Thomas Jefferson Quotes

I am not afraid of new inventions or improvements, nor bigoted to the practices of our forefathers. It is that bigotry which keeps the Indians in a state of barbarism in the midst of the arts and would have kept us in the same state even now

The civilized world is far ahead of us. We have no choice but to catch up.

We are not primitive. We live differently to you, but we do not live exactly like our grandparents did, nor do you. Were your ancestors 'primitive'? I don't think so. We respect our ancestors. We love our children. This is the same for all people. We are not primitive. We live differently to you, but we do not live exactly like our grandparents did, nor do you. Were your ancestors 'primitive'? I don't think so. We respect our ancestors. We love our children. This is the same for all people.

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.

From barbarism to civilization requires a century; from civilization to barbarism needs but a day.

There is no salvation for us but to adopt Civilization and lift ourselves down to its level.

Nearly all literature, in one sense, is made up of guide-books. Old ones tell us the ways our fathers went, through the thoroughfares and courts of old; but how few of those former places can their posterity trace, amid avenues of modern erections; to how few is the old guide-book now a clew! Every age makes its own guide-books, and the old ones are used for waste paper.

History can show you that it was one pile of bad stuff after another. It can also show you that there's been tremendous progress in knowledge, behaviour, laws, civilisation. It cannot show you that there was a meaning behind it.

If mankind were to continue in other than the present barbarism, a new path must be found, a new civilization based on some other method than technology.

I have this feeling that as time goes on, we're not getting any more civilized, and we should be. We're still running around like the days of Genghis Khan. There are so many important, better things to do and we need to encourage people to reach into the brighter side of humanity and not encourage people to continue to glorify the darker side.

Civilization is the lamb's skin in which barbarism masquerades.

I like to be buttoned onto tradition. The thing is to improve it, twist it and mold it; to make something new of it; not to deny it. The riches of history can be plucked at any point.

Skullcaps, fezes, turbans – it all costs money which goes to foreigners. We will become civilized…We will march forward…Civilization is a fearful fire which consumes those who ignore it.

In the face of knowledge, science, and of the whole extent of radiant civilization, I cannot accept the presence in Turkey’s civilized community of people primitive enough to seek material and spiritual benefits in the guidance of sheikhs. The Turkish republic cannot be a country of sheikhs, dervishes and disciples.

The history of the world demonstrates that man becomes what we call civilized by increasing his wants.

While the association and its founders and its founders most sincerely appreciate the splendid elements and achievements of the old-time Indian culture and the methods by which early conditions were met, it realizes most keenly the inefficacy of these methods in meeting the conditions of modern times.

The culture of Saudi Arabia belongs to a past age. It is not appropriate for the age of globalization.

Aim at nothing short of covering these islands [Hawaii] with fruit fields and pleasant dwellings and schools and churches; of raising up the whole people to an elevated state of Christian civilization …. Turn them from their barbarous courses.

We live in a changing world … shall we maintain all our theaters in the same traditional box.

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

I saw their fields under very respectable cultivation, and bearing good crops. They had exchanged their original rude wigwams for comfortable houses, with barns and offices attached to them, scarcely if at all inferior to those of the whites, and some of the houses have little plots or gardens in front kept in good order… All these marks of improvement surprised us; we did not expect to meet with a state of such high comparative civilization.

Civilization and religion do not necessarily move with equal pace.

The politics of religion pursued in a large number of societies called Muslim make too many concessions to the forces of traditionalism, while favoring the adoption of all the benefits of material civilization. This results in dangerous mental cleavages, increasing backwardness in the systems of education, fruitless self-censorship, and the impoverishment of creativity in various domains of intellectual and cultural life.

The progress made in refinement of manners and morals seems to have gone on simultaneously with the improvement in arts, manufactures and commerce. It moved slowly at first, but has been constantly increasing in velocity…. we are a much better people than we were then, better instructed, more sincere and kind-hearted, less gross and brutal, and have fewer of the concomitant vices of a less civilized state.

We are the High Chiefs of these islands. We are the leaders of the people. On us is the duty of pointing out to them the right course. Bear this in mind. We have to lead on two points- hold back those who advocate radical changes (for which we are not sufficiently educated) and enliven the laggards before their ignorance destroys us.