What’s so civil about war anyway?

First, a man of sense would have known that a single experiment is not sufficient to establish a general rule even in sciences much less complicated than the science of government; that, since the beginning of the world, no two political experiments were ever made of which all the conditions were exactly alike; and that the only way to learn civil prudence from history is to examine and compare an immense number of cases.

In suits at common law, trial by jury in civil cases is as essential to secure the liberty of the people as any one of the pre-existent rights of nature.

It may not be easy, in every possible case, to trace the line of separation between the rights of religion and the Civil authority with such distinctness as to avoid collisions and doubts on unessential points. The tendency to usurpation on one side or the other, or to a corrupting coalition or alliance between them, will be best guarded agst. by an entire abstinence of the Govt. from interference in any way whatsoever, beyond the necessity of preserving public order, and protecting each sect agst. trespasses on its legal rights by others.

The city has become a serious menace to our civilization It has a peculiar attraction for the immigrant.

Civil rights used to be about treating everyone the same. But today some people are so used to special treatment that equal treatment is considered to be discrimination

The United States should be an asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty

Niagara Falls Power Company chose to go with AC current to feed the industry of Buffalo, which became briefly known as the electric city of the future

Europe is a place that conserves. It maintains, it curates its civilization, protects it against the ravages and rust of other cultures, and the rot of time and intellectual theft. We are a continent where fear of losing what we have is greater than the ambition to make it anew

America didn’t bypass or escape civilization. It did something far more profound, far cleverer: it simply changed what civilization could be

The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.

We must scrupulously guard the civil rights and civil liberties of all our citizens, whatever their background. We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization

I think that if a person doesn’t feel cynical then they’re out of phase with the 20th century. Being cynical is the only way to deal with modern civilization – you can’t just swallow it whole.

A civilization begins to decline the moment Life becomes its sole obsession.

Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites.

Circumstances give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing color and discriminating effect. The circumstances are what render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind.

Always be civil, but with a plan to neutralise everyone in the room.

There are lots of countries that are having these kinds of internal civil wars in other parts of the world and nobody is talking about intervening.

Unchallenged, opinions became respected precedent then exceptionless concepts and sometimes even civil and academically accepted social law.

Diversity is not an abnormality but the very reality of our planet. The human world manifests the same reality and will not seek our permission to celebrate itself in the magnificence of its endless varieties. Civility is a sensible attribute in this kind of world we have; narrowness of heart and mind is not.

With bad laws and good civil servants it’s still possible to govern. But with bad civil servants even the best laws can’t help.

The invention of gunpowder and the constant improvement of firearms are enough in themselves to show that the advance of civilization has done nothing practical to alter or deflect the impulse to destroy the enemy, which is central to the very idea of war.

Savage peoples are ruled by passion, civilized peoples by the mind. The difference lies not in the respective natures of savagery and civilization, but in their attendant circumstances, institutions, and so forth. The difference, therefore, does not operate in every sense, but it does in most of them. Even the most civilized peoples, in short, can be fired with passionate hatred for each other.

We’ve arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology.

The sight of a child will arouse certain longings in adult, civilized persons—longings which relate to the unfulfilled desires and needs of those parts of the personality which have been blotted out of the total picture in favor of the adapted personal.

I can assure you that no kingdom has ever had as many civil wars as the kingdom of Christ.

Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.

You know we poor artists have to show ourselves in society from time to time, just to remind the public that we are not savages. With an evening coat and a white tie, as you told me once, anybody, even a stock-broker, can gain a reputation for being civilized.

Be civil to all, sociable to many; familiar with few, friend to one and enemy to none.

In a state of nature nothing can be said to be just or unjust; this is so only in a civil state, where it is decided by common agreement what belongs to this or that man.

Sin cannot be conceived in a natural state, but only in a civil state, where it is decreed by common consent what is good or bad.

I don’t think marriage is a civil right, but I think that being able to transfer property is a civil right.