American society is the only one which has passed directly…

“America is the only nation in history which, miraculously, has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilisation.”

— Georges Clemenceau

America may be unique in being a country which has leapt from barbarism to decadence without touching civilization.

— John O'Hara

“America is the only civilization in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization”

— Georges Clemenceau

“The internet, although beloved by all including Al Qaeda, went straight from barbarism to decadence without ever encountering a civilisation. It was never utopian,…

— Bruce Sterling

“We all have that heritage, no matter what old land our fathers left. All colors and blends of Americans have somewhat the same tendencies.…

— John Steinbeck

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

— Oscar Wilde

Barbarism is the absence of standards to which appeal can be made.

— Jose Ortega y Gasset

You think that a wall as solid as the earth separates civilization from barbarism. I tell you the division is a thread, a sheet…

— John Buchan

Human history, like all great movements, was cyclical, and returned to the point of beginning. The idea of indefinite progress in a right line…

— Edward Bellamy

Educational exchange can turn nations into people, contributing as no other form of communication can to the humanizing of international relations. Man's capacity for…

— J. William Fulbright

[Much] as war attracts me and fascinates my mind with its tremendous situations, I feel more deeply every year . . . what vile…

— Winston Churchill

Christianity has carried civilization along with it, whithersoever it has gone; and, as if to show that the latter does not depend on physical…

— Augustus William Hare

“Odd, don't you think? I have seen war, and invasions and riots. I have heard of massacres and brutalities beyond imagining, and I have…

— Iain Pears

Liberty is the condition of progress. Without Liberty, there remains only barbarism. Without Liberty, there can be no civilization.

— Robert Green Ingersoll

That country [Carthage] was rapidly sinking into the state of barbarism from whence it had been raised by the Phoenician colonies and Roman laws;…

— Edward Gibbon