Man is essentially the imitative animal. His whole educabilityand in fact the whole history of civilization depend on this trait, which his strong tendencies to rivalry, jealousy, and acquisitiveness reinforce.

-James,William
  The Principles of Psychology, ch.24.

In order to imbue civilization with sound principles and enliven it with the spirit of the gospel, it is not enough to be illumined with the gift of faith and enkindled with the desire of forwarding a good cause. For this end it is necessary to take an active part in the various organizationsand influencethemfromwithin. And since our present age is one of outstanding scientific and technical progress and excellence, one will not be able to enter these organizations and work effectively from within unless he is scientifically competent, technically capableand skilled in the practice of his own profession.

-PopeJohn XXIII originally Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli
  Pacem in Terris,10  Apr.

Every civilization that has ever existed has ultimately collapsed.

-Kissinger, HenryAlfred
  In the NewYork Times,13 Oct.

It is stupid of modern civilization to have given up believing in the devil, when he is the only explanation of it.

-Knox, Ronald Arbuthnot
  Let Dons Delight, ch.8.

I have seen the science I worshipped and the aircraft I loved, destroying the civilization I expected them to serve.

-Lindbergh, Charles A(ugustus)
  In Time, 26 May.

Dessa civiliza c° a‹  o so¤   pode sair quem tem como fun c° a‹  o especial a de sair: a um cientista e¤   dada a licen c° a, a um padre e¤   dada a permissa‹  o. Mas na‹  o a uma mulher que nem sequer tem as garantias de um t|¤tulo. Only he whose special function is departure can depart from that civilization: a scientist isgiven license, a priest isgiven permission. But these are not given to a woman who does not even have the guarantee of a title.

-Lispector, Clarice
  A Paixa‹  o Segundo G.H. ( The Passion  According to G.H.).

   By thetest of our faith thehighest standard ofcivilization is the readiness to sacrifice for others.

-Lloyd George (of Dwyfor), David, 1st Earl
  Speech in Queen's Hall, London, 21 Sep.

The fate of human civilization will depend on whether the rockets of the future carry the astronomer's telescope or a hydrogen bomb.

-Lovell, Sir (Alfred Charles) Bernard
  The Individual and the Universe.

We do not like the confiding, the intimate, the ingratiating, the hail-fellow-well-met, but prefer the unapproachable, the hard-bitten, the recalcitrant, the sinister, the malignant, the saturnine, the cross-grained and the cankered, and the howling wilderness to the amenities of civilization, the irascible to the affable, the prickly to the smooth.We have no damned fellow- feeling at all.

-Grieve
  'The Dour Drinkers of Glasgow', in The American Mercury, Mar.

The sense of a long last night over civilization is back again.

-Mailer, Norman Kingsley
  Cannibals and Christians,'Introducing Our Argument'.

The word 'civilization'to my mind is coupled with death. When I use the word, I see civilization as a crippling, thwarting thing, a stultifying thing† Civilization is the arteriosclerosis of culture.

-Miller, Henry Valentine
  Interview in the Paris Review, Summer.

To walk through the ruined cities of Germany is to feel actual doubt about the continuity of civilization.

-Orwell, George pseudonym of  Eric Arthur Blair
  In the Observer, 8  Apr.

I am sure that the immediate abolition of the slave trade is the first, the principal, the most indispensable act of policy, of dutyand of justice the legislature of this country has to take, if it is indeed their wish to secure those important objects† For we continue to this hour a barbarous traffic in slaves, we continue it even yet, in spite of all our great and undeniable pretensions as civilisation.

-Pitt,William known as  theYounger
  Speech to the House of Commons, 2 Apr.The House did not abolish slavery until1806.

There died a myriad, And of the best, among them, For an old bitch gone in the teeth, For a botched civilization.

-Pound, Ezra Loomis
  Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, pt.5.

Civilization itself is a certain sane balance of values.

-Pound, Ezra Loomis
  Guide to Kulcher, pt.3, section 5, ch.20.

It is defiantöthe desperate act of men too profoundly convinced of the rottenness of our civilization to want to save a shred of its respectability.

-Read, Sir Herbert Edward
  Catalogue of the International Surrealist Exhibition, New Burlington Galleries, London, Jun/Jul, introduction.

It will be a gay world. There will be lights everywhere except in the minds of men, and the fall of the last civilization will not be heard above the din.

-Read, Sir Herbert Edward
  Quoted in Hoggart andJohnston, An Idea of Europe (1987), 'Pyramids and Planes'.

El orbe hispano nunca se vino abajo, ni siquiera a la ca|¤da del imperio espan‹  ol, sino que se ha multiplicado en numerosas facetas de ensanches todav|¤a insospechados† No somos pueblos en estado de candor, que se deslumbren fa¤  cilmente con los instrumentos externos de que se acompan‹  a la cultura, sino pueblos que heredan una vieja civilizacio¤  n y exigen la excelencia misma de la cultura. The Hispanic world never crumbled, not even after the Spanish Empire fell, but instead has multiplied itself in broad ways that are still largely unknown† Our people are not naive and are not blinded by the external tools that go together with culture; we are rather the inheritors of an old civilization, and we demand the excellence proper to culture itself.

-Reyes, Alfonso
Pa¤  ginas escogidas,'Valor de la literatura hispanoamericana' (translated as'TheValue of Hispanic American Literature').

You can't say civilization don't advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way.

-Rogers,Will
  In the NewYorkTimes, 23 Dec.

We are fighting in the quarrel of civilization against barbarism, of liberty against tyranny.Germany has become a menace to the whole world. She is the most dangerous enemy of liberty now existing.

-Roosevelt,Theodore
  Speech at Oyster Bay, Long Island, Apr.