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181 " So the conservative who resists change is as valuable as the radical who proposes it—perhaps as much more valuable as roots are more vital than grafts. "
― Will Durant , The Lessons of History
182 " But the new generation had tasted the wine of philosophy; and from this time onward the rich youth of Rome went eagerly to Athens and Rhodes to exchange their oldest faith for the newest doubts. "
― Will Durant , Caesar and Christ (Story of Civilization, #3)
183 " يقول شوبنهاور: إن كل الملاحم التمثيلية لا يسعها إلا أن تصوّر نزاعاً وجهداً وقتالاً من أجل السعادة ولكنها لا تحتمل السعادة نفسها أبداً. وهي تسير بأبطالها إلى آلاف المخاطر والمصاعب للوصول إلى الهدف المنشود، وبمجرد أن يبلغ هؤلاء الأبطال أهدافهم تسارع القصة إلى إسدال الستار إذ لم يعد لها شيء بعد ذلك لتظهره سوى أن الهدف اللامع البرّاق الذي توقع البطل أن يجد فيه السعادة قد خيّب أمله، وأنه لم يكن بعد بلوغه أسعد حالاً منه قبل بلوغه. "
― Will Durant , The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers
184 " It is a mistake to think that the past is dead. Nothing that has ever happened is quite without influence at this moment. The present is merely the past rolled up and concentrated in this second of time.As quoted in "The Gentle Philosopher" Will Durant "
― Will Durant
185 " The form of Christianity that developed in Europe and later spread to America and the rest of the world was the last great creation of the ancient pagan world. "
186 " The illustrious ancients,when they wished to make clear and to propagate the highest virtues in the world, put their states in proper order. Before putting their states in proper order, they regulated their families. Before regulating their families, they cultivated their own selves. Before cultivating their own selves, they perfected their souls. Before perfecting their souls, they tried to be sincere in their thoughts. Before trying to be sincere in their thoughts, they extended to the utmost their knowledge. "
― Will Durant , The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time
187 " Facts" replaced understanding; and knowledge, split into a thousand isolated fragments, no longer generated wisdom. "
188 " India was the motherland of our race and Sanskrit the mother of Europe's languages. India was the mother of our philosophy, of much of our mathematics, of the ideals embodied in Christianity... of self-government and democracy. In many ways, Mother India is the mother of us all. "
189 " Peace is war by other means. "
190 " Morality, said Jesus, is kindness to the weak; morality, said Nietzsche, is the bravery of the strong; morality, says Plato, is the effective harmony of the whole. "
191 " We are choked with News and starved of History. "
192 " Economic development specializes functions, differentiates abilities, and makes men unequally valuable to their group. "
193 " As to the people they have no understanding, and only repeat what their rulers are pleased to tell them” (Protagoras, 317); to get a doctrine accepted or rejected it is only necessary to have it praised or ridiculed in a popular play (a hit, no doubt, at Aristophanes, whose comedies attacked almost every new idea). Mob-rule is a rough sea for the ship of state to ride; every wind of oratory stirs up the waters and deflects the course. The upshot of such a democracy is tyranny or autocracy; the crowd so loves flattery, it is so “hungry for honey,” that at last the wiliest and most unscrupulous flatterer, calling himself the “protector of the people” rises to supreme power (565). "
194 " Human behavior, says Plato, flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge. "
195 " He who leaves his home in search of knowledge walks in the path of God … and the ink of the scholar is holier than the blood of the martyr”; "
― Will Durant , The Age of Faith (The Story of Civilization, #4)
196 " Generally religion and puritanism prevail in periods when the laws are feeble and morals must bear the burden of maintaining social order; skepticism and paganism (other factors being equal) progress as the rising power of law and government permits the decline of the church, the family, and morality without basically endangering the stability of the state. "
197 " it was fear that first made the gods”25 —fear of hidden forces in the earth, rivers, oceans, trees, winds, and sky. Religion became the propitiatory worship of these forces through offerings, sacrifice, incantation, and prayer. "
198 " Nothing is impossible to gods and authors. "
199 " Utopias of equality are biologically doomed, and the best that the amiable philosopher can hope for is an approximate equality of legal justice and educational opportunity. A "
200 " Custom gives the same stability to the group that heredity and instinct give to the species, and habit to the individual. It is the routine that keeps men sane; for if there were no grooves along which thought and action might move with unconscious ease, the mind would be perpetually hesitant, and would soon take refuge in lunacy. "
― Will Durant , Our Oriental Heritage (The Story of Civilization, #1)
