Will Durant Quotes - Page 2

Civilization is not inherited; it has to be learned and earned by each generation anew; if the transmission should be interrupted for one century, civilization would die, and we should be savages again.

War is one of the constants of history, and it has not diminished with civilization or democracy.

Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos.

Philosophy begins when one learns to doubt -- particularly to doubt one's cherished beliefs, one's dogmas and one's axioms.

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.

The soul of a civilization is its religion, and it dies with its faith.

Inquiry is fatal to certainty.

Those who have suffered much become very bitter or very gentle.

Historically the belief in heaven and the belief in utopia are like compensatory buckets in a well: when one goes down the other comes up. When the classic religions decayed, communistic agitation rose in Athens (430 B.C.), and revolution began in Rome (133 B.C.); when these movements failed, resurrection faiths succeeded, culminating in Christianity; when, in our eighteenth century, Christian belief weakened, communism reappeared. In this perspective the future of religion is secure.

Education is the transmission of civilization.

Liberty is a product of order.

Truth will not make us rich, but it will make us free.

Bankers know that history is inflationary and that money is the last thing a wise man will hoard

Freedom and equality are naturan born enemies.

Can a civilization hold together if man abandons his faith in God?

Rome remained great as long as she had enemies who forced her to unity, vision, and heroism. When she had overcome them all she flourished for a moment and then began to die.

The time when you need to do something is when no one else is willing to do it, when people are saying it can't be done.

A civilization is born Stoic and dies Epicurean.

It came to me that reform should begin at home, and since that day I have not had time to remake the world.

Communism is the opiate of the people.

Tolerance grows only when faith loses certainty; certainty is murderous.

The future never just happened. It was created.

Tired mothers find that spanking takes less time than reasoning and penetrates sooner to the seat of the memory.

Love one another. My final lesson of history is the same as that of Jesus. You may think that's a lot of lollipop but just try it. Love is the most practical thing in the world. If you take an attitude of love toward everybody you meet, you'll eventually get along.

When liberty becomes license, dictatorship is near.