I have tried to be impartial, though I know that a man's past always colors his views, and that nothing else is… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
If a man is fortunate he will, before he dies, gather up as much as he can of his civilized heritage and… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
So the story of man runs in a dreary circle, because he is not yet master of the earth that holds him. — Will Durant Copy Share Image
Wherever men do things, other men will arise who will explain to them how things should be done. — Will Durant Copy Share Image
Men decided that it was better to pay taxes than to fight among themselves; better to pay tribute to one magnificent robber… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
Man is an emotional animal, occasionally rational; and through his feelings he can be deceived to his heart's content. — Will Durant Copy Share Image
As knowledge grew, fear decreased; men thought less of worshiping the unknown, and more of overcoming it. — Will Durant Copy Share Image
Human progress having reached a high level through respect for the liberty and dignity of men, it has become desirable to re-affirm… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
Even when repressed, inequality grows; only the man who is below the average in economic ability desires equality; those who are conscious… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
If our economy of freedom fails to distribute wealth as ably as it has created it, the road to dictatorship will be… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
That a few simple men should in one generation have invented so powerful and appealing a personality, so lofty ethic, and so… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
Destroy it. There may be a redistribution of the land, but the natural inequality of men soon re-creates an inequality of possessions… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
An emperor knows how to govern when poets are free to make verses, people to act plays, historians to tell the truth,… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
If I were rich I would have many books, and I would pamper myself with bindings bright to the eye and soft… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
Civilization is social order promoting cultural creation. Four elements constitute it: economic provision, political organization, moral tradition, and the pursuit of knowledge… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
And last are the few whose delight is in meditation and understanding; who yearn not for goods, nor for victory, but for… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
The greatest question of our time is not communism vs. individualism, not Europe vs. America, not even the East vs. the West;… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
History reports that the men who can manage men manage the men who can manage only things, and the men who can… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
I came to think of myself, not as a dance and chaos of molecules, but as a brief and minute portion of that majestic… — Will Durant Copy Share
“This is the tragedy of almost every civilization—that its soul is in its faith, and seldom survives philosophy.” — Will Durant Copy Share
In philosophy, as in politics, the longest distance between two points is a straight line. — Will Durant Copy Share
“Hence the uselessness of logic: no one ever convinced anybody by logic; and even logicians use logic only as a source of income. To… — Will Durant Copy Share
“It is a mistake to think that the past is dead. Nothing that has ever happened is quite without influence at this moment. The… — Will Durant Copy Share
“There is hardly an absurdity of the past that cannot be found flourishing somewhere in the present. Underneath all civilization, ancient or modern, moved… — Will Durant Copy Share
The Islamic conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization… — Will Durant Copy Share
“Intellectualism—the conception of man as above all a thinking animal, consciously adapting means to rationally chosen ends—fell sick with Rousseau, took to its bed… — Will Durant Copy Share
“All those fascinating varieties of terrain—mountains and valleys, fiords and straits, gulfs and streams—that make Europe a panorama of diverse delight, have broken the… — Will Durant Copy Share
“To be great is not to be placed above humanity, ruling others; but to stand above the partialities and futilities of uninformed desire, and… — Will Durant Copy Share
“privately he composed—in French—a poem expressing his pleasure at having given the French a kick in the cul, which Carlyle delicately translated as “the… — Will Durant Copy Share
“And in the individual too, justice is effective coördination, the harmonious functioning of the elements in a man, each in its fit place and… — Will Durant Copy Share
