We should distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
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
Modern man is just ancient man… with way better electronics.
—Unknown
A civilized society is one which tolerates eccentricity to the point of doubtful sanity.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
The human race has improved everything, but the human race.
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–65) American Diplomat, Politician, Orator
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
Civilizations die from philosophical calm, irony, and the sense of fair play quite as surely as they die of debauchery.
—Joseph Wood Krutch (1893–1970) American Writer, Critic, Naturalist
We pass through this world but once. Few tragedies can be more extensive than the stunting of life, few injustices deeper than the denial of an opportunity to strive or even to hope, by a limit imposed from without, but falsely identified as lying within.
—Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002) American Paleontologist, Science Writer
Civilization can only revive when there shall come into being in a number of individuals a new tone of mind independent of the one prevalent among the crowd and in opposition to it, a tone of mind which will gradually win influence over the collective one, and in the end determine its character. It is only an ethical movement which can rescue us from the slough of barbarism, and the ethical comes into existence only in individuals.
—Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French Theologian, Philosopher, Musician, Physician
The slum is the measure of civilization.
—Jacob Riis (1849–1914) Danish-American Reformer, Journalist, Photographer
One of the indictments of civilizations is that happiness and intelligence are so rarely found in the same person.
—William Feather (1889–1981) American Publisher, Author
Without winners, there wouldn’t even be any civilization.
—Woody Hayes (1913–87) American Football Coach, Author
Every advance in civilization has been denounced as unnatural while it was recent.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
As long as art is the beauty parlor of civilization, neither art nor civilization is secure.
—John Dewey (1859–1952) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Educator
The central question is whether the wonderfully diverse and gifted assemblage of human beings on this earth really knows how to run a civilization.
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–65) American Diplomat, Politician, Orator
It is impossible to overlook the extent to which civilization is built upon a renunciation of instinct.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
It is the triumph of civilization that at last communities have obtained such a mastery over natural laws that they drive and control them. The winds, the water, electricity, all aliens that in their wild form were dangerous, are now controlled by human will, and are made useful servants.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
Civilization… wrecks the planet from seafloor to stratosphere.
—Richard Bach (b.1936) American Writer, Aviator
A civilization in which there is not a continuous controversy about important issues is on the way to totalitarianism and death.
—Robert Maynard Hutchins (1899–1977) American Educational Philosopher
The ease, the luxury, and the abundance of the highest state of civilization, are as productive of selfishness as the difficulties, the privations, and the sterilities of the lowest.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
People sometimes tell me that they prefer barbarism to civilization. I doubt if they have given it a long enough trial. Like the people of Alexandria, they are bored by civilization; but all the evidence suggests that the boredom of barbarism is infinitely greater.
—Kenneth Clark (1903–83) British Art Historian
To accept civilization as it is practically means accepting decay.
—George Orwell (1903–50) English Novelist, Journalist
A civilization is a heritage of beliefs, customs, and knowledge slowly accumulated in the course of centuries, elements difficult at times to justify by logic, but justifying themselves as paths when they lead somewhere, since they open up for man his inner distance.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900–44) French Novelist, Aviator
The first human being who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
Civilization is the order and freedom promoting cultural activity.
—William C. Durant (1861–1947) American Industrialist
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 Leader, Humanitarian, Writer
Civilization is being poisoned by its own waste products.
—William Motter Inge (1913–73) American Playwright, Novelist
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
Our concern is not how to worship in the catacombs but how to remain human in the skyscrapers.
—Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–72) American Jewish Rabbi
The test of civilization is the estimate of woman.
—George William Curtis (1824–92) American Writer, Editor, Orator
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