Robert Hamill Nassau Quotes

There is no salvation for us but to adopt Civilization and lift ourselves down to its level.

A new civilization was not to be improvised by a single mind.

A certain degree of progress from the rudest state in which man is found,—a dweller in caves, or on trees, like an ape, a cannibal, an eater of pounded snails, worms, and offal,—a certain degree of progress from this extreme is called Civilization.

Civilization is merely an advance in taste: accepting, all the time, nicer things, and rejecting nasty ones.

Our civilization has evolved through the continuous adjustment of society to the stimulus of new knowledge.

All societies are historical.

Things change in different countries as people grow, and as generations change.

Religion always remains higher than everyday life. In order to make the elevation towards religion easier for people, religion must be able to alter its forms in relation to the consciousness of modern man.

We may be sure that out of the ruins of our capitalist civilization a new religion will emerge, just as Christianity emerged from the ruins of the Roman civilization.

We now know how things were in the '60s and how things have changed, but I don't think we appreciate how much things have changed.

We need to understand that Christianity is about changing; it is not about a religion.

You have to look at history as an evolution of society.

Every major social movement in our history was fueled in large part by religion and faith. Abolitionism, women’s suffrage, child labor law, and most famously, civil rights.

Only through perils and upheavals can Nations be brought to further developments. May the present upheavals lead to a better world.

All civilizations must go through four stages: The first stage is the emergence of a new civilization and society. The second stage covers a period of growth and prosperity. Stagnation and decadence characterize the third stage where wealth can no longer increase. This brings us to a fourth stage of decline leading to the ultimate collapse. Finally, a new civilization emerges from the ashes of the previous one and another cycle is born. The conditions of the world, and of the nations do not persist in one unchanging state but are transformed with the passage of time and move from one condition to another

Aim at nothing short of covering these islands [Hawaii] with fruit fields and pleasant dwellings and schools and churches; of raising up the whole people to an elevated state of Christian civilization …. Turn them from their barbarous courses.

Civilizations are a matter of the mind.

No community ever did or ever can emerge unassisted by external helps from a state of utter barbarism into anything that can be called civilization

Human society cannot, be changed in a year.

The true test of the progress of a people is to be found in their literature.

America…could within twenty years bring us to a degree of development which Turks, left to themselves, would not be able to achieve in a century. It would make Turkey prosperous, rich and happy and turn Turks into a strong and civilized nation.

Protestantism, Judaism and Confucianism have been the religions more conducive to progress while Islam, Catholicism, and Orthodox Christianity have been the least conducive.

Civilization develops man, and if he is, according to his whole character and destiny, made for development, civilization is his truly natural state …

… science is the great instrument of social change, all the greater because its object is not change but knowledge, and its silent appropriation of this dominant function, amid the din of political and religious strife, is the most vital of all the revolutions which have marked the development of modern civilization.

Christianity and Judaism have gone through the process of enlightenment, making them creative and constructive elements in society.