Nature smiles at the union of freedom and equality in our utopias. For freedom and equality are sworn and everlasting enemies, and when one prevails the other dies.
Will DurantRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the internal conflicts among Christians in Constantinople during the early 4th century, suggesting that these internal struggles were more brutal than external persecutions.
Will Durant's quote reflects on a dark chapter in Christian history, revealing that the violence inflicted by Christians on each other during 342-343 in Constantinople surpassed the cumulative violence experienced by Christians at the hands of pagan persecutors throughout Roman history. This statement serves as a reminder of the dangers of sectarian conflict and the hypocrisy that can arise when individuals or groups claim to uphold the same beliefs while committing acts of brutality against one another.
Themes
ChristianityViolencePersecutionHistoryConflict
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a lecture about sectarian violence and its consequences.
More from Will Durant
All quotes βThe greatest question of our time is not communism vs. individualism, not Europe vs. America, not even the East vs. the West; it is whether men can bear to live without God.
Will DurantRead
If we have never been amazed by the very fact that we exist, we are squandering the greatest fact of all.
Will DurantRead
Philosophy is harmonized knowledge making a harmonious life; it is the self-discipline which lifts us to serenity and freedom. Knowledge is power, but only wisdom is liberty.
Will DurantRead
If you wish to be loved, be modest; if you wish to be admired, be proud; if you wish both, combine external modesty with internal pride.
Will DurantRead
When liberty destroys order the hunger for order will destroy liberty.
Will DurantRead
Similar quotes
This above all makes history useful and desirable; it unfolds before our eyes a glorious record of exemplary actions.
LivyRead
It was necessary, as a black historian, to have a personal agenda.
John Hope FranklinRead
We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life. We brought the diseases and the alcohol. We committed the murders. We took the children from their mothers. We practised discrimination and exclusion. It was our ignorance and our prejudice. And our failure to imagine that these things could be done to us.
Paul KeatingRead
History suggests that the disillusioned and the disaffected do not readily take to the streets nor man the barricades to defend a system that failed to defend them.
David OlusogaRead
The great theme of modern British history is the fate of freedom. The 18th century inherits, after the Civil War, this very peculiar political animal. It's not a democracy, but it's not a tyranny. It's not like the rest of the world, the rest of Europe. There is a parliament, laws have to be made, elections are made.
Simon SchamaRead
Watergate is an immensely complicated scandal with a cast of characters as varied as a Tolstoy novel.
Bob WoodwardRead