“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
“What should I do?"
"Throw up in your typewriter every morning."
"Yeah."
"Clean up every noon.”
― Ray Bradbury, quote from Death Is a Lonely Business
“Guess what? The Nazis didn't lose the war after all. They won it and flourished. They took over the world and wiped out every last Jew, every last Gypsy, black, East Indian, and American Indian. Then, when they were finished with that, they wiped out the Russians and the Poles and the Bohemians and the Moravians and the Bulgarians and the Serbians and the Croatians--all the Slavs. Then they started in on the Polynesians and the Koreans and the Chinese and the Japanese--all the peoples of Asia. This took a long, long time, but when it was all over, everyone in the world was one hundred percent Aryan, and they were all very, very happy. Naturally the textbooks used in the schools no longer mentioned any race but the Aryan or any language but German or any religion but Hitlerism or any political system but National Socialism. There would have been no point. After a few generations of that, no one could have put anything different into the textbooks even if they'd wanted to, because they didn't know anything different. But one day, two young students were conversing at the University of New Heidelberg in Tokyo. Both were handsome in the usual Aryan way, but one of them looked vaguely worried and unhappy. That was Kurt. His friend said, "What's wrong, Kurt? Why are you always moping around like this?" Kurt said, "I'll tell you, Hans. There is something that's troubling me--and troubling me deeply." His friend asked what it was. "It's this," Kurt said. "I cannot shake the crazy feeling that there is some small thing that we're being lied to about." And that's how the paper ended.'
Ishmael nodded thoughtfully. 'And what did your teacher think of that?'
'He wanted to know if I had the same crazy feeling as Kurt. When I said I did, he wanted to know what I thought we were being lied to about. I said, 'How could I know? I'm no better off than Kurt.”
― Daniel Quinn, quote from Ismael
“I know I said I’d be okay... whether I remembered it or not. But if there’s one thing in the world worth remembering, it’s how you made me feel loved.".”
― Ysa Arcangel, quote from Forever Night Stand
“You better be glad that thing is attached, or it would follow me home. Then I’d have to keep it.”
― Adrienne Wilder, quote from Complementary Colors
“I realized that sharing does not necessarily mean the giving of money or goods; there are times that the greatest gift is to set aside one’s own troubles and listen, to care about another’s heartache.”
― quote from Growing Up bin Laden: Osama's Wife and Son Take Us Inside Their Secret World
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.