Civilization

Explore 21 quotes about Civilization

No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

Thomas Hobbes

Leviathan

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Topic

State of nature Barbarism Civilization

Author

Thomas Hobbes

Source

Leviathan

Genre

Political literature Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1651 1650s 17th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil. London: Andrew Crooke, 1651, pt. 1, ch. 13.

Current Citation

Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan, edited by Christopher Brooke. Penguin Classics, 2017, pt. 1, ch. 13.

We believe that civilization has been created under the pressure of the exigencies of life at the cost of satisfaction of the instincts.

Sigmund Freud

Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis

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Topic

Civilization

Author

Sigmund Freud

Source

Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis

Medium

Lecture

Genre

Psychological literature

Language

German

Time

1917 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Freud, Sigmund. Einführung in die Psychoanalyse [Introduction to Psychoanalysis]. 1915-1917, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, lecture 1. Lecture series.

Current Citation

Freud, Sigmund. Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis. W. W. Norton & Company, 1977, lecture 1.

Theory of the true civilization.
It is not to be found in gas or steam or table turning, It consists in the diminution of the traces of original sin.

Charles Baudelaire

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Topic

Civilization

Author

Charles Baudelaire

Language

French

Time

1867 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Baudelaire, Charles. Mon Coeur mis a nu [My Naked Heart]. Paris, 1887, no. 58.

Current Citation

Baudelaire, Charles. "My Heart Laid Bare." Late Fragments: Flares, My Heart Laid Bare, Prose Poems, Belgium Disrobed, translated by Richard Sieburth. Yale University Press, 2022, no. 58.

All civilization has from time to time become a thin crust over a volcano of revolution.

Havelock Ellis

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Topic

Civilization Revolution

Author

Havelock Ellis

Source

Little Essays of Love and Virtue

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1922 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Ellis, Havelock. Little Essays of Love and Virtue. George H. Doran Company/A & C Black, 1922, ch. 7.

From the earliest times, human civilization has been no more than a strange luminescence growing more intense by the hour, of which no one can say when it will begin to wane and when it will fade away. For the time being, our cities still shine through the night, and the fires still spread.

Max Sebald

The Rings of Saturn

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Topic

Civilization

Author

Max Sebald

Source

The Rings of Saturn

Medium

Novel

Language

German

Time

1995 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sebald, Winfried Georg. Die Ringe des Saturn: Eine englische Wallfahrt [The Rings of Saturn: An English Pilgrimage]. Eichborn, 1995, pt. 7.

Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.

Ayn Rand

The Fountainhead

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Topic

Privacy Civilization

Author

Ayn Rand

Source

The Fountainhead

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Definition

Language

English

Time

1943 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Rand, Ayn. The Fountainhead. Bobbs Merrill, 1943, pt. 4, ch. 18.

Well, they're saved from the blessings of civilization.

Stagecoach

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Topic

Civilization

Speaker

Doc Josiah Boone

Actor

Thomas Mitchell

Source

Stagecoach

Medium

Film

Genre

Western (film) Western

Statement Type

Irony

Language

English

Time

1939 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Stagecoach. Directed by John Ford, Walter Wanger Productions, 1939.

All places where women are excluded tend downward to barbarism; but the moment she is introduced, there come in with her courtesy, cleanliness, sobriety, and order.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Woman's Sphere

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Topic

Women and society Civilization Women

Speaker

Bob Stephens' Wife

Author

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Source

Woman's Sphere

Language

English

Time

1868 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Stowe, Harriet Beecher. "Woman's Sphere." The Chimney-Corner. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1868.

Civilization is nothing more than the effort to reduce the use of force to the last resort.

Jose Ortega y Gasset

The Revolt of the Masses

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Topic

Monopoly on violence Civilization

Author

Jose Ortega y Gasset

Source

The Revolt of the Masses

Medium

Essay

Genre

Political literature Philosophical literature

Language

Spanish

Time

1930 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Ortega y Gasset, Jose. La Rebelion de las Masas [The Revolt of the Masses.] El Sol, 1929, serial.

Current Citation

Ortega y Gasset, Jose. The Revolt of the Masses. W. W. Norton & Company, 1994, ch. 8.

The three great elements of modern civilisation, Gunpowder, Printing and the Protestant Religion.

Thomas Carlyle

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Topic

Progress Civilization

Author

Thomas Carlyle

Source

The State of German Literature

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1827 1820s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Carlyle, Thomas. "State of German Literature." Edinburgh Review, Oct. 1827.

Current Citation

Carlyle, Thomas. "State of German Literature." The Works of Thomas Carlyle, edited by Henry Duff Traill. Vol. 26, Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Every civilized human being, whatever his conscious development, is still an archaic man at the deeper levels of his psyche.

Carl Jung

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Topic

Civilization Progress Human nature

Author

Carl Jung

Source

Modern Man in Search of a Soul

Genre

Psychological literature

Language

German

Time

1933 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Jung, Carl. "Archaic Man." Modern Man in Search of a Soul, translated by Cary F. Baynes and William Stanley Dell. Kegen Paul, Trenche, Trubner & Co., 1933.

Of all nations, those submit to civilization with the most difficulty which habitually live by the chase.

Alexis de Tocqueville

Democracy in America

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Topic

Hunter gatherer societies Civilization

Author

Alexis de Tocqueville

Source

Democracy in America

Genre

Political literature

Language

French

Time

1840 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Tocqueville, Alexis De. De La Democratie en Amerique [Democracy in America]. Vol. 1, London: Saunders and Otley, 1835, ch. 18, pt. 2.

Current Citation

Tocqueville, Alexis De. Democracy in America: The Complete and Unabridged Volumes I and II, translated by Henry Reeve. Bantam Classics, 2000, vol. 1, ch. 18, pt. 2.

I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute Freedom and Wildness, as contrasted with a freedom and culture merely civil,—to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of Nature, rather than a member of society.

Henry David Thoreau

Walking (Thoreau)

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Topic

Nature Wilderness Civilization Human nature

Speaker

Henry David Thoreau

Source

Walking (Thoreau)

Medium

Lecture

Language

English

Time

1851 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Thoreau, Henry David. "Walking." 23 Apr. 1851, Concord Lyceum, Concord, MA, USA. Lecture.

Current Citation

Thoreau, Henry David. "Walking." Civil Disobedience and Other Essays. Dover Publications, 1993.

The test of civilization is in the way that it cares for its helpless members.

Pearl S. Buck

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Topic

Caring for the vulnerable Civilization Politics

Author

Pearl S. Buck

Source

My Several Worlds

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1954 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Buck, Pearl S. My Several Worlds. John Day Company, 1954.

Perhaps it is historically true that no order of society ever perishes save by its own hand.

John Maynard Keynes

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Topic

Societal collapse Civilization

Author

John Maynard Keynes

Source

The Economic Consequences of the Peace

Genre

Economic literature

Language

English

Time

1919 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Keynes, John Maynard. The Economic Consequences of the Peace. Self-published, 1919, ch. 6.

Current Citation

Keynes, John Maynard. "The Economic Consequences of the Peace." The Essential Keynes, edited by Robert Skidelsky. Penguin, 2016, ch. 6.

Civilization and profits go hand in hand.

Calvin Coolidge

More information about this quote

Topic

Civilization Capitalism American ethos

Speaker

Calvin Coolidge

Source

The Supports of Civilization

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1920 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Coolidge, Calvin. "The Supports of Civilization." Amherst College Alumni Dinner. 27 Nov. 1920, New York, NY, USA.

Current Citation

Coolidge, Calvin. "The Supports of Civilization." The Price of Freedom: Speeches and Addresses. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1924.

Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them.

Alfred North Whitehead

More information about this quote

Topic

Advance of civilization Civilization Progress

Author

Alfred North Whitehead

Source

Introduction to Mathematics

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1911 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Whitehead, Alfred North. An Introduction to Mathematics. Henry Holt and Company/Williams and Norgate, 1911, ch. 5.

I put forward as a general definition of civilization, that a civilized society is exhibiting the five qualities of Truth, Beauty, Adventure, Art, Peace.

Alfred North Whitehead

Adventures of Ideas

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Topic

Civilization

Author

Alfred North Whitehead

Source

Adventures of Ideas

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1933 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Whitehead, Alfred North. Adventures of Ideas. The Macmillan Company/Simon and Schuster, 1933, ch. 19, sec. 1.

There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.

Toni Morrison

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Topic

Culture Reconciliation Civilization

Author

Toni Morrison

Source

No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear The Nation

Medium

Essay Magazine

Language

English

Time

2015 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Morrison, Toni. "No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear." The Nation: 150th Anniversary Special, 23 Mar. 2015.

I do not believe that civilization will be wiped out in a war fought with the atomic bomb. Perhaps two thirds of the people of the earth might be killed, but enough men capable of thinking, and enough books, would be left to start again, and civilization could be restored.

Albert Einstein

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Topic

Nuclear holocaust Nuclear war Nuclear weapons Civilization

Speaker

Albert Einstein

Source

Einstein on the Atomic Bomb Atlantic Monthly

Medium

Interview Magazine

Language

English

Time

1945 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Einstein, Albert. "Einstein on the Atomic Bomb." Interviewed by Raymond Swing. Atlantic Monthly, Nov. 1945.

Current Citation

Einstein, Albert. Einstein on Politics: His Private Thoughts and Public Stands on Nationalism, Zionism, War, Peace, and the Bomb. Princeton University Press, 2013, ch. 8.