Muriel Rukeyser Quotes

Books are the building blocks of civilization and a people without books are a people without history, a people with no story older than the tales of the oldest man or woman.

Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.

Education is the transmission of civilization.

You cannot survive if you do not know the past.

The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated by quotations.

Our understanding of Shakespeare already depends largely on the vitality of Renaissance elements in our education. Each man must live in his own generation, as the saying is; but the generations are bound together by the golden links of the great tradition of civilization.

Poetry is the elder sister of history, the mother of language, the ancestress of civilization.

History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time; it illumines reality, vitalizes memory, provides guidance in daily life and brings us tidings of antiquity

Universities are meant to pass the torch of civilization.

In order to rule the world, our wise forefathers created civilization based on ritual, moral values, and education.

I'm a storyteller. I do this for the next generations. They have to know what traditional alpinism is all about.

We want every generation to know a little something about TLC.

The school has always been the most important means of transferring the wealth of tradition from one generation to the next. This applies today in an even higher degree than in former times, for through modern development of economic life, the family

Tradition simply means that we need to end what began well and continue what is worth continuing

The library is not only a diary of the human race, but marks an act of faith in the continuity of humanity.

Poetry is one of the essential structures of civilization - carrying myth, ritual, 'tales of the tribe' and the essence of language.

A book is one of the most patient of all man's inventions. Centuries mean nothing to a well-made book. It awaits its destined reader, come when he may, with eager hand and seeing eye. Then occurs one of the great examples of union, that of a man with a book, pleasurable, sometimes fruitful, potentially world-changing, simple; and in a library...witho ut cost to the reader.

Books are precious things, but more than that, they are the strong backbone of civilization. They are the thread upon which it all hangs, and they can save us when all else is lost.

The round-up is an aggressive tradition. I'm trying to objectively be a steward of the tradition and what it means in its choreography.

You have a lot to learn, young man. Philosophy. Theology. Literature. Poetry. Drama. History. Archeology. Anthropology. Mythology. Music. These are your tools as much as brush and pigment. You cannot be an artist until you are civilized. You cannot be civilized until you learn. To be civilized is to know where you belong in the continuum of our art and your world. To surmount the past, you must know the past.

People should make a stand for the things they love and want to see survive infinite generations.

Humanity's legacy of stories and storytelling is the most precious we have. All wisdom is in our stories and songs. A story is how we construct our experiences.

A library implies an act of faith which generations, still in darkness hid, sign in their night in witness of the dawn.

In books lies the soul of the whole Past Time; the articulate audible voice of the Past, when the body and material substance of it has altogether vanished like a dream.

If you plan on continuing a tradition, it might be a good idea to find out just what tradition it is that you intend to continue.