Kenya Barris Quotes

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.

People think that human beings have gotten worse, that because of the pressures that modern society puts on us, we've gotten worse, and we've gotten capable of doing more terrible things. I don't know if I necessarily think that that's true.

Allen's Law of Civilization: It is better for civilization to be going down the drain than to be coming up it.

He that is good, will infallibly become better, and he that is bad, will as certainly become worse; for vice, virtue and time are three things that never stand still.

Over the past two decades, we have clearly seen an erosion of ethical values.

It is not the young people that degenerate; they are not spoiled till those of mature age are already sunk into corruption.

But I believe there is a decay that is eroding America, and as a result, God begins to disappear from our society.

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.

The spirit of the times may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless.

Nothing is more certain than that a general profligacy and corruption of manners make a people ripe for destruction. A good form of government may hold the rotten materials together for some time, but beyond a certain pitch, even the best constitution will be ineffectual, and slavery must ensue.

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

Become corrupt, corrupt, and you will cease to suffer!" This has been the cry of all cities to man.

The most civilized people are as near to barbarism as the most polished steel is to rust. Nations, like metals, have only a superficial brilliancy.

We need not worry so much about what man descends from; it's what he descends to that shames the human race.

It is the human wish to be told lies that keep us as primitive morally and socially as we are. I am persuaded that a lie grounded in human desire is too powerful for mere reason to kill.

If the world suffers from mental deterioration or from moral degradation, then something goes wrong at the very root of civilization or culture. Even though that civilization may drag out for a considerable period, it grows less and less vital and ultimately tumbles down.

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

It is inherent in human consciousness to improve. So there is nothing unique about a people searching for and creating ways to make their life better - all civilizations throughout history have done this. What is unique about us in America is the accelerated rate at which we continually search for novelty and progress.

DEGRADATION, n. One of the stages of moral and social progress from private station to political preferment.

The ordinary man is the curse of civilization.

Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid.

Civilization is a disease produced by the practice of building societies with rotten material.

It is also a warning. It is a warning that, if nobody reads the writing on the wall, man will be reduced to the state of the beast, whom he is shaming by his manners.

Were the life of man prolonged, he would become such a proficient in villainy, that it would become necessary again to drown or to burn the world. Earth would become an hell; for future rewards when put off to a great distance, would cease to encourage, and future punishments to alarm.

A depraved culture supports a depraved politics and vice versa.