Civilization Quotes

Representatives of society and of art graciously mingled, since it is discovered that it is easier to make art fashionable than to make fashion artistic. ~ The Golden House by Charles Dudley Warner "I'm not sure he's wrong about automobiles," he said. "With all their speed forward they may be a step backward in civilization--that is, in spiritual civilization." ~ The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington "The majority is never right. Never, I tell you! That's one of these lies in society that no free and intelligent man can help rebelling against. Who are the people that make up the biggest proportion of the population -- the intelligent ones or the fools? I think we can agree it's the fools, no matter where you go in this world, it's the fools that form the overwhelming majority." ~ An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen Yet birth, and lust, and illness, and death are changeless things, and when one of these harsh facts springs out upon a man at some sudden turn of the path of life, it dashes off for the moment his mask of civilization and gives a glimpse of the stranger and stronger face below. ~ The Curse of Eve by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Not a whit, Touchstone. Those that are good manners at the court are as ridiculous in the country as the behaviour of the country is most mockable at the court. ~ As You Like It by William Shakespeare "I have always maintained that the one important phenomenon presented by modern society is -- the enormous prosperity of Fools." ~ No Name by Wilkie Collins "Society is built on marriage," came from between her father's close lips; "marriage and its consequences." ~ The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy "No one has ever said it," observed Lady Caroline, "but how painfully true it is that the poor have us always with them." ~ The Unbearable Bassington by Saki Thus, cases of injustice, and oppression, and tyranny, and the most extravagant bigotry, are in constant occurrence among us every day. It is the custom to trumpet forth much wonder and astonishment at the chief actors therein setting at defiance so completely the opinion of the world; but there is no greater fallacy; it is precisely because they do consult the opinion of their own little world that such things take place at all, and strike the great world dumb with amazement. ~ Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens He was a ferocious man. He had been ill-made in the making. He had not been born right, and he had not been helped any by the moulding he had received at the hands of society. The hands of society are harsh, and this man was a striking sample of its handiwork. ~ White Fang by Jack London