Decline of Civilizations Quotes

The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years.

Are we like late Rome, infatuated with past glories, ruled by a complacent, greedy elite, and hopelessly powerless to respond to changing conditions?

Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate, now what's going to happen to us with both a House and a Senate?

Those small brown men who sell their sisters on the streets of Cairo were once the mighty Egyptians.

Must one point out that from ancient times a decline in courage has been considered the first symptom of the end?

All this shouldn't last; but it will, always; the human 'always' of course, a century, two centuries... and after that it will be different, but worse. We were the Leopards, the Lions; those who'll take our place will be little jackals, hyenas; and the whole lot of us, Leopards, jackals, and sheep, we'll all go on thinking ourselves the salt of the earth.

It's interesting sometimes to read about the last days of past civilizations. It's hard not to notice during these readings that those last days were filled with completely irrational ideas and behaviors that could not be explained in any way outside of a mass collapse of reason.

When words cease to cling close to things, kingdoms fall, empires wane and diminish.

After the golden age of Latinity, we gradually slide into the silver, and at length precipitately descend into the iron.