“If civilization has an opposite, it is war.”
Source: Hainish Cycle, The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), Chapter 8 “Another Way into Orgoreyn” (p. 101)
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Ursula K. Le Guin292
American writer 1929–2018Related quotes
“Urban civilization is warring civilization.”
Jacques Ellul book The Meaning of the City
Source: The Meaning of the City (1951), p. 13
“Maybe after the war we’ll be civilized again. That’s the way it has always happened in the past.”
Joe Haldeman book Forever Peace
Source: Forever Peace (1997), p. 14
Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
On Coalition Government (1945)
Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984) British artist
Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Introduction p. I - XII
“I can assure you that no kingdom has ever had as many civil wars as the kingdom of Christ.”
Montesquieu (1689–1755) French social commentator and political thinker
No. 29. (Rica writing to Ibben)
Lettres Persanes (Persian Letters, 1721)
“The opposite of war isn't peace… It's creation!”
Jonathan Larson (1960–1996) American composer and playwright
Rent (1996)
Dennis Prager (1948) American writer, speaker, radio and TV commentator, theologian
Source: 2010s, Why the Left Hates America (2015)
“Sometimes the cause of civilization is best served by a hard stare into the soul of its opposite.”
Michael Pollan book The Botany of Desire
Source: The Botany of Desire (2001), Chapter 1, “Desire: Sweetness / Plant: The Apple” (p. 41)