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
“Edward I (1272–1307) was less a scholar than his father, and more a king; ambitious, strong of will, tenacious in war, subtle… — 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 crossroads of trade are the meeting place of ideas, the attrition ground of rival customs and beliefs; diversities beget conflict, comparison,… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
“The class war had turned democracy into a contest in legislative looting.” — Will Durant Copy Share Image
Science tells us how to heal and how to kill; it reduces our death rate in retail and then kills us wholesale… — 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
The victors called the revolution a triumph of liberty; but now and then liberty in the slogans of the strong means freedom… — Will Durant Copy Share Image
War is one of the constants of history, and it has not diminished with civilization or democracy. — Will Durant Copy Share Image
“War is one of the constants of history, and has not diminished with civilization or democracy. In the last 3,421 years of… — 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
