William James Durant (November 5, 1885 – November 7, 1981) was a prolific American writer, historian, and philosopher. He is best known for “The Story of Civilization,” 11 volumes written in collaboration with his wife Ariel Durant and published between 1935 and 1975. He was earlier noted for “The Story of Philosophy,” written in 1926, which one observer described as “a groundbreaking work that helped to popularize philosophy.”

Civilization

By |2022-11-06T17:54:09-06:00May 16th, 2012|Categories: Civilization, Family, Featured, Quotation, Will Durant, Wisdom|

“Civilization is social order promoting cultural creation. Four elements constitute it: economic provision, political organization, moral tradition, and the pursuit of knowledge and the arts. It begins where chaos and insecurity end. For when fear is overcome, curiosity and constructiveness are free, and man passes by natural impulse towards the understanding and embellishment of life.” [...]

This I Believe

By |2021-04-14T12:34:45-05:00February 27th, 2012|Categories: Family, Featured, Quotation, Will Durant, Wisdom|

I find in the Universe so many forms of order, organization, system, law and adjustment of means to ends, that I believe in a cosmic intelligence and I conceive God as the life, mind, order and law of the world. I do not understand my God, and I find in nature and history many instances [...]

Will We Learn from Rome?

By |2021-04-14T12:15:57-05:00January 25th, 2012|Categories: Family, Featured, Rome, Will Durant, Wisdom|

The rise of Rome from a crossroads town to world mastery, its achievement of two centuries of security and peace from the Crimea to Gibraltar and from the Euphrates to Hadrian’s Wall, its spread of classic civilization over the Mediterranean and western European world, its struggle to preserve its ordered realm from a surrounding sea [...]

History Tells Us How Man Has Behaved for Six Thousand Years

By |2021-04-14T12:41:22-05:00January 13th, 2012|Categories: Featured, History, Quotation, Will Durant, Wisdom|

Other studies may tell us how man might behave, or how he should behave; history tells us how he has behaved for six thousand years. One who knows that record is in large measure protected in advance against the delusions and disillusionments of his time. He has learned the limitations of human nature, and bears [...]

Civilization: To be Learned and Earned

By |2020-12-11T17:08:19-06:00March 18th, 2011|Categories: Family, Featured, Liberal Learning, Quotation, Will Durant, Wisdom|

Civilization is not inherited; it has to be learned and earned by each generation anew; if the transmission should be interrupted for one century, civilization would die, and we should be savages again... Consider education not as the painful accumulation of facts and dates and reigns, nor merely the necessary preparation of the individual to [...]

On a Legacy

By |2021-04-14T12:28:48-05:00February 23rd, 2011|Categories: Family, Featured, Quotation, Will Durant, Wisdom|

If a man is fortunate he will, before he dies, gather up as much as he can of his civilized heritage and transmit it to his children. And to his final breath he will be grateful for this inexhaustible legacy, knowing that it is our nourishing mother and our lasting life. —The Lessons of History [...]

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