Will Durrant is a favorite and influencial author →

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Quotes

“The fear of death is strangely mingled with the longing for repose.” 

"I found it impossible to continue my pretenses to orthodoxy” "

Knowledge is power but only wisdom is liberty.”

“Education is the transmission of civilization.”

“To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves. Nothing is often a good thing to say, and always a clever thing to say.”

 “Truth will make us free.” 

(This could be considered his most important work)

Durant wrote the preface to Fallen Leaves when he was 95 years old, and in answer to those curious readers, he said: “Please do not expect any new system of philosophy, nor any world-shaking cogitations; these will be human confessions, not divine revelations; they are micro- or mini-essays whose only dignity lies in their subjects rather than in their profundity or their size.”

Even though he says that he isn’t going to bring us deep insight and great depth of knowledge or thought, the book still leaves us waiting for it.

The 22 chapters condense his thoughts of sixty-plus years of his work, researching the philosophies, religions, arts, sciences, and civilizations of the world.

His writings included thoughts about the soul.

He confirmed his love of and insight into the value of history, saying: “It is a mistake to think that the past is dead. Nothing that has ever happened is quite without influence at this moment. The present is merely the past rolled up and concentrated in this second of time. You, too, are your past; often, your face is your autobiography; you are what you are because of what you have been, because of your heredity stretching back into forgotten generations, and because of every element of the environment that has affected you, every man or woman that has met you, every book that you have read, every experience that you have had; all these are accumulated in your memory, your body, your character, your soul. So with a city, a country, and a race, it is its past and cannot be understood without it.”

“The Story of Civilization”: 11 volumes considers the living conditions of everyday people. Durant said that curious readers had challenged him to speak his mind on the timeless questions of human life and fate, having spent so much of his life focusing on just that.

Is the Human Soul Eternal, and is it transcendent of our material existence? by Brent M. Jones was inspired by Will Durrant