Quotessence
Home / Topics / Civilization Quotes

Civilization Quotes

Browse 3690 quotes about Civilization.

Related topics

MenIfsWorldHumansPeopleWesternThinkingWestern CivilizationWayCultureHas BeensWarKnowsMayArtYearsModernNationsMeanFirstsShouldIndividualCivilizedEndsProgressDoeStatesCountryBelieveWholeLongNeedsAmericaCenturyFactsRaceAgeForceSocialWantEarthHuman CivilizationIdeasModern CivilizationTwoWellsLawFormMadeMankindMindGivingHumanityChildrenSeemsStillsValuesChristianUseLastsPastGovernmentImportantOrderRealSelfAncientPlanetsBarbarismLibertyCitiesScienceTechnologyDependsFoundKindTogetherCoursesLiteratureMoralProblemProcessEconomicNaturalPoliticalReasonSpiritualBookLooksMatterPrinciplesWould BeDiesInstitutionsLittlesSavagesHandsMaterialsCertainCharactermore

Civilization Quotes

“The saying of John Peale Bishop is worth recalling, that the South excelled in two things which the French deem essential to civilization: a code of manners and a native cuisine. Both are apt to suffer when life is regarded as a means to something else. Efficiency and charm are mortal enemies, and Southern charm indubitably derives from a carelessness about the efficient aspects of life.”

MeanTwoLife IsSufferingEnemyCivilizationEssentialsAspectSouthMortalsMannersCodeCharmTwo ThingsNativeSouthernEfficientEfficiencyBishopsCuisineAspects Of LifeCarelessnessMortal Enemies
Author:Richard M. Weaver
Create image

“Progress has brought us both unbounded opportunities and unbridled difficulties. Thus, the measure of our civilization will not be that we have done much, but what we have done with that much. I believe that the next half century will determine if we will advance the cause of Christian civilization or revert to the horrors of brutal paganism. The thought of modern industry in the hands of Christian charity is a dream worth dreaming. The thought of industry in the hands of paganism is a nightmare beyond imagining. The choice between the two is upon us.”

IfsBelieveTwoDoneDreamHandsChristianReligionChoicesNextOpportunityI BelieveCausesHalfProgressModernCenturyIndustryCivilizationHorrorDifficultyCharityDetermineVotingNightmareBrutalPaganism
Author:Theodore Roosevelt
Create image

“Many people who are going through the early stages of the awakening process are no longer certain what their outer purpose is. What drives the world no longer drives them. Seeing the madness of our civilization so clearly, they feel somewhat alienated from the culture around them. Some feel that they inhabit a no-man's-land between two worlds. They are no longer run by the ego, yet the arising awareness has not yet become fully integrated into their lives. Inner and outer purpose have not merged.”

PeopleMenWorldFeelsTwoRunningPurposeCertainCultureProcessSeeingLandStageAwarenessCivilizationEgoMadnessAwakeningIntegratedTwo Worlds
Book:A New Earth (Oprah #61): Awakening to Your Life's Purpose
Create image

“The human species does not necessarily move in stages from progress to progress ... history and civilization do not advance in tandem. From the stagnation of Medieval Europe to the decline and chaos in recent times on the mainland of Asia and to the catastrophes of two world wars in the twentieth century, the methods of killing people became increasingly sophisticated. Scientific and technological progress certainly does not imply that humankind as a result becomes more civilized.”

PeopleWorldHumansDoeTwoWarMovingResultsProgressCenturyStageCivilizationEuropeMethodSpeciesChaosKillingWar Of The WorldsCivilizedDeclineHumankindWorld War ISophisticatedTechnologicalCatastropheAsiaTwentieth CenturyMedievalStagnationHuman SpeciesTwo WorldsTechnological ProgressTandemMedieval Europe
Author:Gao Xingjian
Create image

“Civilization, or that which is so called, has operated two ways to make one part of society more affluent and the other part more wretched than would have been the lot of either in a natural state.”

WayHas BeensTwoStatesNaturalCivilizationWretchedTwo WaysAffluent
Book:Agrarian Justice, opposed to Agrarian Law, and Agrarian Monopoly. Being a plan for ameliorating the condition of man, by creating in every nation a National Fund
Create image

“Ultimate freedom. An extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road. Escaped from Atlanta. Thou shalt not return, 'cause “the West is the best.” And now after two rambling years comes the final and greatest adventure, the climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual revolution. Ten days and nights of freight trains and hitchhiking bring him to the great white North. No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild.”

YearsTwoHomeSpiritualNightLostCausesWhiteWalksLandAdventureRevolutionReturnCivilizationBattleTenUltimateTrainWestFinalsAestheticDay And NightExtremistAtlantaHitchhikingRamblingUltimate FreedomGreatest Adventure
Author:Christopher McCandless
Create image

“Think of our DNA. In the last million years, our DNA hasn't changed at all. It's really much the same as it was in the jungle, a million, two millions years ago. But in the last 200 years, our destructive capacities have increased many, many millions of times over. Why don't we see intelligent signals from outer space? Because in all likelihood, once the civilization reaches the point our civilization has reached, it destroys itself.”

ThinkingYearsTwoLastsSpaceMillionsChangedCivilizationCapacityYears AgoIntelligentDestructiveSignalsDnaJungleOuter SpaceLikelihood
Author:Stephen Hawking
Create image

“Madness in Civilization is a brilliant, provocative, and hugely entertaining history of the treatment and mistreatment of the mentally ill. Packed with bizarre details and disturbing facts, Andrew Scull's book offers fresh and compelling insights on the way medicine's inability to solve the mystery of madness has both haunted and shaped two thousand years of culture. Required reading for anyone who has ever gone to a shrink!”

WayYearsTwoBookFactsCultureReadingGoneMysteryCivilizationOffersThousandMadnessMedicineIllDetailsInsightSolveBrilliantTreatmentEntertainingCompellingThousand YearsBizarreInabilityShrinksDisturbingProvocativeAndrewMentally IllMistreatment
Author:Dirk Wittenborn
Create image

“There are two parts to the human dilemma. One is the belief that the end justifies the means. That push-button philosophy, that deliberate deafness to suffering, has become the monster in the war machine. The other is the betrayal of the human spirit: the assertion of dogma that closes the mind, and turns a nation, a civilization, into a regiment of ghosts--obedient ghosts or tortured ghosts.”

MindHumansMeanTwoWarEndsPhilosophySpiritSufferingTurnsBeliefNationsCivilizationMachinesBetrayalMonstersGhostJustifyDogmaButtonsHuman SpiritDeliberateDilemmaAssertionObedientDeafnessEnds Justify The Means
Book:The Ascent of Man
Create image

“The intimate coupling of two men or two women is not marriage. It is a pale and misshapen counterfeit that will only serve to empty marriage of its meaning and destroy the institution that is the keystone in the arch of civilization... Marriage is the sine qua non for healthy children and a stable society. It is 'fundamental to the very existence and survival of the race.'”

MenChildrenTwoRaceExistenceCivilizationHealthySurvivalEmptyInstitutionsFundamentalsIntimateStablePaleArchesCounterfeitKeystonesCouplingHealthy Children
Author:D. James Kennedy
Create image

“How can one explain all the time and thought that goes into raising a child, all the opportunities for mistakes, all the chances to recover and try again? How does one break the news that nothing permanent can be formed in an instant--children are not weaned, potty trained, taught manners, introduced to civilization in one or two tries--as everyone imagined.”

TryingChildrenDoeTwoOpportunityChanceMistakeBreakTaughtCivilizationNewsMannersPermanentInstantRaising ChildrenTry AgainPotty
Author:Mary Blakely
Create image

“Each civilization may choose one of two roads to travel, that is, either fret itself to death, or pet itself to death. And in the course of doing one or the other, it eats its way into the Universe, turning cinders and flinders of stars into toilet seats, pegs, gears, cigarette holders and pillowcases, and it does this because, unable to fathom the Universe, it seeks to change that Fathomlessness into Something Fathomable.”

WayMayDoeTwoUniverseCoursesStarsCivilizationSeatsPetCigaretteToiletsGearsFathomPegTwo RoadsToilet SeatPillowcases
Author:Stanislaw Lem
Create image

“But two things are wanting in American civilization - a keener and deeper, broader and tenderer sense of justice - a sense of humanity, which shall crystallize into the life of a nation the sentiment that justice, simple justice, is the right, not simply of the strong and powerful, but of the weakest and feeblest of all God's children.”

ChildrenTwoHumanityStrongNationsJusticeSimplePowerfulCivilizationDeeperTwo ThingsSentiments
Book:A Brighter Coming Day: A Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Reader
Create image

“The religion that has transformed Western civilization for two millennia is a blank slate for liberals. Their closest reference point is conservative Christians, meaning people you're not supposed to hire. And these are the people who carp about George Bush's alleged lack of intellectual curiosity.”

PeopleTwoChristianCivilizationIntellectualWesternCuriosityConservativeTransformedClosestBlankWestern CivilizationSlateIntellectual CuriosityBlank SlatesCarp
Author:Ann Coulter
Create image

“It's only been in the past two generations that we truly understood the impact our civilization has had on the natural world. To our credit as a species, we have turned this obscure scientific fact about carbon cycles into one of the most important political issues of the 21st century.”

WorldTwoImportantFactsPastPoliticalNaturalIssuesGenerationsCenturyCivilizationUnderstoodImpactSpeciesCreditCyclesCarbon21st CenturyObscureNatural WorldScientific FactsPolitical IssuesCarbon Cycle
Author:Annalee Newitz
Create image

“Baroque civilization believed in two truths, which for a post-18th-century mindset are exclusive truths - we have to eliminate one to believe the other. They believed in the rational exploration of the universe, and they also believed that there was a hidden spiritual truth. Baroque thinkers were able to live the two at the same time. In any case, for me, it's necessary to live that way also.”

WayBelieveTwoAbleSpiritualUniverseCasesCenturyCivilizationMindsetRationalPostsExplorationThinkerExclusive18th CenturyBaroqueSpiritual Truth
Author:Eugene Green
Create image

“The Christian god can easily be pictured as virtually the same god as the many ancient gods of past civilizations. The Christian god is a three headed monster cruel vengeful and capricious. If one wishes to know more of this raging three headed beast like god one only needs to look at the caliber of people who say they serve him. They are always of two classes fools and hypocrites.”

PeopleIfsKnowsNeedsLooksTwoChristianPastReligionThreeWishClassAtheismFoolCivilizationAncientAtheistRageMonstersBeastHypocriteSeparation Of Church And StateSeparation Between Church And StateCapriciousAnti ReligiousChristian AtheistCaliberVengefulAnti ChristianChristian GodAncient Gods
Author:Thomas Jefferson
Create image

“In many of the more relaxed civilizations on the Outer Eastern Rim of the Galaxy, the Hitch-Hiker's Guide has already supplanted the great Encyclopaedia Galactica as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom, for though it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects. First, it is slightly cheaper; and secondly it has the words DON'T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover.”

FirstsTwoImportantCivilizationStandardsLettersGuidesScoreFriendlyPanicEasternGalaxyRelaxedCheaperRimsKnowledge And WisdomOmissionPedestriansHitchhikers Guide To The GalaxyHitchhikers GuideHikerH2g2
Book:The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Create image

“If you want to understand a society, take a good look at the drugs it uses. And what can this tell you about American culture? Well, look at the drugs we use. Except for pharmaceutical poison, there are essentially only two drugs that Western civilization tolerates: Caffeine from Monday to Friday to energize you enough to make you a productive member of society, and alcohol from Friday to Monday to keep you too stupid to figure out the prison that you are living in.”

IfsWantWellsLooksTwoEnoughUseCultureStupidFiguresCivilizationDrugMembersPrisonWesternAlcoholPoisonProductiveTolerateLooking GoodMondayFridayAmerican CultureWestern CivilizationCaffeinePharmaceutical
Author:Bill Hicks
Create image

“In fourteen hundred ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue and discovered America. Now, some have argued Columbus actually discovered the West Indies, or that Norsemen had discovered America centuries earlier, or that you really can't get credit for discovering a land already populated by indigenous people with a developed civilization. Those people are communists. Columbus discovered America.”

PeopleTwoAmericaLandCenturyCivilizationOceanHundredBlueWestCreditCommunistDiscoveringNinetyIndigenousFourteenColumbusIndigenous PeopleWest Indies
Author:Jon Stewart
Create image

“. . .in August in Mississippi there’s a few days somewhere about the middle of the month when suddenly there’s a foretaste of fall, it’s cool, there’s a lambence, a soft, a luminous quality to the light, as though it came not from just today but from back in the old classic times. It might have fauns and satyrs and the gods and---from Greece, from Olympus in it somewhere. It lasts just for a day or two, then it’s gone. . .the title reminded me of that time, of a luminosity older than our Christian civilization.”

TwoLightMightTodayChristianLastsFallQualityGoneMiddleMonthsCivilizationTitlesClassicGreeceAugustMississippiLuminousOlympusSatyrsFauns
Author:William Faulkner
Create image

“There is little chance that aliens from two societies anywhere in the Galaxy will be culturally close enough to really 'get along.' This is something to ponder as you watch the famous cantina scene in Star Wars. ... Does this make sense, given the overwhelmingly likely situation that galactic civilizations differ in their level of evolutionary development by thousands or millions of years? Would you share drinks with a trilobite, an ourang-outang, or a saber-toothed tiger? Or would you just arrange to have a few specimens stuffed and carted off to the local museum?”

YearsLittlesDoeTwoWarEnoughScienceGivenStarsChanceLevelsSituationWatchesMillionsShareDevelopmentEvolutionDrinkCivilizationSceneLocalsAliensMake SenseMuseumsTigersGalaxyPondering
Author:Seth Shostak
Create image

“Without undervaluing any other human agency, it may be safely affirmed that the Common School, improved and energized, as it can easily be, may become the most effective and benignant of all the forces of civilization. Two reasons sustain this position. In the first place, there is a universality in its operation, which can be affirmed of no other institution whatever... And, in the second place, the materials upon which it operates are so pliant and ductile as to be susceptible of assuming a greater variety of forms than any other earthly work of the Creator.”

FirstsHumansMayTwoReasonSchoolFormForceCommonGreaterPositionMaterialsCivilizationInstitutionsAssumingCreatorVarietyOperationsAgencySusceptibleUniversalitySecond Place
Author:Horace Mann
Create image

“Civilization has ceased to be that delicate flower which was preserved and painstakingly cultivated in one or two sheltered areas of a soil rich in wild species ... Mankind has opted for monoculture; it is in the process of creating a mass civilization, as beetroot is grown in the mass. Henceforth, man's daily bill of fare will consist only of this one item.”

MenTwoProcessRichMankindFlowerCivilizationCreatingMassAreasBillsSpeciesComplexitySoilDelicateItemsBiodiversityMonocultureDelicate Flower
Book:Tristes Tropiques
Create image