1,222 Quotes About Civilization

Com a mania francesa e burguesa de reduzir todas as regiões e todas as raças ao mesmo tipo de civilização, o mundo ia tornar-se numa monotonia abominável. Dentro em breve um touriste faria enormes sacrifícios, despesas sem fim, para ir a Tumbuctu - para quê? Para encontrar lá pretos de chapéu alto, a ler o Jornal dos Debates.

[T]he normal and the everyday are often amazingly unstoppable, and what is unimaginable is the cessation of them. The world is resilient, and, no matter what interruptions occur, people so badly want to return to their lives and get on with them. A veneer of civilization descends quickly, like a shining rain. Dust is settled.

The university system, a gift of Western civilization to the world, was developed by the Catholic Church.

Nothing is more grotesque to any person of true sensibility than this so-called civilized world.

Civilization was a blessing you never truly appreciated until it threatened to collapse around you.

While there is no way to definitively distinguish between the ancient and the modern, “culture” is more ancient and closer to biology, while “civilization” is more modern and closer to technology.

By Crom, though I've spend considerable time among you civilized peoples, your ways are still beyond my comprehension

If you surrender a civilization to avoid social disapproval, you should know that all of history will curse you for your cowardliness.

New worlds are made through ambition and effort, with a measure of risk, sometimes with violence, and often by accident. They can be shaped by the many or by the few (often at the expense of the rest.)