Administration Quote by Roy Casagranda
““I think government starts civilization not writing. In fact why did writing happen in the first place? What happened was bureaucrats were trying to figure out how to keep track of how many cows they had, how much wheat they had stored in the greeneries, how many swords they had, how many horses they had and the politicians went to the bureaucrats and said: you need to come up with some mechanism to keep track of all of this and so the bureaucrats began coming up with symbol sets for numbers and for items and over time those symbol sets evolved into writing.””
About This Quote
Source Speech: Interview on historical origins of writing, date unknown
The quote suggests that writing emerged from bureaucratic needs to record economic and military assets, not from a desire for civilization itself.
In simple terms: Writing began as record‑keeping for resources.
Key Takeaway
Recognize practical origins of systems.
Themes
history
economics
bureaucracy
communication
civilization
Mood
analytical
reflective
Type
historical
explanatory
When to use this quote
- government accounting
- inventory management
- military logistics
- archaeological research
- educational curricula
Key Concepts
record‑keeping
symbolic systems
administrative control
Questions to Reflect On
- How do modern record‑keeping tools reflect their bureaucratic roots?
- What other forces might have driven early writing?
A Different Perspective
It may oversimplify complex cultural developments and ignore artistic or religious motivations.
![“[Henry Miller] was such a scribomaniac that even when he lived in the same house as Lawrence Durrell they often exchanged letters. For most of his life, Henry wrote literally dozens of letters a day to people he could have easily engaged in conversation - and did. The writing process, in short…” quote by Erica Jong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/109/erica-jong-445_breaths_henry-miller-was-such-a-scribomaniac-tha_1241882.jpg)
