Will Durant Quotes

149 quotes in 1756 categories

• The past is not dead. Indeed, it is often not even past.
• So the story of man runs in a dreary circle, because he is not yet master of the earth that holds him.
• In the end, nothing is lost. Every event, for good or evil, has effects forever.
• All that is good in our history is gathered in libraries. At this moment, Plato is down there at the library waiting for us. So…
• Rome remained great as long as she had enemies who forced her to unity, vision, and heroism. When she had overcome them all she flourished…
• Education is the transmission of civilization.
• The health of nations is more important than the wealth of nations.
• Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting and doing the things historians usually record,…
• Civilization is not inherited; it has to be learned and earned by each generation anew; if the transmission should be interrupted for one century, civilization…
• Knowledge is power but only wisdom is liberty.
• The Institutional Church (ecclesia) has killed only two kinds of people: Those who do not believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ, and those who…
• One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say.
• The family is the nucleus of civilization.
• Every science begins as philosophy and ends as art.
• Sixty years ago I knew everything; now I know nothing; education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.
• Does history support a belief in God? If by God we mean not the creative vitality of nature but a supreme being intelligent and benevolent,…
• Education is a progressive discovery of your own ignorance.

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