#civilization

si tu examines mon empire tu t'en iras voir les forgerons et les trouveras forgeant des clous et se passionnant pour les clous et te chantant les cantiques de la clouterie. Puis tu t'en iras voir les bucherons et tu les trouveras abattant arbres et se passionnant pour l'abattage d'arbres, et se remplissant d'une intense jubilation à l'heure de la fête du bucheron, qui est du premier craquement, lorsque la majesté de l'arbre commence de se prosterner. Et si tu vas voir les astronaumes, tu les verras se passionnant pour les étoiles et n'écoutant plus que leur silence. Et en effet chacun s'imagine être tel. Maintenant si je te demande: "Que se passe-t-il dans mon empire, que naîtra-t-il demain chez moi?" tu me diras: "On forgera des clous, on abattra des arbres, on observera les étoiles et il y aura donc des réserves de clous, des réserves de bois et des observations d'étoiles." Car myope et le nez contre, tu n'as point reconnu la construction d'un navire. (chapitre CXVII) ↗

— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

#humankind #imagination

And we were taught to play golf. Golf epitomizes the tame world. On a golf course nature is neutered. The grass is clean, a lawn laundry that wipes away the mud, the insect, the bramble, nettle and thistle, an Eezy-wipe lawn where nothing of life, dirty and glorious, remains. Golf turns outdoors into indoors, a prefab mat of stultified grass, processed, pesticided, herbicided, the pseudo-green of formica sterility. Here, the grass is not singing. The wind cannot blow through it. Dumb expression, greenery made stupid, it hums a bland monotone in the key of the mono-minded. No word is emptier than a golf tee. No roots, it has no known etymology, it is verbal nail polish. Worldwide, golf is an arch act of enclosure, a commons fenced and subdued for the wealthy, trampling serf and seedling. The enemy of wildness, it is a demonstration of the absolute dominion of man over wild nature. ↗

— Jay Griffiths

#nature #western-civilization #wilderness #life

I think really, China, Chinese, I think they really have a long history of civilization, rich culture. ↗

— Dalai Lama

#chinese #civilization #culture #history #i

Each man has an equal social right to multiply his power of motion by all the social factors of civilization. Private property in any of these factors is inconsistent with this fundamental right; it must, obviously, prove a source of economic despotism and industrial slavery. ↗

— Daniel De Leon

#civilization #despotism #each #economic #equal

Civilization never stands still; if in one country it is falling back, in another it is changing, evolving, becoming more complicated, bringing fresh experience to body and mind, breeding new desires, and exploiting Nature's cupboard for their satisfaction. ↗

— Arthur Keith

#back #becoming #body #breeding #bringing

It is not possible for civilization to flow backwards while there is youth in the world. Youth may be headstrong, but it will advance it allotted length. ↗

— Helen Keller

#allotted #backwards #civilization #flow #headstrong

To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization. ↗

— Arnold J. Toynbee

#able #civilization #fill #intelligently #last

Civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities. ↗

— Mark Twain

#limitless #multiplication #necessities #unnecessary

Thus lynch law held sway in the far West until civilization spread into the Territories and the orderly processes of law took its place. The emergency no longer existing, lynching gradually disappeared from the West. ↗

— Ida B. Wells

#disappeared #emergency #existing #far #gradually

And we owe science to the combined energies of individual men of genius, rather than to any tendency to progress inherent in civilization. ↗

— Chauncey Wright

#civilization #combined #energies #genius #individual