To seek, beneath the universal strife, the hidden harmony of things.
—William C. Durant
Topics: Harmony
In my youth I stressed freedom, and in my old age I stress order. I have made the great discovery that liberty is a product of order.
—William C. Durant
Topics: Liberty, Forgiveness
The trouble with most people is that they think with their hopes or fears or wishes, rather than their minds.
—William C. Durant
Topics: Acceptance, The Mind, Thinking, Hope
What better way is there no make men love one another than to make men understand one another. True charity comes only with clarity-just as mercy is but justice that understands. Surely the root of all evil is the inability to see clearly that which is.
—William C. Durant
Topics: Understanding
Never put a man in the wrong. He will hold it against you forever.
—William C. Durant
The family is the nucleus of civilization.
—William C. Durant
Topics: Family
To say nothing, especially when speaking, is half the art of diplomacy.
—William C. Durant
Topics: Diplomacy
The crossroads of trade are the meeting place of ideas, the attrition ground of rival customs and beliefs; diversities beget conflict, comparison, thought; superstitions cancel one another, and reason begins.
—William C. Durant
Topics: Business
To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves.
—William C. Durant
Topics: Integrity
Education is the transmission of civilization.
—William C. Durant
Topics: Education, Civilization
As soon as liberty is complete it dies in anarchy.
—William C. Durant
The ego is willing but the machine cannot go on. It’s the last thing a man will admit, that his mind ages.
—William C. Durant
One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say.
—William C. Durant
Topics: History, Silence
Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you’re going to do now and do it. Today is your lucky day.
—William C. Durant
Topics: Failures, The Present, Mistakes
When liberty destroys order, the hunger for order will destroy liberty.
—William C. Durant
Topics: Order
Civilization is the order and freedom promoting cultural activity.
—William C. Durant
Topics: Civilization
The health of nations is more important than the wealth of nations.
—William C. Durant
Topics: Health
Sixty years ago I knew everything; now I know nothing; education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.
—William C. Durant
Topics: Ignorance, Progress, Education, Wisdom, Discover
Ultimately, our troubles are due to dogma and deduction; we find no new truth because we take some venerable but questionable proposition as the indubitable starting point, and never think of putting this assumption itself to a test of observation or experiment.
—William C. Durant
Topics: Truth
The love we have in our youth is superficial compared to the love that an old man has for his old wife.
—William C. Durant
Topics: Youth
Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos.
—William C. Durant
Topics: Civilization
The political machine triumphs because it is a united minority acting against a divided majority.
—William C. Durant
Topics: Politics
Knowledge is the eye of desire and can become the pilot of the soul.
—William C. Durant
Topics: Desire, Knowledge
Science gives us knowledge, but only philosophy can give us wisdom.
—William C. Durant
Topics: Wisdom
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