civilization quotes

The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.

The best security for civilization is the dwelling, and upon properly appointed and becoming dwellings depends, more than anything else, the improvement of mankind.

I’ve been waiting over 40 years to come to Cyprus, and it has not disappointed – the birthplace of Aphrodite, the Crossroads of Civilization, and, I might add, a genuine strategic partner to the United States of America.

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.

We’ve gotta become the Martians. I’m a Martian – I tell you to become Martians. And we’ve gotta go to Mars and civilize Mars and build a whole civilization on Mars and then move out, 300 years from now into the universe. And when we do that, we have a chance of living forever.

No people is wholly civilized where a distinction is drawn between stealing an office and stealing a purse.

Iraq is no diversion. It is a place where civilization is taking a decisive stand against chaos and terror, we must not waver.

If the tongue had not been framed for articulation, man would still be a beast in the forest.

To walk through the ruined cities of Germany is to feel an actual doubt about the continuity of civilization.

A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.

Increased means and increased leisure are the two civilizers of man.

Each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late.

I think really, China, Chinese, I think they really have a long history of civilization, rich culture.

I have thought a sufficient measure of civilization is the influence of good women.

The diversity of India, of our civilization, is actually a thing of beauty, which is something we are extremely proud of.

At first when I heard about climate change, I was a climate denier. I didn’t think it was happening. Because if there really was an existential crisis like that, that would threaten our civilisation, we wouldn’t be focusing on anything else. That would be our first priority. So I didn’t understand how that added up.

Mankind is not likely to salvage civilization unless he can evolve a system of good and evil which is independent of heaven and hell.

If the battle for civilization comes down to the wimps versus the barbarians, the barbarians are going to win.

Unlike Europe, China can’t be intimidated. Europe backs down if the United States looks at it the wrong way. But China, they’ve been there for 3,000 years and are paying no attention to the barbarians and don’t see any need to.

We’ve persevered because of a belief we share with the Iraqi people – a belief that out of the ashes of war, a new beginning could be born in this cradle of civilization. Through this remarkable chapter in the history of the United States and Iraq, we have met our responsibility. Now, it’s time to turn the page.

Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization.

I think God’s going to come down and pull civilization over for speeding.

This will never be a civilized country until we spend more money for books than we do for chewing gum.

Debt is part of the human condition. Civilization is based on exchanges – on gifts, trades, loans – and the revenges and insults that come when they are not paid back.

Some of our earliest writing, in cuneiform, was about who owes what.

The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet.

Collecting facts is important. Knowledge is important. But if you don’t have an imagination to use the knowledge, civilization is nowhere.

It was the Law of the Sea, they said. Civilization ends at the waterline. Beyond that, we all enter the food chain, and not always right at the top.

We will never have true civilization until we have learned to recognize the rights of others.

All empires come to an end, and the American one is no exception.

The development of civilization and industry in general has always shown itself so active in the destruction of forests that everything that has been done for their conservation and production is completely insignificant in comparison.

The people of Egypt are an intelligent people with a glorious history who left their mark on civilization.

Civilization is the making of civil persons.

If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism.

The gross heathenism of civilization has generally destroyed nature, and poetry, and all that is spiritual.

When humor goes, there goes civilization.

You can’t say civilization don’t advance… in every war they kill you in a new way.

There is precious little in civilization to appeal to a Yeti.

While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them. It has created palaces, but it was not so easy to create noblemen and kings.

It is not possible for civilization to flow backwards while there is youth in the world. Youth may be headstrong, but it will advance it allotted length.

The ultimate tendency of civilization is towards barbarism.

The human animal originally came from out-of-doors. When spring begins to move in his bones, he just must get out again. Moreover, as civilization, cement pavements, office buildings, radios have overwhelmed us, the need for regeneration has increased, and the impulses are even stronger.

As I write, highly civilized human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me.

About the idea of a clash between cultures, between civilisations, I don’t believe in it. It’s something some political leaders tried to use, and that the media tried and are still trying to sell us, in order to simplify the world and their work.

You accept that this civilisation could be abolished and life will begin later on after a few thousand years because that is something that has happened in the history of this planet. When you have peace in yourself and accept, then you are calm enough to do something, but if you are carried by despair there is no hope.

I had faith in Israel before it was established, I have in it now. I believe it has a glorious future before it – not just another sovereign nation, but as an embodiment of the great ideals of our civilization.

If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships – the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace.

Civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities.

I think it quite likely that we are the only civilization within several hundred light years; otherwise we would have heard radio waves.

We’ve arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology.

I do not believe that civilization will be wiped out in a war fought with the atomic bomb. Perhaps two-thirds of the people of the earth will be killed.

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.

God isn’t compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness. You must make your choice. Our civilization has chosen machinery and medicine and happiness.

One civilization after another has been wrecked upon the attempt to secure sufficient leadership from a single group or class.

The spread of civilisation may be likened to a fire; first, a feeble spark, next a flickering flame, then a mighty blaze, ever increasing in speed and power.

In the twenty-first century, the robot will take the place which slave labor occupied in ancient civilization.