Mikhail Gorbachev Quotes

A new civilization is emerging in our lives, and blind men everywhere are trying to suppress it.

On the day that we do discover that we are not alone, our society may begin to evolve and transform in some incredible and wondrous new ways.

Man's great power of thinking, remembering, and communicating are responsible for the evolution of civilization.

Humanity faces a quantum leap forward. It faces the deepest social upheaval and creative restructuring of all time. Without clearly recognizing it, we are engaged in building a remarkable new civilization from the ground up. This is the meaning of the Third Wave.

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

The modern civilized State has been developed by the antagonism between individual and social interests, which has transformed primitive Society into Civilization.

Time and changes in the condition and constitution of society may require occasional and corresponding modifications

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

Civilization never recedes; the law of necessity ever forces it onwards

What can we expect from nations still less advanced in civilization than the [Ancient] Greeks?

Sometimes there is no sugar-coating it. Sometimes you have to challenge people's belief systems in a progressive way.

Paper is at the center of so many of the elements of the development of civilization.

Civilization is a natural and inevitable consequence - whether good or evil I am not prepared to state.

Today's children will become tomorrow's civilization.

It takes more than a few generations to change a human nation. Those who are intent to bring (change) will do so.

Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy.

I think the world has moved on.

I would love to see what's going to happen with science fiction with peoples' heads, because we still have people running around in the year 2050 or 2100 or 2200 and they have incredible technology and you see the effects: laser beams and rays and beaming down and beaming up. Incredible technical things happening, but everybody is still running around jealous, fighting, whacking, cheating. There's got to be something going on! Some kind of change. I'd like to see something starting to happen in that area, with the psychology of the human being and how that changed.

Nations, like individuals, interest us in their growth.

Turning points in human consciousness occur when new energy regimes converge with new communications revolutions, creating new economic eras.

I think people look at revolution too much in terms of power. I think revolution has to be seen more anthropologically, in terms of transitions from one mode of life to another.

Folks, it's time to evolve. That's why we're troubled. You know why our institutions are failing us, the church, the state, everything's failing? It's because, um - they're no longer relevant. We're supposed to keep evolving. Evolution did not end with us growing opposable thumbs. You do know that, right?

Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed.

The path of America's development is never a straight line. Sometimes we move in ways that are forwards; sometime that seem back.

Every revolution begins as consciousness because some group of people has to imagine change. You have to have the idea of change or at least have a hope before you can proceed. And that stage goes very quickly because a contagion of consciousness is within your control. But when you get to the stage of institutional change, it becomes a much slower process.