The civilisation which surrounded Savonarola on every side was a civilisation which had already taken the wrong turn, the turn that leads to endless inventions and no discoveries, in which new things grow old with confounding rapidity, but in which no old things ever grow new.

Civilisation is a word which, with us, is often misused and often misunderstood.

If civilisation is a disease, and if it has attacked England why has she been able to take India, and why is she able to retain it?

But to Pope civilisation was still an exciting experiment.

The civilisation which surrounded Savonarola on every side was a civilisation which had already taken the wrong turn, the turn that leads to endless inventions and no discoveries, in which new things grow old with confounding rapidity, but in which no old things ever grow new.

It is not justified by history, which teaches us that civilisation is the result of the mutual action of Europe and Asia; and that the advanced races of India are our own kinsfolk.

In a sense, early civilisation was really just the process through which older, weaker people used stories to keep younger, stronger people from vying for their power.

The elements that make Europe upon the whole the most humanitarian civilisation are precisely the elements that make it upon the whole the strongest.

The slow civilisation of the world is the strongest proof I know that the battle is going the right way.

But Western civilisation is a devastating and a selfish game.