“Magic begins in superstition, and ends in science. ... At every step the history of civilization teaches us how slight and superficial… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
As to harmonizing the theory of evolution with the Biblical account of creation, I do not believe it can be done, and… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
The soul of a civilization is its religion, and it dies with its faith. — Will Durant Copy Share Image
The Institutional Church (ecclesia) has killed only two kinds of people: Those who do not believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ,… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
So I should say that civilizations begin with religion and stoicism: they end with scepticism and unbelief, and the undisciplined pursuit of… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
“Religions of hope and love are a luxury of security and order; the need for striking fear into a subject or rebellious… — 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
Historically the belief in heaven and the belief in utopia are like compensatory buckets in a well: when one goes down the… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
“Hence a certain tension between religion and society marks the higher stages of every civilization. Religion begins by offering magical aid to… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
Music and religion are as intimately related as poetry and love; the deepest emotions require for their civilized expression the most emotional… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
There is no significant example in history, before our time, of a society successfully maintaining moral life without the aid of religion. — Will Durant Copy Share Image
Does history warrant the conclusion that religion is necessary to morality - that a natural ethic is too weak to withstand the… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
Tolerance grows only when faith loses certainty; certainty is murderous. — Will Durant Copy Share Image
Civilizations come and go; they conquer the earth and crumble into dust; but faith survives every desolation. — Will Durant Copy Share Image
I feel for all faiths the warm sympathy of one who has come to learn that even the trust in reason is… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
India will teach us the tolerance and gentleness of mature mind, understanding spirit and a unifying, pacifying love for all human beings. — 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
