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
answer belief creative god history mean nature negative reluctant support supreme vitality
Does history support a belief in God? If by God we mean not the creative vitality of nature but a supreme being intelligent and benevolent, the answer must be a reluctant negative
clever good history lessons
One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say.
history rich cases
History is so indifferently rich, that a case for almost any conclusion from it can be made by a selection of instances.
civilization history generations
Civilization is not inherited; it has to be learned and earned by each generation anew; if the transmission should be interrupted for one century, civilization would die, and we should be savages again.
human-nature history-repeats-itself repeating-history
History repeats itself in the large because human nature changes with geological leisureliness.
civilization history ruins
The South creates the civilizations, the North conquers them, ruins them, borrows from them, spreads them: this is one summary of history.
history age sin
History offers some consolation by reminding us that sin has flourished in every age.
views concentration-of-wealth economic-history
We conclude that the concentration of wealth is natural and inevitable, and is periodically alleviated by violent or peaceable partial redistribution. In this view all economic history is the slow heartbeat of the social organism, a vast systole and diastole of concentrating wealth and compulsive redistribution.
history guessing prejudice
History is mostly guessing; the rest is prejudice.
dishonest ill integrity others praising speak
To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves.
civilization order liberty
Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty and dies with chaos.
character technology opportunity
The influence of geographic factors diminishes as technology grows. The character and contour of a terrain may offer opportunities for agriculture, mining, or trade, but only the imagination and initiative of leaders, and the hardy industry of followers, can transform the possibilities into fact...Man, not the earth, makes civilization.
conservative radical valuable
The conservative who resists change is as valuable as the radical who proposes it.
men civilization earth
Man, not the earth, makes civilization.