#civilization

There's no such thing as civilization. The word just means the art of living in cities. ↗

— Roger Zelazny

#culture #war #art

But you have to understand, my beard is so nasty. I mean, it's the only beard in the history of Western civilization that makes Bob Dylan's beard look good. ↗

— Bill Walton

#bob #civilization #dylan #good #history

‎'If a man walk in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer; but if he spends his whole day as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making earth bald before her time, he is esteemed an industrious and enterprising citizen. As if a town had no interest in its forests but to cut them down! ↗

— Henry David Thoreau

#nature #philosophy #life

Have you noticed how dogs sniff at one another when they meet? It seems to be their nature. - Yes; it's a funny habit. - No, it's not funny; you are wrong there. There's nothing funny in nature, however funny it may seem to man. If dogs could reason and criticize us they'd be sure to find just as much that would be funny to them, if not far more, in the social relations of men, their masters -far more, I think. I am more convinced that there is far more foolishness among us. ↗

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

#nature #society #funny

There are many humorous things in the world; among them, the white man's notion that he is less savage than the other savages. ↗

— Mark Twain

#savages #humor

We are all proprietary toward cities we love. 'Ah, you should have seen her when I loved her!' we say, reciting glories since faded or defiled, trusting her to no one else; that others should know and love her in her present fallen state (for she must fall without our vigilant love) is a species of betrayal. ↗

— Barbara Grizzuti Harrison

#civilization #great-cities #love

‎Civilization has been a continuous struggle of the individual or of groups of individuals against the State and even against "society," that is, against the majority subdued and hypnotized by the State and State worship. ↗

— Emma Goldman

#freedom #government #liberty #society #state

All you have to do [to win a Pulitzer Prize] is spend your life running from one awful place to another, write about every horrible thing you see. The civilized world reads about it, then forgets it, but pats you on the head for doing it and gives you a reward as appreciation for changing nothing. ↗

— David Baldacci

#change #civilization #detachment #journalism #mankind

In its broad sense, civilization means not only comfort in daily necessities but also the refining of knowledge and the cultivation of virtue so as to elevate human life to a higher plane. ↗

— Yukichi Fukuzawa

#civilization #culture #humanity #inspirational #inspirational

America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization. ↗

— Georges Clemenceau

#barbarism #civilization #degeneration #directly #gone