Samuel Smiles Quotes

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

The true test of civilization is, not the census, nor the size of cities, nor the crops,—no, but the kind of man the country turns out.

History is the record of human society or world civilization, of the changes that take place in the nature of that society … of all the transformations that society undergoes by its very nature.

... the business of life shuts us up within the environs of London and within sight of human advancement, which I should be so very glad to believe in without seeing.

Today's children will become tomorrow's civilization.

Civilization merely develops man's capacity for a greater variety of sensations, and ... absolutely nothing else.

By peace our condition has been improved in the pursuit of civilized life.

That religion may have served some necessary function for us in the past does not preclude the possibility that it is now the greatest impediment to our building a global civilization.

Is it possible that nobody has ever known that there never has been a completely civilized man, and won't be for another thousand years?

Is one of the fairest portions of the globe to remain in a state of nature, the haunt of a few wretched savages, when it seems destined by the Creator to give support to a large population and to be the seat of civilization?

Civilization did not come with fire. It came with the discovery of how to use fire to heat water.

While civilization is more than a high material living standard, it is nevertheless based on material abundance. It does not thrive on abject poverty or in an atmosphere of resignation and hopelessness. Therefore the end objectives of solar system exploration are social objectives in the sense that they relate to, or are dictated by, present and future human needs.

Our idea of what constitutes social good has advanced with the procession of the ages, from those desperate times when just to keep body and soul together was an achievement, to the great present when "good" includes an agreeable, stable civilization accessible to all, the opportunity of each to develop his particular genius and the privilege of mutual usefulness.

Governments do not make ideals, but ideals make governments. This is both historically and logically true. Of course the government can help to sustain ideals and can create institutions through which they can be the better observed, but their source by their very nature is in the people. The people have to bear their own responsibilities. There is no method by which that burden can be shifted to the government. It is not the enactment, but the observance of laws, that creates the character of a nation.

Civilization in certain respects is as inadequate as it was a thousand years ago.

Man is born barbarous--he is ransomed from the condition of beasts only by being cultivated.

There are many faculties in man, each of which takes its turn of activity, and that faculty which is paramount in any period and exerts itself through the strongest nation, determines the civility of that age: and each age thinks its own the perfection of reason.

The first essential character [of civilization], I should say, is forethought. This, indeed, is what mainly distinguishes men from brutes and adults from children.

That which lies before the human race is a constant struggle to maintain and improve, in opposition to State of Nature, the State of Art of an organized polity; in which, and by which, man may develop a worthy civilization

Civilization is not an incurable disease, but it should never be forgotten that the English people are at present afflicted by it.

In the last analysis civilization itself is measured by the way in which children will live and what chance they will have in the world

The civilized man is a larger mind but a more imperfect nature than the savage.

I've devoted most of my life to understanding the principles that enable people to improve their lives. It's those principles, the principles of free society, that have shaped my life, my family, our company, and America.

There is an old saying that the course of civilization is a race between catastrophe and education. In a democracy such as ours, we must make sure that education wins the race.

Society’s future will depend on a continuous improvement program for the human character. And what will that future bring? I do not know, but it will be exciting.