Civilization Quotes

Civilization has made man, if not always more bloodthirsty, at least more viciously, more horribly bloodthirsty.

It has been said that civilization is twenty-four hours and two meals away from barbarism.

It goes without saying that a civilization which leaves so large a number of its participants unsatisfied and drives them into revolt neither has nor deserves the prospect of a lasting existence.

Beauty has no obvious use; nor is there any clear cultural necessity for it. Yet civilization could not do without it.

Without a woman we’d discuss racing cars and horses and tell dirty jokes; no civilization.

While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them. It has created palaces, but it was not so easy to create noblemen and kings.

Were civilization itself to be estimated by some of its results, it would seem perhaps better for what we call the barbarous part of the world to remain unchanged.

The word was — civilization!

The propulsion by the universality of thought is the absolute worth of civilisation.

The liberty of the individual is no gift of civilization. It was greatest before there was any civilization, though then, it is true, it had for the most part no value, since the individual was scarcely in a position to defend it.

The first requisite of civilization is that of justice.

The fact is, that civilisation requires slaves. The Greeks were quite right there. Unless there are slaves to do the ugly, horrible, uninteresting work, culture and contemplation become almost impossible. Human slavery is wrong, insecure, and demoralising. On mechanical slavery, on the slavery of the machine, the future of the world depends.