CIVILIZATION - HISTORY
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Civilization is the making of a civil person. – John Ruskin
Of all religions, the Christian should, of course, inspire the most tolerance, but until now Christians have been the most intolerant of all men. – Voltaire
The care of public health is the first duty of a statesman. – Benjamin Disraeli
It does not matter how slow you go as long as you don’t stop. – Confucius
“I am a historian; I am not a believer, but I must confess that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably at the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history.” – H. G. Wells – THE OUTLINE OF HISTORY
It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision. – Helen Keller
It is easier to build strong children than it is to repair broken men. – Frederick Douglass
Ours is a world of ethical infants. We know more about war than we do about peace. We know more about killing than we do about living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. – (General) Omar Bradley
“False science is the excrement of the true.” – Victor Hugo – THE MAN WHO LAUGHS
In every conceivable manner, the family is a link to our past and a bridge to our future. – Alex Haley
When we are no longer able to change the situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. – Viktor Frankl
No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive. – Mohandas Gandhi
“If the science of global warming is a slam dunk, why are CRU researchers keen on hiding the research?” – Jonah Goldberg – USA Today - 1990s
As the centuries pass, the evidence is accumulating that, measured by his effect on history, Jesus is the most influential life that ever lived on this planet. – Kenneth Latourette (Historian)
One of the biggest problems of modern-day Christianity is that it has adopted a belief system ABOUT Jesus rather than adopting the religion OF Jesus. By accepting the mystical Trinity, they have elevated Jesus ABOVE the father that he depended on and prayed to, corrupting what he taught in the Sermon on the Mount into a philosophy of unpersuasive dogma that has no relevance to their personal relationship to God. – Gary Pulliam
Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty. – Ronald Reagan
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Whoever sets himself up as a Judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods. – Albert Einstein
Instead of building fancy shrines, why don’t these wealthy evangelists build temporary shelters for the homeless and job training centers for the unemployed? – Gary Pulliam
A happy family is but an earlier heaven. – John Browning
The directions in which society is moving have become infinitely more complex, and for many of us the dilemmas are terrifying. What guidance can professional historians offer to confused people today? Not very much, it seems. – Pardon E. Tillinghast (Historian)
Character matters. Leadership descends from character. – Rush Limbaugh
“German’s themselves are grappling with a conflict about this among their historians—how to fit this unique event into German history, into the German and European imagination.” – Thomas Keneally (Author) – SCHLINDLER’S LIST
Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities, has the power to make you commit injustices. – Voltaire
The heresy of one age becomes the orthodoxy of the next. – Helen Keller
Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creation of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love, and at this hour millions of men would die for Him. – Napoleon
If we silence opinion, we may be silencing the truth. – John Stuart Mill
“Any history told by the wielders of power must be regarded with utmost suspicion.” – Michael Stanford (Historian) – A COMPANION FOR THE STUDY OF HISTORY
How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant with the weak and strong. Because someday in your life, you will have been all these. – George Washington Carver
What you do not want others to do to you, do not do to the others. – Confucius
“I know a way out of hell. Find a child, a child whose mother and father have been killed, a little boy about this high, and raise him as your own. Only be sure he is a Muslim, and raise him as one.” – Ben Kingsley as Gandhi to a Hindu murderer. – GANDHI – John Briley (Screenplay)
There is little hope for democracy if the hearts of men and women cannot be touched by a call to something greater than themselves. – Margaret Thatcher
A library implies an act of faith. – Victor Hugo
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The telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us. – Western Union to Alexander Graham Bell when offered the patent in 1876.
History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be “lived” again. – Maya Angelou
Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny. – Edmund Burke
“We are being confronted by something so outside our collective experience that we don’t really see it, even when the evidence is overwhelming. For us, that something is a blitz of enormous biological and physical alterations in the world that has been sustaining us.” – Ed Ayres – A GREEN HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Political correctness doesn’t change us, it shuts us up. – Glenn Beck
When atheists claim to be “offended” by the mere existence of silent prayer being allowed in the classroom, then all prayer is being censored in all schools, whether any atheists are present or not. These offended parties are never told to be more tolerant or to develop respect for the opinions of others. Any person of faith is routinely portrayed as old-fashioned or anti-intellectual. This a a sure sign of the collapse of our culture. – Gary Pulliam
You must be the change you wish to see in the world. – Mohandas Gandhi
Every reform movement has a lunatic fringe. – Theodore Roosevelt
Republics decline into democracies, and democracies decline into despotisms. – Aristotle
Nothing is more important for historians than to chart cause and effect. – Gerald Schlabach (Historian}
A house divided against itself cannot stand. – Abraham Lincoln
Although today there are many trial marriages, there is no such thing as a trial child. – Gary Wills, quoted by Gail Sheehy in PASSAGES
No matter how many communes anybody invents, the family always creeps back. – Margaret Mead
The former Soviet Union expunged the name Trotsky from the record, so the commissar’s existence disappeared. Who was Trotsky? He was a leader in the Russian Revolution, second only to Lenin. After Lenin’s death, Trotsky clashed with Stalin, was expelled from the Communist Party, and was later murdered. His name was even expunged from Soviet encyclopedias. Such distortions are commonplace as a result of absolute power. – TRUTH IN HISTORY
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Without publicity there can be no public support, and without public support every nation must decay. – Benjamin Disraeli
Storms make trees take deeper roots. – Dolly Parton
It is dangerous to be right on matters on which the established authorities are wrong. – Voltaire
Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires that same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle. – Helen Keller
To believe in something and not live it is dishonest. – Mohandas Gandhi
I didn’t know I was a slave until I found out I couldn’t do the things I wanted. – Frederick Douglass
A knowledge of history brings a feeling that we are part of a fellowship that runs through the ages from long before our - COMPANION TO THE STUDY OF HISTORY
What’s done to children they will do to society. – Dr. Karl Meninger
Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that unless we love the truth, we cannot know it. – Blaise Pascal
Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to a teenager. – P. J. O’Rourke
“Misery has to hide itself in silence—or it becomes treason.” – Victor Hugo – THE MAN WHOLAUGHS
I think there is a world market for about 5 computers. – Thomas J. Watson, chairman of IBM – 1943
A wrong opinion may contain part of the truth we seek. – John Stuart Mill
The soldiers fight but kings are the heroes. – Jewish proverb
We need to learn to set our course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship. – (General) Omar Bradley
What we inherit from previous generations, not materially, but spiritually and intellectually, is our real legacy. – Gary Pulliam
Books may be the only true magic. – Alice Huffman
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. – Lao Tzu
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Failure is the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently. – Henry Ford
No nation ever taxed itself into prosperity. – Rush Limbaugh
People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid. – Soren A. Kierkegaard
There is no king that has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his. – Helen Keller
No success in public life can compensate for failure in the home. – Benjamin Disraeli
“The Holocaust is the most extreme version of rootless race hate in European history. Classic European anti-Semitism was based more on the idea that Jews had killed Christ and were engaged in anti-European philosophy and financial conspiracy than on any measurable harm to Europe. No one could point to any Jewish massacres of Christians.” – Thomas Keneally (Author) - SCHLINDLER’S LIST
It is forbidden to kill—therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers to the sound of trumpets. – Voltaire
No one ever drowned in his own sweat. – Ann Landers
He who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool, and he who does not is a slave. – William Drummond
Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime. – Aristotle
“Prison not only rots a man, it preserves him.” – Victor Hugo – THE MAN WHO LAUGHS
We have been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We are cleaning up the air, but polluted the soul. We have conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We’ve learn to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, but we communicate less and less. – George Carlin
“The past is the source of knowledge, and the future is the source of hope. Love of the past implies faith in the future.” – Stephen Ambrose – FAST COMPANY
If we continue to develop our technology, without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner. – (General) Omar Bradley
Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts—the book of their deeds, the book of their words, and the book of their art. – John Ruskin
In every culture with a written history, there has always been a hope for the future, spurred on by the preservation of family and the eternal search for God. – Gary Pulliam
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“A new form of religious community appeared for the first time in history: not a nation celebrating its patriotic cult, but a voluntary group in which social, racial and national distinctions were transcended: men and women coming together as individuals, before their god.” – Paul Johnson – A HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY
Science is not only compliant with spirituality—it’s a profound source of spirituality. – Carl Sagan
You can’t get rid of poverty by giving people money. – P. J. O’Rourke
If we have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. – Isaac Newton
Commonly held opinions are not held rationally. They are prejudiced until we are forced to defend them. – John Stuart Mill
“The great do what they like—the little do what they can.” – Victor Hugo – THE MAN WHO LAUGHS
Assassination is the extreme form of censorship. – George Bernard Shaw
“Now this is known as the thagomizer, after the late Thag Simmons.” – A caveman instructing his fellow student, pointing to the spikes on the tail of a triceratops dinosaur. – Gary Larson – THE FAR SIDE
This land is your land and this land is my land, sure, but the world is run by people who never listen to music anyway. – Bob Dylan
Anger and intolerance are the twin enemies of correct understanding. – Mohandas Gandhi
The underlying responsibility of the Holocaust lies not with Europe as Thomas Kennealy asserts, it lies with the churches—yes, organized religion—because they failed to teach and to act on the truth. They turned their backs on what was really happening. They could have helped prevent it in the first place. – Gary Pulliam
We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat. – Martin Luther King Jr.
“Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question now what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” – George Orwell – Conclusion of ANIMAL FARM
I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it. – Voltaire
When women are depressed, they eat or go shopping. Men invade another country. – Elayne Boosler
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Every Civilization that has ever existed has ultimately collapsed. History is a tale of efforts that failed, of aspirations that weren’t realized, so as a historian, one has to live with a sense of the inevitability of tragedy. – Henry Kissinger (former U.S. Secretary of State)
Fear is pain rising from the anticipation of evil. – Aristotle
I love Victor Hugo because he communicated to be the social conscience of the downtrodden. He was not afraid to condemn society, politics and religion. He elevated the sanctity of life and his works became a platform for political and social reform. – Gary Pulliam on Victor Hugo
One of the greater mischiefs that confront us today is the growing DEBASEMENT of the LANGUAGE, on the one hand vulgarized, and civilization on the other, corrupted, with a particular odious academic jargon. This is dangerous. A civilization which loses power over its own language has lost its power over the instrument by which it thinks. Without some power there is neither greatness nor accuracy of thought. – Unknown - Editorial in Dallas Morning News - 1980
You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can never fool all of the people all of the time. – Abraham Lincoln
“An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.” – Victor Hugo – A HISTORY OF A CRIME
Mistakes are a fact of life—it’s the response to error that counts. – Nikki Giovanni
The greatest question of our time is not communism verses individualism, not Europe verses America, not even East verses West, it is whether men can live without God. – Will Durant (Historian / writer)
The biggest threat to our well-being is the absence of moral clarity and purpose. – Rick Sherman
It’s not so much thar poverty breeds crime—crime breeds poverty! – Someone real smart
More and more people care about religious tolerance as fewer and fewer care about religion. – Alexander Chase
When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literature dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow. – Anais Nin
Disturbances in society are never more fearful than when those who are stirring up the trouble can use the pretext of religion to mask their true design. – Denis Diderot
“A National sales tax also encourages savings and investments. A national sales tax would radically change the way government does business, and it would also encourage everyone to be in charge of their own money. It would slowly motivate people to relinquish their dependence on government entitlements and subsidies.” – Russell D. Longmore – A TAX POLICY FOR A NEW NATION.
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“A government is good when those near are happy and those far off are attracted.” – Confucius – ANELECTS – (XIII:16)
Unless commonly held opinions are forced to be defended from time to time, they lose their vitality. – John Stuart Mill
“To live without history is to live without a form of memory. Without history, you, your family, your tribe, even your nation would seem to be without roots, without a past. The present would seem to have no foundation and little if any meaning.” – HISTORY - SHOULD WE TRUST IT? – Personal viewpoint – 2001
Who are the ‘They’ that have been misleading us? ‘They’ are the materialists who defy the finite sciences. Every ugly headline in today’s newspapers—yesterday’s and tomorrow’s—is somebody’s emotion gone out of whack. Many of today’s youths are unguided missiles destined to inevitably self-destruct. – Paul Harvey
“Europe has pursued ant-Semitism consistently since the Middle ages, and has yet to repent of it.” – Thomas Keneally – Excerpts – Author of SCHLINDLER’S LIST – 1993
Pursuing peace is more important than being right. – Gary Pulliam
If men could learn from history—what lessons might it teach us! But Passion and Party blind our eyes, and the light which Experience gives is a lantern on the stern which shines only on the waves behind us! – Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The majority of the Crusaders had an absolute conviction that in taking the cross, they were enlisting directly in the service of God Himself…they saw themselves in the role of destroying angels falling on the children of the devil. – Zoe Oldenbourg (Historian)
“Death on the battlefield against the infidel would be followed by entry into paradise.” (Writing on the similarity between Muslims and “Christians” during the Crusades) – Historian J.M. Roberts –A SHORTER HISTORY OF THE WORLD
“Have not charismatic leaders repeatedly moved countless millions of people—who never would have contemplated such conduct—into savage and barbarous wars against their religious and political opponents? The call to arms on both sides of the conflict and the claims that God is with each side legitimized the violent suppression of political and religious opposition. It was part of a well-established pattern that has served the interests of tyrants for many centuries. It would serve as architects of the Holocaust and modern ethnic cleansers as surely as it launched the first Crusade.” – THE NATIONS ARE STILL NOT LEARNING – Neutral viewpoint - 2002
Social Darwinism fostered the idea that war was a legitimate means of eradicating those species not worthy to survive. – Phil Williams, writer – 2002
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“Wisdom is the most important thing, so acquire wisdom, and with all you acquire, acquire understanding.” – Solomon – Prov. 4:7 – HOLY SCRIPTURES
If after, all, men cannot make history have meaning, they can always act so that their own lives have one. – Albert Camus
Every violation of truth is not only suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“And some of those having insight will be made to stumble, in order to do a refining work because of them and to do a cleansing and a whitening until the time of the end; because it is yet for the appointed time.” – Prophet Daniel – Dan 11:35 – Holy Scriptures - c. 536 B.C.E.
“Brothers, do not become young children in your understanding, but be young children as to badness, and become full-grown in your understanding.” – Apostle Paul – 1 Cor. 14:20 – The HOLY SCRIPTURES
“Trust in Jehovah with all your heart. And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways take notice of him. And he will make your paths straight.” – King Solomon – Prov. 3:5,6 – The HOLY SCRIPTURES
