Cormac McCarthy Quotes

Civilizations die from suicide, not murder

Civilization is going down the drain, and the sooner it does, the better.

Things seem to fall apart inevitably.

Expansion means complexity and complexity decay.

Progress, this great heresy of decay.

Historically, if you look at great civilizations, why do they crumble? Is it because of what's outside or because of something internal? It's always internal. It is.

All you got to do is look around. This country's getting worse and worse and more and more immoral, and we're rotting from within.

I think you should always bear in mind that entropy is not on your side.

Civilization is paralysis.

What we now have is the freedom which attends decadence, or the decadence which attends freedom.

Entropy increases. Things fall apart.

civilization is a transient sickness.

From nothing to everything is a long way, from everything to nothing is one stop.

History is sinking and only a very few seem dimly aware that things are getting bad.

America is on her deathbed.

Change is almost always negative. Things degenerate.

Eros has degenerated; he began by introducing order and harmony, and now he brings back chaos.

To accept civilization as it is practically means accepting decay.

No structure, even an artificial one, enjoys the process of entropy. It is the ultimate fate of everything, and everything resists it.

Tremendous interest in the superficial is very characteristic of cultures in decline.

Civilization is a disease which is almost invariably fatal.

The appearance of strength is all about you. It would seem to last forever. However... the rotten tree-trunk, until the very moment when the storm-blast breaks it in two, has all the appearance of might it ever had. The storm-blast whistles through the branches of the Empire even now. Listen... and you will hear the creaking.

The path of increase is slow, but the road to ruin is rapid.

Now my tapestry's unraveling.

War begets quiet, quiet idleness, idleness disorder, disorder ruin; likewise ruin order, order virtue, virtue glory, and good fortune.