India was the motherland of our race, and Sanskrit the mother of Europe's languages: she was the mother of our philosophy; mother, through the Arabs, of much of our mathematics; mother, through the Buddha, of the ideals embodied in Christianity; mother, through the village community, of self-government and democracy. Mother India is in many ways the mother of us all.
Will DurantThat a few simple men should in one generation have invented so powerful and appealing a personality, so lofty ethic, and so inspiring a vision of human brotherhood, would be a miracle far more incredible than any recorded in the Gospels.
Will DurantThe fear of capitalism has compelled socialism to widen freedom, and the fear of socialism has compelled capitalism to increase equality. East is West and West is East, and soon the twain will meet.
Will DurantTime sanctifies everything; even the most arrant theft in the hands of the robber's grandchildren becomes sacred and inviolable property.
Will DurantWe Americans are the best informed people on earth as to the events of the last twenty-four hours; we are the not the best informed as the events of the last sixty centuries.
Will DurantMan is an emotional animal, occasionally rational; and through his feelings he can be deceived to his heart's content.
Will DurantThe political machine triumphs because it is a united minority acting against a divided majority.
Will DurantFriends are helpful not only because they will listen to us, but because they will laugh at us; Through them we learn a little objectivity, a little modesty, a little courtesy; We learn the rules of life and become better players of the game
Will DurantIf I were rich I would have many books, and I would pamper myself with bindings bright to the eye and soft to the touch, paper generously opaque, and type such as men designed when printing was very young. I would dress my gods in leather and gold, and burn candles of worship before them at night, and string their names like beads on a string.
Will DurantEvery vice was once a virtue, and may become respectable again, just as hatred becomes respectable in wartime.
Will DurantHistory is so indifferently rich, that a case for almost any conclusion from it can be made by a selection of instances.
Will DurantTo speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves; let us be above such transparent egotism. If you can't say good and encouraging things, say nothing. Nothing is often a good thing to do, and always a clever thing to say.
Will DurantDestroy it. There may be a redistribution of the land, but the natural inequality of men soon re-creates an inequality of possessions and privileges, and raises to power a new minority with essentially the same instincts as the old.
Will DurantBankers know that history is inflationary and that money is the last thing a wise man will hoard
Will DurantForced to choose, the poor, like the rich, love money more than political liberty; and the only political freedom capable of enduring is one that is so pruned as to keep the rich from denuding the poor by ability or subtlety and the poor from robbing the rich by violence or votes.
Will DurantScience tells us how to heal and how to kill; it reduces our death rate in retail and then kills us wholesale in war; but only wisdom - desire coordinated in the light of all experience - can tell us when to heal and when to kill.
Will DurantGrow strong, my comrade … that you may stand Unshaken when I fall; that I may know The shattered fragments of my song will come At last to finer melody in you; That I may tell my heart that you begin Where passing I leave off, and fathom more.
Will DurantPhilosophy is harmonized knowledge making a harmonious life; it is the self-discipline which lifts us to serenity and freedom. Knowledge is power, but only wisdom is liberty.
Will DurantA great civilization is not conquered from without, until it has destroyed itself from within. The essential causes of Rome's decline lay in her people, her morals, her class struggle, her failing trade, her bureaucratic despotism, her stifling taxes, her consuming wars.
Will DurantThe most interesting thing in the world is another human being who wonders, suffers and raises the questions that have bothered him to the last day of his life, knowing he will never get the answers.
Will DurantPaul created a theology of which none but the vaguest warrants can be found in the words of Christ.
Will DurantA cat has a reputation to protect. If it had a halo, it would be worn cocked to one side.
Will DurantWe have conferred a mystic popularity upon officials whose only virtue is their timidity; while our scorn of rebels and reformers is so great that we have ceased to persecute them. The capitals and governments of the world are in the hands of caution; and change comes over them only in the night, unseen.
Will DurantPower dements even more than it corrupts, lowering the guard of foresight and raising the haste of action.
Will DurantIt is true that even across the Himalayan barrier India has sent to the west, such gifts as grammar and logic, philosophy and fables, hypnotism and chess, and above all numerals and the decimal system.
Will DurantArt lies in conceiving and designing, not in the actual execution' - this was left for lesser minds.
Will DurantIt may be true that you can't fool all the people all the time, but you can fool enough of them to rule a large country.
Will DurantIt came to me that reform should begin at home, and since that day I have not had time to remake the world.
Will Durant