Civilizations come and go; they conquer the earth and crumble into dust; but faith survives every desolation.

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

So I should say that civilizations begin with religion and stoicism: they end with scepticism and unbelief, and the undisciplined pursuit of individual pleasure. A civilization is born stoic and dies epicurean.

The South creates the civilizations, the North conquers them, ruins them, borrows from them, spreads them: this is one summary of history.

From barbarism to civilization requires a century; from civilization to barbarism needs but a day.

Liberty is a luxury of security; the free individual is a product and a mark of civilization.

A civilization is born Stoic and dies Epicurean.