War is one of the constants of history, and it has not diminished with civilization or democracy. - Will Durant
Most of us spend too much time on the last twenty-four hours and too little on the last six thousand years. - Will Durant
Bankers know that history is inflationary and that money is the last thing a wise man will hoard. - Will Durant
One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say. - Will Durant
In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility - I welcome it. - John F. Kennedy
History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside. - John F. Kennedy
I think it's important to understand that in the big historical context of things, there has been land degradation from civilisation since the beginning of history. I mean, the Rajputana desert in India is a manmade desert caused by overgrazing. - Joel Salatin
Perhaps it is one secret of their power that, having studied the fluctuations of prices, the [bankers] know that history is inflationary. - Will Durant
If all human beings understood history, they might cease making the same stupid mistakes over and over. - Isaac Asimov
I discovered, to my amazement, that all through history there had been resistance ... and bitter, exaggerated, last-stitch resistance ... to every significant technological change that had taken place on earth. Usually the resistance came from those groups who stood to lose influence, status, money...as a result of the change. Although they never advanced this as their reason for resisting it. It was always the good of humanity that rested upon their hearts. - Isaac Asimov
Civilization is social order promoting cultural creation. Four elements constitute it: economic provision, political organization, moral tradition, and the pursuit of knowledge and the arts. It begins where chaos and insecurity end. For when fear is overcome, curiosity and constructiveness are free, and man passes by natural impulse towards the understanding and embellishment of life. - Will Durant
Underneath all civilization, ancient or modern, moved and still moves a sea of magic, superstition, and sorcery. Perhaps they will remain when the works of our reason have passed away. - Will Durant
A history of civilization shares the presumptuousness of every philosophical enterprise: it offers the ridiculous spectacle of a fragment expounding the whole. Like philosophy, such a venture has no rational excuse, and is at best but a brave stupidity; but let us hope that, like philosophy, it will always lure some rash spirits into its fatal depths. - Will Durant
The concentration of wealth is a natural result of this concentration of ability, and regularly recurs in history. The rate of concentration varies (other factors being equal) with the economic freedom permitted by morals and laws. - Will Durant
History seldom destroys that which does not deserve to die; and the burning of the tares makes for the next sowing a richer soil. - Will Durant
History is so indifferently rich, that a case for almost any conclusion from it can be made by a selection of instances. - Will Durant
History repeats itself in the large because human nature changes with geological leisureliness. - Will Durant
The South creates the civilizations, the North conquers them, ruins them, borrows from them, spreads them: this is one summary of history. - Will Durant
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. - Will Durant
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