Diane Ackerman Quotes

Civilization is not a burden. It is an opportunity.

A child's greatest achievements are possible in play, achievements that tomorrow will become her basic level of real action.

letters are not the first, but the last step in the progression from barbarism to civilisation.

Without creation, what are we but stalled in life?

We remake 'Hamlet' all the time. That's sort of what we do, humans.

The more rapidly a civilization progresses, the sooner it dies for another to rise in its place.

Perfection is terrible; it cannot have children.

Civilizations are a matter of the mind.

Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature

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

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.

I think what kids do is play.

Art is what defines us, what makes us human.

Peace is the most covetable possession on the earth. It is the greatest treasure in all the universe. Peace is the most important and indispensable factor for all growth and development. It is in the tranquility and quiet of the night that the seed slowly sprouts from under the soil. The bud opens in the depth of the most silent hours. So also, in a state of peace and love, people evolve, grow in their distinctive culture, and develop perfect civilization.

Primitiveness and civilization are degrees of the same thing. If civilization has an opposite, it is war.

Play is really the work of childhood.

The subject of history is the life of peoples and mankind.

But we are more than genteel or civilized/ we are an idea in the process of being realized.

Man is born a barbarian, and only raises himself above the beast by culture.

Religion has not civilized man, man has civilized religion.

Man perfected by society is the best of all animals; he is the most terrible of all when he lives without law and without justice. If he finds himself an individual who cannot live in society, or who pretends he has need of only his own resources do not consider him as a member of humanity; he is a savage beast or a god.

The quantity of civilization is measured by the quality of imagination.

Humans need fantasy to be human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.

Evolution brings human beings. Human beings, through a long and painful process, bring humanity.

Play is the royal road to childhood happiness and adult brilliance.