A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.
Interpretation
A civilization's downfall often comes from internal issues rather than external forces.
Ariel Durant's quote suggests that the internal decay of a civilization—through division, corruption, or moral decline—can lead to its eventual collapse, regardless of outside threats. It emphasizes the importance of self-awareness and the need for societies to address their internal conflicts before they can be conquered by external forces, highlighting the idea that strength from within is crucial for survival.
In practice
This quote can be used in a lecture about the fall of empires and the importance of unity.
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.
Calmness is the criterion of spiritual progress. Plunge the purified mind into the Heart. Then the work is over.
Prayer is the force as real as terrestrial gravity. As a physician, I have seen men, after all other therapy had failed, lifted out of disease and melancholy by the serene effort of prayer. Only in prayer do we achieve that complete and harmonious assembly of body, mind and spirit which gives the frail human reed its unshakable strength.
I came across few whites as a boy at Qunu. The local magistrate, of course, was white, as was the nearest shopkeeper. Occasionally, white travelers or policemen passed through our area. These whites appeared as grand as gods to me, and I was aware that they were to be treated with a mixture of fear and respect.
Surely the ass who invented the first religion ought to be the first ass damned
We save the world by being alive ourselves.
Man in a word has no nature; what he has... is history.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.