Civilization Quote by Anonymous

The destruction that barbarians leave behind has a grim fascination, doesn't it? We're reminded how thin is the veneer of civilization.

— Dean Koontz

There is certainly a longstanding idea within western culture that civilization is only a thin veneer. As soon as something happens, say a war…

— Rutger Bregman

There is nothing more fragile than civilization.

— Havelock Ellis

Culture is one thing and varnish is another.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

“the veneer of civilization is exceedingly thin”

— Karin Tansek

Every single one of us is a little civilization built on the ruins of any number of preceding civilizations, but with our own variant…

— Marilynne Robinson

There's a trench coat and a tragedy in your future.

— Jim Norton

We veneer civilization by doing unkind things in a kind way.

— George Bernard Shaw

The most civilized people are as near to barbarism as the most polished steel is to rust. Nations, like metals, have only a superficial…

— Antoine Rivarol

Civilization is unbearable, but it is less unbearable at the top.

— Timothy Leary

My idea of our civilization is that it is a shoddy, poor thing and full of cruelties, vanities, arrogances, meannesses and hypocrisies.

— Mark Twain

“Perceptive observers saw civilization thinned to a mere veneer, with barbarism surging just beneath the surface, straining for release.”

— Bruce Brander