWorldTryingArtRealBeautifulDesireThreeCivilizationWesternCuriousArtisticRealmsDivinityDivisionEndeavorPullingThree ThingsWestern CivilizationStrandsBeautiful WorldMan Of GodBraids
Author:Elizabeth Gilbert
Create image

“... the next war will be a war in which people not armies will suffer, and our boasted, hard-earned civilization will do us no good. Cannot the women rise to this great opportunity and work now, and not have the double horror, if another war comes, of losing their loved ones, and knowing that they lifted no finger when they might have worked hard?”

PeopleIfsWorldWarHardMightSufferingNextOpportunityKnowingCivilizationHorrorLosingArmyFingersWar Of The WorldsWorld War IiLoved OnesWorld War IGreat Opportunity
Author:Eleanor Roosevelt
Create image

“Civilization does not engross all the virtues of humanity: she has not even her full share of them. They flourish in greater abundance and attain greater strength among many barbarous people. The hospitality of the wild Arab, the courage of the North American Indian, and the faithful friendships of some of the Polynesian nations, far surpass any thing of a similar kind among the polished communities of Europe.”

PeopleKindDoeHumanityNationsCommunityVirtueGreaterShareCivilizationEuropeIndianFaithfulAbundanceHospitalityPolishedAmerican IndianPolynesians
Book:Typee: A Romance of the South Seas (Illustrated & Annotated Edition)
Create image

“The people of the United States have been fortunate in many things. One of the things in which we have been most fortunate has been that so far, due perhaps to certain basic virtues in our traditional ways of doing things, we have managed to keep the crisis of western civilization, which has devastated the rest of the world and in which we are as much involved as anybody, more or less at arm's length.”

PeopleWorldWayHas BeensStatesAmericaCertainUnitedUnited StatesVirtueArmsInvolvedCivilizationCrisisWesternDuesTraditionalFortunateIsolationLengthWestern CivilizationDevastated
Author:John Dos Passos
Create image

“The logic of all this seems to be that it is all right for young people in a democracy to learn about any civilization or social theory that is not dangerous, but that they should remain entirely ignorant of any civilization or social theory that might be dangerous on the ground that what you don't know can't hurt you ... a complete denial of the democratic principle that the general diffusion of knowledge and learning through the community is essential to the preservation of free government.”

PeopleKnowsShouldSeemsGovernmentMightYoungSocialCommunityHurtEducationPrinciplesDemocracyDangerousTheoryCivilizationEssentialsLogicDemocraticIgnorantDenialPreservationFree GovernmentDiffusionKnowledge And LearningSocial Theory
Book:Freedom and Responsibility in the American Way of Life
Create image

“A happy people I call them still, whose peace and genuine morals have not been contaminated with European vices; and whose errorsare only the errors of ignorance, and not the rooted depravity of a pretended civilization, and a spurious and mock Christianity.”

PeopleStillsMoralChristianityIgnoranceCivilizationErrorsVicesGenuineRootedMockDepravityHappy People
Book:Narrative, of a Five Years' Expedition, Against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam, in Guiana, on the Wild Coast of South America; from the Year 1772, to 1777:: Elucidating the History of that Country, and Describing Its Productions, ... with an Account of the Indians of Guiana, & Negroes of Guinea
Create image

“Architecture is, to a certain extent, a sensual gratification. It addresses itself to the eye, and affords the best scope for the parade of barbaric pomp and splendour. It is the form in which the revenues of a semi-civilized people are most likely to be lavished. The most gaudy and ostentatious specimens of it, and sometimes the most stupendous, have been reared by such hands. It is one of the first steps in the great march of civilization.”

PeopleFirstsHas BeensSometimesHandsEyeFormCertainStepsCivilizationArchitectureSensualAddressesMarchCivilizedFirst StepsRevenueScopeGratificationParadesBarbaricSplendourGaudyOstentatious
Book:History of the Conquest of México
Create image

“America has entered a great struggle that tests our strength, and even more our resolve. Our nation is patient and steadfast. We continue to pursue the terrorists in cities and camps and caves across the earth. We are joined by a great coalition of nations to rid the world of terror. And we will not allow any terrorist or tyrant to threaten civilization with weapons of mass murder. Now and in the future, Americans will live as free people, not in fear, and never at the mercy of any foreign plot or power.”

PeopleWorldWarEarthAmericaNationsCitiesStruggleCivilizationWeaponsMassTestsMercyMurderPatientTerrorTerrorismTerroristPursuePlotResolveCampsTyrantsCavesCoalitionsSteadfast
Author:George W. Bush
Create image

“The climate of Ohio is perfect, considered as the home of an ideal republican people. Climate has much to do with national character.... A climate which permits labor out-of-doors every month in the year and which requires industry to secure comfort--to provide food, shelter, clothing, fuel, etc.--is the very climate which secures the highest civilization.”

PeopleYearsCharacterHomePerfectDoorsMonthsIndustryComfortCivilizationRepublicanHighestIdealsLaborClimateSecureFuelEtcPermitClothingsShelterOhio
Author:Rutherford B. Hayes
Create image

“Tracing the progress of mankind in the ascending path of civilization, and moral and intellectual culture, our fathers found that the divine ordinance of government, in every stage of the ascent, was adjustable on principles of common reason to the actual condition of a people, and always had for its objects, in the benevolent councils of the divine wisdom, the happiness, the expansion, the security, the elevation of society, and the redemption of man. They sought in vain for any title of authority of man over man, except of superior capacity and higher morality.”

PeopleMenReasonGovernmentCultureFoundFatherCommonMoralPrinciplesPathProgressConditionsMankindStageSecurityObjectsDivineHigherMoralityCivilizationAuthorityIntellectualCapacityIndependenceSuperiorsRedemptionVainTitlesExpansionCouncilOur FatherBenevolentIndependence DayElevationAscentOrdinancesTracingAscendingDivine Wisdom
Author:William M. Evarts
Create image

“I think mathematics is a vast territory. The outskirts of mathematics are the outskirts of mathematical civilization. There are certain subjects that people learn about and gather together. Then there is a sort of inevitable development in those fields. You get to the point where a certain theorem is bound to be proved, independent of any particular individual, because it is just in the path of development.”

PeopleThinkingTogetherCertainIndividualPathSubjectsFieldsParticularDevelopmentCivilizationMathematicsIndependentBoundsMathematicalInevitableTerritoryTheorems
Author:William Thurston
Create image

“The idea of a group of elders is that, in past civilizations, they have linked worlds; the other world was also present in this one. There is also the argument that elders have "experience." The problem is that experience teaches fear of change. Experience kills imagination. Experience makes people conservative. What we are facing tomorrow requires the force of imagination, not wisdom from yesterday.”

PeopleWorldIdeasProblemPastForceImaginationTeachGroupsTomorrowCivilizationArgumentConservativeYesterdayLinkedEldersOther WorldsFear Of Change
Author:Jacques Yves Cousteau
Create image

“It would appear that the traditional parliamentary democracies can offer no fundamental opposition to that automatism of technological civilization and the industrial-consumer society, for they too are being dragged helplessly along by it. People are manipulated in ways that are infinitely more subtle and refined than the brutal methods used in post-totalitarian societies.”

PeopleWayUsedDemocracyCivilizationOffersMethodFundamentalsTraditionalPostsConsumersOppositionSubtleBrutalConsumerismTechnologicalRefinedOverconsumptionParliamentaryParliamentary Democracy
Book:The Power of the Powerless: Citizens Against the State in Central Eastern Europe: Citizens Against the State in Central Eastern Europe
Create image

“I did have the resource of having taught Greek mythology and the history of Western civilization, and you can go back into the plays of Aeschylus and follow what happens when people seek revenge, and there are people plucking their eyes out. And Greek mythology is filled with all kinds of monsters and whatnot.”

PeopleKindPlayHappensEyeTaughtCivilizationResourcesFilledWesternRevengeMythologyMonstersAll KindsGreekGreek MythologyWestern CivilizationGreek Myth
Author:Wes Craven
Create image

“In western civilization, the period ruled by mysticism is known as the 'Dark Ages' and the 'Middle Ages'. I will assume that you know the nature of that period and the state of human existence in those ages. The Renaissance broke the rules of the mystics. "Renaissance" means the "rebirth". Few people today will care to remind you that it was a rebirth of reason - of man's mind.”

PeopleKnowsMenMindHumansMeanStatesReasonCareAgeTodayDarkExistenceKnownHistoryMiddlePeriodsCivilizationAssumingWesternBrokeMysticismRebirthMiddle AgesDark AgesRenaissanceHuman ExistenceWestern Civilization
Author:Ayn Rand
Create image

“Marriage is under attack from so many different areas. There should be benefits associated with married people. Life is unfair. Maybe you won't find the right person and you won't end up getting married. Oh, well, life is unfair. But married people, because of their capacity to have children, even if they're not going to end up having children, even if they're unable to bear children, marriage is an institution that is absolutely central to civilization.”

PeopleIfsShouldWellsChildrenPersonsDifferentEndsLife IsBearsCivilizationBenefitsMarriedAreasCapacityInstitutionsUnfairGetting MarriedRight PersonHaving ChildrenOh WellLife Is Unfair
Author:Ann Coulter
Create image

“I do not think there is such a thing as a "clash of civilizations." When I say that Muslims as Muslims cannot be represented in the West, I was being ironic, and also referring to the fact that ninety percent of the time when people talk about "the problem of Muslims" in the West, it is to complain about the fact that Muslims have not "integrated."”

PeopleThinkingFactsProblemCivilizationPercentWestComplainingIronicNinetyClashIntegratedReferringClash Of Civilizations
Author:Talal Asad
Create image

“The great ideas of the West - rationalism, self-criticism, the disinterested search for truth, the separation of church and state, the rule of law, equality before the law, freedom of conscience, thought, and expression, human rights, and liberal democracy- quite an achievement, surely, for any civilization- - remain the best, and perhaps the only, means for all people, no matter of what race or creed, to reach their full potential and live in freedom.”

PeopleHumansMeanIdeasSelfMatterStatesLawChurchRaceDemocracyRightsExpressionCivilizationAchievementConscienceCriticismWestHuman RightsSeparationCreedsChurch And StateGreat IdeaRule Of LawSeparation Of Church And StateRationalismFull PotentialSearch For TruthDisinterestedSelf CriticismLiberal Democracy
Book:Virgins? What Virgins?: And Other Essays
Create image

“The same failure of liberalism is evident in Western Europe, where the dogma of multiculturalism has left a secular Europe very slow to address the looming problem of religious extremism among its immigrants. The people who speak most sensibly about the threat that Islam poses to Europe are actually fascists. To say that this does not bode well for liberalism is an understatement: It does not bode well for the future of civilization.”

PeopleWellsDoeProblemLeftSpeakReligiousCivilizationEuropeThreatIslamWesternLiberalismAddressesImmigrantsDogmaSecularEvidentMulticulturalismExtremismFascistsReligious ExtremismLoomingUnderstatementWestern Europe
Author:Sam Harris
Create image

“A great purposelessness has descended upon modern civilizations. People at large have lost any sense of the meaning and purpose of life; and without an understanding of our own purpose, there can be no true commitment. Whether that commitment is to marriage, family, study, work, God, relationships, or the simple resolutions of our lives, it will be almost impossible to fulfill without a clear and practical understanding of our purpose. Commitment and purpose go hand in hand.”

PeopleHandsPurposeLostUnderstandingSimpleStudyClearOur LivesImpossibleModernCivilizationCommitmentCatholicPracticalsResolutionPurpose Of LifeHand In HandModern CivilizationPurposelessness
Book:The Rhythm of Life: Living Everyday With Passion and Purpose
Create image

“In place of the old beliefs of a civilization based on godliness, judgment and historical loyalty, young people are given the new beliefs of a society based on equality and inclusion, and are told that the judgment of other lifestyles is a crime. ... The "non-judgmental" attitude towards other cultures goes hand-in-hand with a fierce denunciation of the culture that might have been one's own”

PeopleHas BeensHandsMightYoungCultureBeliefGivenAttitudeCrimeCivilizationJudgmentHistoricalLoyaltyLifestyleInclusionFierceMight Have BeenHand In HandGodlinessJudgmentalMental AttitudeOther CulturesJudgment Of OthersNon Judgmental
Author:Roger Scruton
Create image

“We now face the prospect of a kind of global civil war between those who refuse to consider the consequences of civilization's relentless advance and those who refuse to be silent partners in the destruction. More and more people of conscience are joining the effort to resist, but the time has come to make this struggle the central organizing principle of world civilizations.”

PeopleWorldKindWarFacesEffortPrinciplesStruggleCivilizationConscienceConsequenceDestructionSilentRefusePartnersCivil WarRelentlessJoining
Book:Earth in the Balance: Forging a New Common Purpose
Create image