“The diffusion of alchemy westward, like the movement of astrology eastward, became significant only in the centuries after 200 A. D. The conservatism of learning was such that, even when commercial intercourse had made intellectual contacts possible, little serious interchange took place until severe social stress had disturbed the even tenor of the times in China, India, and Europe. Technology was a little, but only a little, less conservative.”

— William H. McNeill, book The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community

The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community (1963)

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William H. McNeill43

Canadian historian 1917–2016

Olaf Stapledon book Last and First Men

Source: Last and First Men (1930), Chapter XII: The Last Terrestrials; Section 1, “The Cult of Evanescence” (p. 176)

“I wondered a little why God was such a useless thing. It seemed a waste of time to have him. After that he became less and less, until he was… nothingness.”

Frances Farmer (1913–1970) American actress

God Dies (1931)

“Until the modern era there was no single international system, but rather several international systems, with little or no contact with another.”

Robert Gilpin (1930–2018) Political scientist

p, 125
War and Change in World Politics (1981)

“The meetings with Mexican officials were planned before the election, but they took on even greater significance after Trump's win. But even before the election, it was obvious that my party had taken a sharp turn away from the conservative principles that have defined it for nearly a century and that I have tried to uphold for my entire life. And the animating question of how this had happened to my party already seemed to be a profound problem for our democracy, and one badly in need of a solution. I write this book because we as conservatives- and conservatism itself- are in crisis.”

Jeff Flake (1962) American politician

Source: Conscience of a Conservative (2017), p. 6

“I had very little in common with and knew even less about a generation that I was supposed to be the voice of.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Source: Chronicles: Vol. One (2004), p. 115

“There had been times when he knew, somewhere in him, that he would get used to it, whatever it was, because he had learnt that some hard things became softer after a very little while.”

Nick Hornby About a Boy

Source: About a Boy (1998), Ch. 3

“I had only a little time left and I didn't want to waste it on God.”

Albert Camus book The Stranger

[I]l me restait peu de temps. Je ne voulais pas le perdre avec Dieu.
The Stranger (1942)

“There was, indeed, a time when China had mentally less in common with India than with the West, but fear of America had drawn the two great Eastern peoples together. They agreed at least in earnest hate of that strange blend of the commercial traveller, the missionary, and the barbarian conqueror, which was the American abroad.”

Olaf Stapledon book Last and First Men

Source: Last and First Men (1930), Chapter III: America and China; Section 1, “The Rivals” (p. 43)

“Even as late as the 9th century AD, an Arab geographer complains that "Islam had not made a single convert in India."”

Ram Gopal (1925) Indian author and historian

citing Nainar, Arab geographers, Habibullah, Foundations
Indian Resistance to Early Muslim Invaders Upto 1206 A.D.

“He had an idea that even when beaten he could steal a little victory by laughing at defeat.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

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William H. McNeill43

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