If there hadn't been women we'd still be squatting in a cave eating raw meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our girlfriends.
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.
You ask what my conclusions are, rereading my journals and looking back on World War II from the vantage point of quarter century in time? We won the war in a military sense; but in a broader sense, it seems to me we lost it, for our Western civilization is less respected and secure than it was before.
The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.
I have increasingly, over the years, felt that religion today does our civilization more harm than good.
The world generally speaking is now drifting on a more and more devastating course towards the absurd target of extermination - or rather, to be more exact - of the northern hemisphere's towns, fields, and the people who have developed our civilization.
For me, politeness is a sine qua non of civilization.
Our civilization is still in a middle stage, scarcely beast, in that it is no longer wholly guided by instinct; scarcely human, in that it is not yet wholly guided by reason.
The only hope is that our civilization will collapse at a certain point, as always happens in history. Then, out of barbarity, a renaissance.
People who cannot recognize a palpable absurdity are very much in the way of civilization.
Surely the only sound foundation for a civilization is a sound state of mind.
A modern civilization is only possible when it is accepted that singular beings exist and express themselves freely.
We will create a civilization of the Mind in Cyberspace. May it be more humane and fair than the world your governments have made before.
Civilization grew in the beginning from the minute that we had communication - particularly communication by sea that enabled people to get inspiration and ideas from each other and to exchange basic raw materials.
If history could teach us anything, it would be that private property is inextricably linked with civilization.
The market is not an invention of capitalism. It has existed for centuries. It is an invention of civilization.
The mother art is architecture. Without an architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization.
What is the thread of western civilization that distinguished its course in history? It has to do with the preoccupation of western man with his outward command and his sense of superiority.
The contribution of Islam to history and modern civilization is the product of the efforts of peoples of many races and tongues which came to accept its way of life.
From first to last the civilization of America has been bound up with its physical environment.
There was an age, however, when the transition from savagery to civilization, with all its impressive outward manifestations in art and architecture, took place for the first time.
The high point of civilization is that you can hate me and I can hate you but we develop an etiquette that allows us to deal with each other because if we acted solely upon our impulse we'd probably go to war.
Colonialism subdues in many dulcet guises. It conquered under the pretext of spreading Christianity, civilization, law and order, to make the world safe for democracy.
The world runs on individuals pursuing their self interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn't construct his theory under order from a, from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn't revolutionize the automobile industry that way.
What should we suppose must naturally be the consequence of our carrying on a slave trade with Africa? With a country, vast in its extent, not utterly barbarous, but civilized in a very small degree? Does any one suppose a slave trade would help their civilization?
We have always been taught that navigation is the result of civilization, but modern archeology has demonstrated very clearly that this is not so.
Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.
I am not a Catholic; but I consider the Christian idea, which has its roots in Greek thought and in the course of the centuries has nourished all of our European civilization, as something that one cannot renounce without becoming degraded.
All of the philosophers I studied were white (with a few Eastern exceptions), and, for that matter, they were all male. Africa, the cradle of civilization, seemed to have no footing in the highest form of human thought.
Civilization is hideously fragile and there's not much between us and the horrors underneath, just about a coat of varnish.
When the faith dies, the culture it produced begins to die, then the civilization goes, and, then, the population.
The city is the nerve center of our civilization. It is also the storm center.
Our civilization, such as it is, was shaped by religion, and the men who aspire to public office anyplace in the free world must make obeisance to God or risk immediate opprobrium.
To one who believes that really good industrial conditions are the hope for a machine civilization, nothing is more heartening than to watch conference methods and education replacing police methods.
We believe that civilization has been created under the pressure of the exigencies of life at the cost of satisfaction of the instincts.
Ultimately, there is no compromise. Westerners will either retain their civilization, including the right to insult and blaspheme, or not.
