#civilization

The construction of civilizational difference is not exclusive in any simple sense. The de-essentialization of Islam is paradigmatic for all thinking about the assimilation of non-European peoples to European civilization. The idea that people's historical experience is inessential to them, that it can be shed at will, makes it possible to argue more strongly for the Enlightenment's claim to universality: Muslims, as members of the abstract category "humans," can be assimilated or (as some recent theorist have put it) "translated" into a global ("European") civilization once they have divested themselves of what many of them regard (mistakenly) as essential to themselves. The belief that human beings can be separated from their histories and traditions makes it possible to urge a Europeanization of the Islamic world. And by the same logic, it underlies the belief that the assimilation to Europe's civilization of Muslim immigrants who are--for good or for ill--already in European states is necessary and desirable. ↗

— Talal Asad

#eurabia #europe #european #islam #modernity-tags-civilization

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

This law … defines the limits of competition in the community of life. You may compete to the full extent of your capabilities, but you may not hunt down your competitors or destroy their food or deny them access to food. In other words, you may compete but you may not wage war. ↗

— Daniel Quinn

#ecology #exploitation #philosophy #food

I believe with all my heart that civilization has produced nothing finer than a man or woman who thinks and practices true tolerance. ↗

— Frank Knox

#civilization #finer #heart #i #i believe

Civilization rests on the fact that most people do the right thing most of the time. ↗

— Dean Koontz

#do the right thing #fact #most #people #rests

If the lives of men can be measured in terms of years, ideologies in decades, and nations in centuries, then the unit measuring civilizations, born of the interaction among peoples, would be the millennium. ↗

— Abdelaziz Bouteflika

#born #centuries #civilizations #decades #ideologies

Monuments and archaeological pieces serve as testimonies of man's greatness and establish a dialogue between civilizations showing the extent to which human beings are linked. ↗

— Vincente Fox

#beings #between #civilizations #dialogue #establish

You think that a wall as solid as the earth separates civilization from barbarism. I tell you the division is a thread, a sheet of glass. A touch here, a push there, and you bring back the reign of Saturn. ↗

— John Buchan

#barbarism #bring #civilization #division #earth

Iraq is no diversion. It is a place where civilization is taking a decisive stand against chaos and terror, we must not waver. ↗

— George W. Bush

#chaos #civilization #decisive #diversion #iraq