Ronald Wright

“Each time history repeats itself, the price goes up.”

“Civilization is an experiment, a very recent way of life in the long pageant of human existence.”

“The lesson I read in the past is that civilizations succeed or fail according to their ability to solve problems.”

“The reform of a society must come from within.”

“We are now running a civilization on the promise of a future that may never come.”

“The past is a map. A map that has to be studied, not just consulted.”

“Progress has an internal logic that can lead beyond reason to catastrophe.”

“The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change; until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds.”

“We are all descended from people who did terrible things.”

“Myth is an arrangement of the past, whether real or imagined, in patterns that resonate with a culture's deepest values and aspirations.”

“We have become victims of our own success.”

“Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”

“The modern state, with its claimed monopoly on violence, is an invention of the last few centuries.”

“Civilizations are social machines for concentrating power and wealth.”

“The writing of history is always a selection of facts.”

“The great advantage of a novel is that you can put in whatever you want.”