““One of the most momentous, yet all but invisible, psychological changes in human history has been the intensification of a sense of insecurity and alienation from the world around us that arose when we became no longer able easily to get food in a few hours just by gathering it, or hunting it, but had to organize ourselves in a purposeful fashion simply to survive. This change is undocumented, though occasional clues can be gained about it from the comments of the few still alive who have lived through a version of it, such as old Australian Aboriginals. Its essence is subjection to a pervasive but unacknowledged, indeed unnamed, fear. It is the foundation of civilization.””
![“Perhaps the most overpowering contrast [with the West] is the virtual absence in premodern China of the idea of a transcendent creator God who is distinct from Nature in a fundamental qualitative sense. The Chinese had notions of a supreme god in various guises (that is, ‘hypatotheism’), and also…” quote by Mark Elvin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/053/mark-elvin-51757_china_perhaps-the-most-overpowering-contrast-w_1625650.jpg)
![“[There is a] gulf that can exist between different emotional and perceptual worlds—all 'Chinese'—in recent times [post-Deng Xiaoping].” quote by Mark Elvin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/3de/mark-elvin-51757_quote_there-is-a-gulf-that-can-exist-between-d_2001605.jpg)
![“The resurrection of this once popular work [Ping Jinya's forgotten bestseller of the 1930s, Tides in the Human Sea ] is a reminder that the histories of 'Chinese literature' currently in circulation are far from being histories of what most people actually read.” quote by Mark Elvin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/fb5/mark-elvin-51757_books_the-resurrection-of-this-once-popular-wo_2339656.jpg)
