Civilisation isn't a thing that you build and then there…

And ... and what is civilisation if it isn't people talking to each other over a goddamned beer?

— James S.A. Corey

Because civilization isn't a thing that you build and then there it is, you have it forever. It needs to be built constantly, recreated…

— Steven Galloway

Tradition, if not constantly recreated, can be as much a millstone as a mill-wheel.

— Colin MacInnes

When we build, let us think that we build forever.

— John Ruskin

“Whatever we make, or invent, or build, is with us forever; we cannot throw it away. The methan and carbon diocide we put into…

— Natalie Bennett

When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for our use alone. Let it…

— John Ruskin

The idea that war should be conducted within a moral framework may seem like a quaint medieval practice, but as speech separates humans from…

— Anonymous

The slow rhythm of the body, the insistent rhythm of the wit, were they becoming irreconcilable in modern civilisation? The sedentary life, frustration and…

— Henry Williamson

“the march of civilisation has given the modern girl a vocabulary and an ability to use it which her grandmother never had”

— P. G. Wodehouse

But the ear, let us not forget, starts operating on the forty-fifth day of the pregnancy of a woman. Seven and a half months…

— Daniel Barenboim

“There is a great deal of ruin in a nation.”

— Adam Smith

We are producing urban places which are disjointed and disconnected and not worthy of our civilisation

— Moshe Safdie

In some ways, I lament the introduction of civilisation on such a huge scale, because it has given us a lot of room to…

— Roy Harper

The European talks of progress because by the aid of a few scientific discoveries he has established a society which has mistaken comfort for…

— Benjamin Disraeli

It crosses my mind that our generation may leave problems that are simply too hard for human society in the generations that follow. The…

— Ross Garnaut