In philosophy, as in politics, the longest distance between two points is a straight line. — Will Durant Copy Share Image
Forced to choose, the poor, like the rich, love money more than political liberty; and the only political freedom capable of enduring… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
All deductions having been made, democracy has done less harm, and more good, than any other form of government. It gave to… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
“This is the secret of the political history of modern India. Weakened by division, it succumbed to invaders; impoverished by invaders, it… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
“Every form of government tends to perish by excess of its basic principle. Aristocracy ruins itself by limiting too narrowly the circle… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
When liberty destroys order the hunger for order will destroy liberty. — Will Durant Copy Share Image
A great civilization is not conquered from without, until it has destroyed itself from within. The essential causes of Rome's decline lay… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
“Self Government by extravagance and incompetence brings its own end.” — Will Durant Copy Share Image
“Perhaps the cause of our contemporary pessimism is our tendency to view history as a turbulent stream of conflicts – between individuals… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
“The worst conceivable government would be by philosophers; they botch every natural process with theory; their ability to make speeches and multiply… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
We have conferred a mystic popularity upon officials whose only virtue is their timidity; while our scorn of rebels and reformers is… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
“The more a government strives to curtail freedom of speech, the more obstinately is it resisted; not indeed by the avaricious,... but… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
Every form of government tends to perish by excess of its basic principle. — Will Durant Copy Share Image
The concentration of wealth is a natural result of this concentration of ability, and regularly recurs in history. The rate of concentration… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
“The defect of democracy is its tendency to put mediocrity into power; and there is no way of avoiding this except by… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
The political machine triumphs because it is a united minority acting against a divided majority. — 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 Image
“This is the tragedy of almost every civilization—that its soul is in its faith, and seldom survives philosophy.” — Will Durant Copy Share Image
In philosophy, as in politics, the longest distance between two points is a straight line. — Will Durant Copy Share Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
