Will Durant
Will Durant
William James "Will" Durantwas an American writer, historian, and philosopher. He is best known for The Story of Civilization, 11 volumes written in collaboration with his wife, Ariel Durant, and published between 1935 and 1975. He was earlier noted for The Story of Philosophy, described as "a groundbreaking work that helped to popularize philosophy"...
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth5 November 1885
time years four
Most of us spend too much time on the last twenty-four hours and too little on the last six thousand years.
transformation civilisation
Education is the transformation of civilisation
hatred may vices
Every vice was once a virtue, and may become respectable again, just as hatred becomes respectable in wartime.
moving sea civilization
Underneath all civilization, ancient or modern, moved and still moves a sea of magic, superstition, and sorcery. Perhaps they will remain when the works of our reason have passed away.
mother memories tired
Tired mothers find that spanking takes less time than reasoning and penetrates sooner to the seat of the memory.
art emotional expression
Music and religion are as intimately related as poetry and love; the deepest emotions require for their civilized expression the most emotional of arts.
faces your-face autobiography
Often your face is your autobiography
thinking majestic molecules
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
heart men emotional
Man is an emotional animal, occasionally rational; and through his feelings he can be deceived to his heart's content.
ice age ice-age
Civilizaton is the interval between Ice Ages.
enemy born freedom-and-equality
Freedom and equality are naturan born enemies.
war past years
There have been only 268 of the past 3,421 years free of war.
wedding men wife
The love we have in our youth is superficial compared to the love that an old man has for his old wife.
progress environment
Progress is the increasing control of the environment by life.