Will Durant Quotes
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Knowledge is power but only wisdom is liberty.
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If we have never been amazed by the very fact that we exist, we are squandering the greatest fact of all.
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If I were rich I would have many books, and I would pamper myself with bindings bright to the eye and soft to the touch, paper generously opaque, and type such as men designed when printing was very young. I would dress my gods in leather and gold, and burn candles of worship before them at night, and string their names like beads on a string.
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For you will sorely miss civilization if it is sacrificed in the turbulence of change.
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Rome remained great as long as she had enemies who forced her to unity, vision, and heroism. When she had overcome them all she flourished for a moment and then began to die.
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To say nothing, especially when speaking, is half the art of diplomacy.
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In Constantinople, more Christians were slaughtered by Christians in the years 342-343 than by all the persecutions by pagans in the history of Rome.
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As long as there is poverty there will be gods.
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The concentration of wealth is a natural result of this concentration of ability, and regularly recurs in history. The rate of concentration varies (other factors being equal) with the economic freedom permitted by morals and laws.
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In the last analysis civilization is based upon the food supply.
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The crossroads of trade are the meeting place of ideas, the attrition ground of rival customs and beliefs; diversities beget conflict, comparison, thought; superstitions cancel one another, and reason begins.
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Paul created a theology of which none but the vaguest warrants can be found in the words of Christ.
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I came to think of myself, not as a dance and chaos of molecules, but as a brief and minute portion of that majestic process.
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Read, think well of mankind, go to our libraries and rejoice.
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Peace is an unstable equilibrium, which can be preserved only by acknowledged supremacy or equal power.
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Woe to him who teaches men faster than they can learn.
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The love we have in our youth is superficial compared to the love that an old man has for his old wife.
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Knowledge is the eye of desire and can become the pilot of the soul.
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Science gives us knowledge, but only philosophy can give us wisdom.
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Who will dare to write a history of human goodness?
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Civilization is social order promoting cultural creation. Four elements constitute it: economic provision, political organization, moral tradition, and the pursuit of knowledge and the arts. It begins where chaos and insecurity end. For when fear is overcome, curiosity and constructiveness are free, and man passes by natural impulse towards the understanding and embellishment of life.
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The great snare of thought is uncritical acceptance of irrational assumptions.
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History reports that the men who can manage men manage the men who can manage only things, and the men who can manage money manage all.
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Every science begins as philosophy and ends as art; it arises in hypothesis and flows into achievement.