1,222 Quotes About Civilization

It is as if the soul of the continent is weeping. Why does it weep? It weeps for the bones of the buffalo. It weeps for magic that has been forgotten. It weeps for the decline of poets.It weepsfor the black people who think like white people.It weepsfor the Indians who think like settlers.It weepsfor the children who think like adults.It weepsfor the free who think like prisoners.Most of all, it weepsfor the cowgirls who think like cowboys.

The mark of the truly civilized is their (truly baffling to the likes of you and me) patience with what truly baffles.

You simply cannot take pride in the imperialist atrocities of your ancestors and at the same time call yourself a civilized human.

Fall of reason is fall of civilization.

The General was right. No one dies of hunger here - you reach out your hand and pluck a mango. That’s why there is no progress. Cold countries have more advanced civilizations because the climate forces people to work.

Being civilized and sentient human has certain existential responsibilities, without which we might as well call ourselves dogs that urinate at the corner of the street and call it their territory.

Meekness-induced prejudices have no place in the society of thinking humanity.

By speech first, but far more by writing, man has been able to put something of himself beyond death. In tradition and in books an integral part of the individual persists, for it can influence the minds and actions of other people in different places and at different times: a row of black marks on a page can move a man to tears, though the bones of him that wrote it are long ago crumbled to dust. In truth, the whole progress of civilization is based upon this power.

Every high civilization decays by forgetting obvious things.