Increased means and increased leisure are the two civilizers of man.
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–81) British Head of State
Nations, like individuals, live or die, but civilization cannot perish.
—Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–72) Italian Patriot, Political Leader
It may indeed prove to be far the most difficult and not the least important task for human reason rationally to comprehend its own limitations. It is essential for the growth of reason that as individuals we should bow to forces and obey principles which we cannot hope fully to understand, yet on which the advance and even the preservation of civilization depends. Historically this has been achieved by the influence of the various religious creeds and by traditions and superstitions which made man submit to those forces by an appeal to his emotions rather than to his reason. The most dangerous stage in the growth of civilization may well be that in which man has come to regard all these beliefs as superstitions and refuses to accept or to submit to anything which he does not rationally understand. The rationalist whose reason is not sufficient to teach him those limitations of the powers of conscious reason, and who despises all the institutions and customs which have not been consciously designed, would thus become the destroyer of the civilization built upon them. This may well prove a hurdle which man will repeatedly reach, only to be thrown back into barbarism.
—Friedrich Hayek (1899–1992) British Economist, Social Philosopher
The vigour of civilised societies is preserved by the widespread sense that high aims are worth while. Vigorous societies harbour a certain extravagance of objectives, so that men wander beyond the safe provision of personal gratifications. All strong interests easily become impersonal, the love of a good job well done. There is a sense of harmony about such an accomplishment, the Peace brought by something worth while. Such personal gratification arises from aim beyond personality.
—Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English Mathematician, Philosopher
It is the habitual carriage of the umbrella that is the stamp of Respectability. Robinson Crusoe was rather a moralist than a pietist, and his leaf-umbrella is as fine an example of the civilised mind striving to express itself under adverse circumstances as we have ever met with.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
A civilized society is one which tolerates eccentricity to the point of doubtful sanity.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
A civilized man is one who will give a serious answer to a serious question. Civilization itself is a certain sane balance of values.
—Ezra Pound (1885-1972) American Poet, Translator, Critic
Civilization is what makes you sick.
—Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) French Post-Impressionist Painter
The most civilized people are as near to barbarism, as the most polished steel is to rust.—Nations, like metals, have only a superficial brilliancy.
—Antoine de Rivarol (1753–1801) French Writer, Epigrammatist
Society is a made-up formula of what we are supposed to be, kept alive by those who believe in it…. I laugh in the ugly face of society, with all its fabricated dimensions.
—Unknown
Is man’s civilization only a wrappage, through which the savage nature of him can still burst, infernal as ever?
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
The gross heathenism of civilization has generally destroyed nature, and poetry, and all that is spiritual.
—John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American Naturalist
Civilization is nothing more than the effort to reduce the use of force to the last resort.
—Jose Ortega y. Gasset (1883–1955) Spanish Critic, Journalist, Philosopher
It must be admitted that there is a degree of instability which is inconsistent with civilization. But, on the whole, the great ages have been unstable ages.
—Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English Mathematician, Philosopher
I’ve made an odd discovery. Every time I talk to a savant I feel quite sure that happiness is no longer a possibility. Yet when I talk with my gardener, I’m convinced of the opposite.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
We used to build civilizations. Now we build shopping malls.
—Bill Bryson (1951–95) American Humorist, Author, Educator
Every new stroke of civilization has cost the lives of countless brave men, who have fallen defeated by the “dragon,” in their efforts to win the apples of the Hesperides, or the fleece of gold. Fallen in their efforts to overcome the old, half sordid savagery of the lower stages of creation, and win the next stage.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Literary Critic
We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on.
—Richard Feynman (1918–88) American Physicist
Is civilization only a higher form of idolatry, that man should bow down to a flesh-brush, to flannels, to baths, diet, exercise, and air?
—Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910) American Christian Science Religious Leader, Humanitarian, Writer
If Germany, thanks to Hitler and his successors, were to enslave the European nations and destroy most of the treasures of their past, future historians would certainly pronounce that she had civilized Europe.
—Simone Weil (1909–1943) French Philosopher, Political Activist
Civilization is not by any means an easy thing to attain to. There are only two ways by which man can reach it. One is by being cultured, the other by being corrupt.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Civilization is a movement and not a condition, a voyage and not a harbor.
—Arnold J. Toynbee (1889–1975) British Historian
Civilization is the making of civil persons.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
After man there would be the mighty beetle civilisation, the bodies of whose members the cream of the Great Race would seize when the monstrous doom overtook the elder world. Later, as the earth’s span closed, the transferred minds would again migrate through time and space—to another stopping place in the bodies of the bulbous vegetable entities of Mercury. But there would be races after them, clinging pathetically to the cold planet and burrowing to its horror-filled core, before the utter end.
—H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) American Science-fiction Writer
Civilization must be destroyed. The hairy saints of the North have earned this crumb by their complaints.
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) American Poet
What men call civilization is the condition of present customs; what they call barbarism, the condition of past ones.
—Anatole France (1844–1924) French Novelist
A civilization is built on what is required of men, not on that which is provided for them.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900–44) French Novelist, Aviator
We are no longer in a state of growth; we are in a state of excess. We are living in a society of excrescence. The boil is growing out of control, recklessly at cross purposes with itself, its impacts multiplying as the causes disintegrate.
—Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French Sociologist, Philosopher
More and more I come to value charity and love of one’s fellow being above everything else… All our lauded technological progress—our very civilization—is like the axe in the hand of the pathological criminal.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist