Will Durant Quotes
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Sixty years ago I knew everything. Now I know nothing. Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.
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From barbarism to civilization requires a century; from civilization to barbarism needs but a day.
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Music and religion are as intimately related as poetry and love; the deepest emotions require for their civilized expression the most emotional of arts.
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Education is the transformation of civilisation.
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Philosophy is harmonized knowledge making a harmonious life; it is the self-discipline which lifts us to serenity and freedom. Knowledge is power, but only wisdom is liberty.
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So prominent was the Jewish role in the foreign commerce of Europe that those nations that received the Jews gained and the countries that excluded them lost in the volume of international trade.
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Drunkenness was in good repute in England till "Bloody Mary" frowned upon it; it remained popular in Germany. The French drank more stably, not being quite so cold.
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When liberty destroys order the hunger for order will destroy liberty.
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Progress is the increasing control of the environment by life.
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Truth always originates in a minority of one, and every custom begins as a broken precedent.
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Even when repressed, inequality grows; only the man who is below the average in economic ability desires equality; those who are conscious of superior ability desire freedom, and in the end superior ability has its way.
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If our economy of freedom fails to distribute wealth as ably as it has created it, the road to dictatorship will be open to any man who can persuasively promise security to all.
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As soon as liberty is complete it dies in anarchy.
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History seldom destroys that which does not deserve to die; and the burning of the tares makes for the next sowing a richer soil.
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We have conferred a mystic popularity upon officials whose only virtue is their timidity; while our scorn of rebels and reformers is so great that we have ceased to persecute them. The capitals and governments of the world are in the hands of caution; and change comes over them only in the night, unseen.
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If a man is fortunate he will, before he dies, gather up as much as he can of his civilized heritage and transmit it to his children.
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If you wish to be loved, be modest; if you wish to be admired, be proud; if you wish both, combine external modesty with internal pride.
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Power dements even more than it corrupts, lowering the guard of foresight and raising the haste of action.
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An emperor knows how to govern when poets are free to make verses, people to act plays, historians to tell the truth, ministers to give advice, the poor to grumble at taxes, students to learn lessons aloud, workmen to praise their skill and seek work, people to speak of anything, and old men to find fault with everything.
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Friends are helpful not only because they will listen to us, but because they will laugh at us; Through them we learn a little objectivity, a little modesty, a little courtesy; We learn the rules of life and become better players of the game.
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Often your face is your autobiography.
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Love one another. My final lesson of history is the same as that of Jesus. You may think that's a lot of lollipop but just try it. Love is the most practical thing in the world. If you take an attitude of love toward everybody you meet, you'll eventually get along.
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Christianity did not destroy paganism; it adopted it.
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Truth will not make us rich, but it will make us free.