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
[H]istory assures us that civilizations decay quite leisurely.
Interpretation
Civilizations decline over time more slowly than we might expect.
Will Durant's quote points to the gradual nature of civilization's decline, suggesting that decay is not a sudden event but a slow process that unfolds over generations. This invites reflection on the impermanence of societal achievements and the factors that contribute to their eventual downfall, emphasizing that awareness of this decline can provide insight into sustaining a civilization.
In practice
In a historical discussion, one might quote this to emphasize the slow decline of empires.
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.
The 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.
If we have never been amazed by the very fact that we exist, we are squandering the greatest fact of all.
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.
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.
When liberty destroys order the hunger for order will destroy liberty.
If I am right, then (religious fundamentalists) will not go to Heaven, because there is no Heaven. If they are right, then they will not go to Heaven, because they are hypocrites.
Easy, simple and great laws, which await nothing but a sign from the lawgiver to spread prosperity and vigour throughout the nation, laws which would earn him immortal hymns of gratitude down the generations, are those which are least considered or least wanted.
The most formidable people in the world, and now the most dangerous, people who... lay down the doctrine that every frontier must be the starting out point for invasion.
Closure is a greasy little word which, moreover, describes a nonexistent condition. The truth, Venus, is that nobody gets over anything.
It is difficult to write a paradiso when all the superficial indications are that you ought to write an apocalypse.
The great gift of 'Incarceration Nations' is that, by introducing a wide range of approaches to crime, punishment, and questions of justice in diverse countries - Rwanda, South Africa, Brazil, Jamaica, Uganda, Singapore, Australia and Norway - it forces us to face the reality that American-style punishment has been chosen.
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