“In the end, nothing is lost. Every event, for good or evil, has effects forever.”
― Will Durant, quote from The Story of Civilization
“History is mostly guessing, the rest is prejudice.”
― Will Durant, quote from The Story of Civilization
“One of the lessons of history is that the gods can be silent in many languages.”
― Will Durant, quote from The Story of Civilization
“قوة التقاليد تتناسب تناسباً عكسياً مع كثرة القوانين، كما أن قوة الغريزة تتناسب تناسباً عكسياً مع كثرة الأفكار”
― Will Durant, quote from The Story of Civilization
“لأن الحب أمر ليس له وجود لأنه لما كانت العلاقة الجنسية أمراً مباحاً قبل الزواج، فإن عاطفة الرجل لا تجد من السدود ما يختزنها، وقلما يكون لها أثر في اختيار الزوجة؛ وللسبب نفسه، أعني تلاحق الشهوة وتنفيذها بغير فاصل من زمن، ليس لديهم ما يبرر أن يجلس الشاب مفكراً في طوية نفسه، في عاطفته التي احتبست في صدره والتي من أجل احتباسها أخذت تُزَين له الحبيب المُشتَهَى، مما يؤدي عادةً إلى الحب العاطفي عند الشباب؛ إن مثل هذا الحب وظهوره مرهون بالمدنية التي أقامت الأخلاق سدودا أمام الشهوة”
― Will Durant, quote from The Story of Civilization
“ليس هو الجنس العظيم الذي يصنع المدنيّة بل المدينة العظيمة هي التي تخلق الشعوب، لأن الظروف الجغرافية والاقتصادية تخلق ثقافته، والثقافة تخلق النمط الذي يصاغ عليه.”
― Will Durant, quote from The Story of Civilization
“In this loose structure law was weak, unpopular, and diverse. The people preferred to be ruled by custom, and to settle their disputes by face-saving compromises out of court. They expressed their view of litigation by such pithy proverbs as “Sue a flea and catch a bite,” or “Win your lawsuit, lose your money.”
― Will Durant, quote from The Story of Civilization
“المدنية ليست إلا فترة عارضة موقوتة تتخلل وحشية الغابات”
― Will Durant, quote from The Story of Civilization
“المدنية ليست شيئاً مجبولاً في فطرة الإنسان، كلا ولا هي شيء يستعصي على الفناء، إنما هي شيء لا بد أن يكتسبه كل جيل من الأجيال اكتساباً جديداً، فإذا ما حدث اضطراب خطير في عواملهاالاقتصادية أو في طرائق انتقالها من جيل إلى جيل فقد يكون عاملاً على فنائها.”
― Will Durant, quote from The Story of Civilization
“ذلك أن الإنسان إذا ما بدأ يفكر في غده فقد خرج بذلك من جنة عدن إلى وادي الهموم، وحَلّت به صُفرة الغم، وهاهنا يشتد الجشع وتبدأ الملكية، ويزول البشر المتهلل الذي يعرفه الانسان الاول "الخلي من كل تفكير".”
― Will Durant, quote from The Story of Civilization
“إذا ما حكمنا على العظمة بما كان للعظيم من أثرٍ في الناس ؛ قلنا إن محمداً [ صلى الله عليه وسلم ] كان من أعظم عظماء التاريخ”
― Will Durant, quote from The Story of Civilization
“إن المتطرفين في عصر من العصور هم أنفسهم الرجعيون في العصر الذي يليه”
― Will Durant, quote from The Story of Civilization
“إنه لواجب علينا أن يحترم كلًا منا أوهام الآخر”
― Will Durant, quote from The Story of Civilization
“versions of Hippocrates’ Prognostics, Galen On Foods, and”
― Will Durant, quote from The Story of Civilization
“if you are alone, you are all your own; with a companion you are half yourself; so you squander yourself according to the indiscretion of your company.”
― Will Durant, quote from The Story of Civilization
“That’s what’s so difficult about Jesus’ call to love others. On one level, it’s easy to love God, because God doesn’t smell. God doesn’t have bad breath. God doesn’t reward kindness with evil. God doesn’t make berating comments. Loving God is easy, in this sense. But Jesus really let us have it when he attached our love for God with our love for other people.”
― Gary L. Thomas, quote from Sacred Marriage: Celebrating Marriage as a Spiritual Discipline
“El poder -dicen- es como un violín. Se toma con la izquierda y se toca con la derecha.”
― Eduardo Galeano, quote from Days and Nights of Love and War
“[There is] a widespread approach to ideas which Objectivism repudiates altogether: agnosticism. I mean this term in a sense which applies to the question of God, but to many other issues also, such as extra-sensory perception or the claim that the stars influence man’s destiny. In regard to all such claims, the agnostic is the type who says, “I can’t prove these claims are true, but you can’t prove they are false, so the only proper conclusion is: I don’t know; no one knows; no one can know one way or the other.”
The agnostic viewpoint poses as fair, impartial, and balanced. See how many fallacies you can find in it. Here are a few obvious ones: First, the agnostic allows the arbitrary into the realm of human cognition. He treats arbitrary claims as ideas proper to consider, discuss, evaluate—and then he regretfully says, “I don’t know,” instead of dismissing the arbitrary out of hand. Second, the onus-of-proof issue: the agnostic demands proof of a negative in a context where there is no evidence for the positive. “It’s up to you,” he says, “to prove that the fourth moon of Jupiter did not cause your sex life and that it was not a result of your previous incarnation as the Pharaoh of Egypt.” Third, the agnostic says, “Maybe these things will one day be proved.” In other words, he asserts possibilities or hypotheses with no jot of evidential basis.
The agnostic miscalculates. He thinks he is avoiding any position that will antagonize anybody. In fact, he is taking a position which is much more irrational than that of a man who takes a definite but mistaken stand on a given issue, because the agnostic treats arbitrary claims as meriting cognitive consideration and epistemological respect. He treats the arbitrary as on a par with the rational and evidentially supported. So he is the ultimate epistemological egalitarian: he equates the groundless and the proved. As such, he is an epistemological destroyer. The agnostic thinks that he is not taking any stand at all and therefore that he is safe, secure, invulnerable to attack. The fact is that his view is one of the falsest—and most cowardly—stands there can be.”
― Leonard Peikoff, quote from Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand
“The public is fortunate. Everything pleases them: icecream cones, rock concerts, singing, swinging, love, hate, masturbation, hot dogs, country dances, Jesus Christ, roller skating, spiritualism, capitalism, communism, circumcision, comic strips, Bob Hope, skiing, fishing murder bowling debating, anything. They don’t expect much and they don’t get much. They are one grand gang.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from South of No North
“You can control any situation if you first control yourself.”
― quote from The Game Of Life How To Play It
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.