Quote of the Day (Arnold J. Toynbee, on How Man Achieves Civilization)

"Man achieves civilization, not as a result of superior biological endowment or geographical environment, but as a response to a challenge in a situation of special difficulty which rouses him to make a hitherto unprecedented effort."—English historian Arnold J. Toynbee (1889-1975), A Study of History: Volume I: Abridgement of Volumes I-VI (1987)

Quote of the Day (Sir Kenneth Clark, on What Kills a Civilization)

"It is lack of confidence, more than anything else, that kills a civilisation. We can destroy ourselves by cynicism and disillusion, just as effectively as by bombs.”—English art historian, museum director, and television personality Sir Kenneth Clark (1903-1983), Civilisation (1969)

Quote of the Day (Evelyn Waugh, on Civilization Under Siege)

“Civilization has no force of its own beyond what is given from within. It is under constant assault and it takes most of the energies of civilized man to keep going at all ... If [it] falls we shall see not merely the dissolution of a few joint-stock corporations, but of the spiritual and material achievements of our history.”—English novelist-travel writer Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966), Robbery Under Law: The Mexican Object Lesson (1939)

You can add “cultural” and “political” before "achievements," too.

Quote of the Day (E. M. Forster, on Why Art is Valuable)

“Art is valuable not because it is educational (though it may be), not because it is recreative (though it may be), not because everyone enjoys it (for everybody does not), not even because it has to do with beauty. It is valuable because it has to do with order, and creates little worlds of

its own, possessing internal harmony, in the bosom of this disordered planet….The idea that it should not be permitted until it receives communal acclaim and unless it is for all, is perfectly absurd. It is the activity which brought man out of original darkness and differentiates him from the beasts, and we must continue to practice and respect it through the darkness of today.”—English novelist-essayist E. M. Forster (1879-1970), “The Challenge of Our Time,” in Two Cheers for Democracy (1951)

Speaking of art...the accompanying image of Forster was created in 1924 and 1925 by the English painter and decorative artist Dora Carrington (1893-1932).

Quote of the Day (Historian Charles A. Beard, on the ‘Achievement of the Human Spirit in Spite of Disasters’)

“[A]s I look over the grand drama of history, I find (or seem to find) amid the apparent chaos and tragedy, evidence of law and plan and immense achievement of the human spirit in spite of disasters. I am convinced that the world is not a mere bog in which men and women trample themselves in the mire and die. Something magnificent is taking place here amid the cruelties and tragedies, and the supreme challenge to intelligence is that of making the noblest and best in our curious heritage prevail.”—American historian Charles A. Beard (1874-1948), letter of June 25, 1931, quoted in Will Durant, On The Meaning of Life (1931)

Quote of the Day (W.H. Auden, on the Decline of a Once-Great Power)

“The piers are pummeled by the waves;

In a lonely field the rain

Lashes an abandoned train;

Outlaws fill the mountain caves….

“Unendowed with wealth or pity,

Little birds with scarlet legs,

Sitting on their speckled eggs,

Eye each flu-infected city.”—English poet W.H. Auden (1907-1973), “The Fall of Rome,” The Nation, June 14, 1947