Meandering through civilization . . .

Today is the birthday of William James Durant (November 5, 1885 – November 7, 1981), writer, historian, and philosopher. He is best known for the 11-volume The Story of Civilization, written in collaboration with his wife Ariel. They were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction (1968) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1977).

"It is a mistake to think that the past is dead. Nothing that has ever happened is quite without influence at this moment. The present is merely the past rolled up and concentrated in this second of time. You, too, are your past; often your face is your autobiography; you are what you are because of what you have been; because of your heredity stretching back into forgotten generations; because of every element of environment that has affected you, every man or woman that has met you, every book that you have read, every experience that you have had; all these are accumulated in your memory, your body, your character, your soul. So with a city, a country, and a race; it is its past, and cannot be understood without it." - Will Durant

"The most interesting thing in the world is another human being who wonders, suffers and raises the questions that have bothered him to the last day of his life, knowing he will never get the answers." - Will Durant

"Knowledge is the eye of desire and can become the pilot of the soul." - Will Durant

"Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance." - Will Durant

"Every science begins as philosophy and ends as art." - Will Durant

"Woe to him who teaches men faster than they can learn." - Will Durant

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