What makes a civilization real to its inhabitants, in the end, is not just the splendid edifices at it centre, nor even the smooth functioning of the institutions they house. At its core, a civilization is the texts that are taught in its schools, learned by its students and recollected in times of tribulation. Niall Ferguson
Some Similar Quotes
  1. I do not think I ever opened a book in my life which had not something to say upon woman's inconstancy. Songs and proverbs, all talk of woman's fickleness. But perhaps you will say, these were all written by men."" Perhaps I shall. Yes, yes,... - Jane Austen

  2. What it means to be human is to bring up your children in safety, educate them, keep them healthy, teach them how to care for themselves and others, allow them to develop in their own way among adults who are sane and responsibile, who know... - Jeanette Winterson

  3. The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know. - Michel Legrand

  4. Cinema is the ultimate pervert art. It doesn't give you what you desire - it tells you how to desire. - Unknown

  5. Being vegan is easy. Are there social pressures that encourage you to continue to eat, wear, and use animal products? Of course there are. But in a patriarchal, racist, homophobic, and ableist society, there are social pressures to participate and engage in sexism, racism, homophobia,... - Gary L. Francione

More Quotes By Niall Ferguson
  1. It's all very well for us to sit here in the west with our high incomes and cushy lives, and say it's immoral to violate the sovereignty of another state. But if the effect of that is to bring people in that country economic and...

  2. So much of liberalism in its classical sense is taken for granted in the west today and even disrespected. We take freedom for granted, and because of this we don't understand how incredibly vulnerable it is.

  3. There can be no understanding without that sympathy which puts us, through the imagination, and (another's) situation.

  4. The bacteriologist, often risking his life to find cures for lethal afflictions, was another kind of imperial hero, as brave in his way as the soldier-explorer.

  5. After 1968 the restored communist regime required all Czech rock musicians to sit a written exam in Marxism Leninism

Related Topics