Will Durant

As soon as liberty is complete it dies in anarchy.

— Will Durant

“Utopias of equality are biologically doomed[.]”

— Will Durant

The past is not dead. Indeed, it is often not even past.

— Will Durant

“but trial by combat was unknown.”

— Will Durant

A civilization is born Stoic and dies Epicurean.

— Will Durant

Fundamentalism is the triumph of Paul over Christ.

— Will Durant

Moral codes adjust themselves to environmental conditions.

— Will Durant

“[N]o language has ever had a word for a virgin man.”

— Will Durant

To seek, beneath the universal strife, the hidden harmony of things.

— Will Durant

“Ideally parentage should be a privilege of health, not a by-product of sexual agitation. Is”

— Will Durant

Those who have suffered much become very bitter or very gentle.

— Will Durant

Nature has never read the Declaration of Independence. It continues to make us unequal.

— Will Durant

As knowledge grew, fear decreased; men thought less of worshiping the unknown, and more of overcoming it.

— Will Durant

“Civilization exists by geologic consent, subject to change without notice.”

— Will Durant

“One of the lessons of history is that the gods can be silent in many languages.”

— Will Durant

To say nothing, especially when speaking, is half the art of diplomacy.

— Will Durant

The Institutional Church (ecclesia) has killed only two kinds of people: Those who do not believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ,…

— Will Durant

Music and religion are as intimately related as poetry and love; the deepest emotions require for their civilized expression the most emotional…

— Will Durant

“Hence the uselessness of logic: no one ever convinced anybody by logic; and even logicians use logic only as a source of…

— Will Durant

The only real revolution is in the enlightenment of the mind and the improvement of character, the only real emancipation is individual,…

— Will Durant

Underneath all civilization, ancient or modern, moved and still moves a sea of magic, superstition, and sorcery. Perhaps they will remain when…

— Will Durant

Nature smiles at the union of freedom and equality in our utopias. For freedom and equality are sworn and everlasting enemies, and…

— Will Durant

We Americans are the best informed people on earth as to the events of the last twenty-four hours; we are the not…

— Will Durant

If man asks for many laws it is only because he is sure that his neighbor needs them; privately he is an…

— Will Durant

“[Herbert Spencer] was ready in those days to give everything a trial; he even thought of migrating to New Zealand, forgetting that…

— Will Durant

Love one another. My final lesson of history is the same as that of Jesus. You may think that's a lot of…

— Will Durant

“Some primitive peoples, like the Veddahs of Ceylon, had no dwellings at all, and were content with the earth and the sky;…

— Will Durant

Forced to choose, the poor, like the rich, love money more than political liberty; and the only political freedom capable of enduring…

— Will Durant

Every state begins in compulsion; but the habits of obedience become the content of conscience, and soon every citizen thrills with loyalty…

— Will Durant

“It is only charlatans who are certain. We know nothing of first principles. It is truly extravagant to define God, angels, and…

— Will Durant

Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting and doing the things…

— Will Durant

Friends are helpful not only because they will listen to us, but because they will laugh at us; Through them we learn…

— Will Durant

“And in the individual too, justice is effective coördination, the harmonious functioning of the elements in a man, each in its fit…

— Will Durant

“Perhaps the cause of our contemporary pessimism is our tendency to view history as a turbulent stream of conflicts – between individuals…

— Will Durant

“I had rather believe all the fables in the Legend, and the Talmud and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is…

— Will Durant

“The conquering troops plundered the wealthy capital, and found the booty so abundant “that every private man in the allied army became…

— Will Durant

“The constant steaming in of thoughts of others must suppress and confine our own and indeed in the long run paralyze the…

— Will Durant

What if it is for life's sake that we must die? In truth we are not individuals; and it is because we…

— Will Durant

“Every science begins as philosophy and ends as art: It arises in hypothesis and flows into achievement. Philosophy is a hypothetical interpretation…

— Will Durant

“History is, above all else, the creation and recording of that heritage; progress is its increasing abundance, preservation, transmission, and use. To…

— Will Durant