John Dos Passos Quotes

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

Of the twenty-two civilizations that have appeared in history, nineteen of them collapsed when they reached the moral state the United States is in now.

History shows us that other highly developed forms of civilization have collapsed. Who knows whether the same fate does not await our own?

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.

Civilizations die from suicide, not murder

That contagion idea is so relevant and shows how quickly civilization could self-destruct.

Societies in decline have no use for visionaries.

All progressions from a higher to a lower order are marked by ruins and mystery and a residue of nameless rage.

In the zone of perdition where my youth went as if to complete its education, one would have said that the portents of an imminent collapse of the whole edifice of civilization had made an appointment.

We are suffering from a kind of slow-motion barbarization from within.

Children of the future, watching empires fall. Madness the cup they drink from, self destruction the toll.

It is a fact worthy of note that the shortest lived nations of which we have record have been monogamic. Rome...was a monogamic nation and the numerous evils attending that system early laid the foundation for that ruin which eventually overtook her.

There's a little book I'm thinking of writing - "Swan Song" is what I shall call it. The song of the dying. And my book will be incense burnt at the deathbed of this society, damned with the damnation of its own impotence.

This civilization is such that one has only to be patient and it will be self-destroyed.

So, when people try to give you some book with a shiny round award on the cover, be kind and gracious, but tell them you don't read "fantasy," because you prefer stories that are real. Then come back here and continue your research on the cult of evil Librarians who secretly rule the world.

Can capitalism survive? No. I do not think it can.

Every civilization that has ever existed has ultimately collapsed.

The real power of books is their deep companionability. We learn from them as we learn from the deep companionability of love to know our own hearts and minds better.

[H]istory assures us that civilizations decay quite leisurely.

It must be very fragile, if a handful of berries can bring it down.

The decline in literature indicates a decline in the nation. The two keep pace in their downward tendency.

To understand a profound thought is to have, at the moment one understands it, a profound thought oneself; and this demands some effort, a genuine descent to the heart of oneself . . . Only desire and love give us the strength to make this effort. The only books that we truly absorb are those we read with real appetite, after having worked hard to get them, so great had been our need of them.

"Patience, grasshopper," I counseled. "You don't want to seem overeager." "Right, that's why I said tomorrow," he said. "I want to see you again tonight. But I'm willing to wait all night and much of tomorrow." I rolled my eyes. "I'm serious," he said."You don't even know me," I said. I grabbed the book from the center console. "How about I call you when I finish this?""But you don't even have my phone number," he said."I strongly suspect you wrote it in this book."He broke out into that goofy smile. "And you say we don't know each other."

For you will sorely miss civilization if it is sacrificed in the turbulence of change.

The higher the tower, the greater the fall thereof.