Showing quotations 1 to 13 of 13 quotations in our collections

Civilization degrades the many to exalt the few.

Amos Bronson Alcott (1799 - 1888), Table Talk (1877)

Underlying the whole scheme of civilization is the confidence men have in each
other, confidence in their integrity, confidence in their honesty, confidence in their
future.

Bourke Cockran

The more rapidly a civilization progresses, the sooner it dies for another to rise in its
place.

Havelock Ellis (1859 - 1939), The Dance of Life

It is better for civilization to be going down the drain than to be coming up it.

Henry Allen

Civilization is a method of living, an attitude of equal respect for all men.

Jane Addams (1860 - 1935), Speech, Honolulu (1933)

Civilization is the art of living in towns of such size the everyone does not know
everyone else.

Julian Jaynes, "The Origin of Consciousness"

Civilization is built on a number of ultimate principles...respect for human life, the

punishment of crimes against property and persons, the equality of all good citizens
before the law...or, in a word justice.

Max Nordau (1849 - 1923)

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without
civilization in between.

Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)

The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)

The true civilization is where every man gives to every other every right that he
claims for himself.

Robert Ingersoll (1833 - 1899)

Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos.

Will Durant (1885 - 1981)

You can't say that civilization don't advance, however, for in every war they kill you
in a new way.

Will Rogers (1879 - 1935), New York Times, Dec. 23, 1929

One of the indictments of civilizations is that happiness and intelligence are so

rarely found in the same person.

William Feather (1908 - 1976)