Ariel Durant

“A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.”

“The great man is a public misfortune.”

“The family is the nucleus of civilization.”

“Forget mistakes. Forget failure. Forget everything except what you're going to do now and do it. Today is your lucky day.”

“The influence of a mother in the lives of her children is beyond calculation.”

“Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing... while on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, raise children... The story of civilization is what happened on the banks.”

“To have a purpose for which to live is the greatest of all needs.”

“What we are is what we have been. What we will be is what we do now.”

“About the beautiful and the good there is a consensus of generations. The supreme work of art is the complete man.”

“The future never just happened, it was created.”

“Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.”