The past is not dead. Indeed, it is often not even past.

As long as there is poverty there will be gods.

Science gives us knowledge, but only philosophy can give us wisdom.

In its youth a people produce mythology and poetry; in its decadence, philosophy and logic.

A statesman cannot afford to be a moralist.

Which is now a more hopeful statement than Swift intended it to be.

Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting and doing the things historians usually record, while on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry and even whittle statues. The story of civilization is what happened on the banks.