No better than time than the present to dive into Will and Ariel Durant's, The Story of Civilization.

Narrating Western history over 11 volumes, 10,000 pages, 4 mil words, & 375 hours of Kindle reading hours, I couldn't be more delighted.

Will file my favorite passages here

Preface

"For the probability of error increases with the scope of the undertaking, and any man who sells his soul to synthesis will be a tragic target for a myriad merry darts of specialist critique."

"For civilization is not something inborn or imperishable; it must be acquired anew by every generation, and any serious interruption in its financing or its transmission may bring it to an end."

Reminded me of @SamoBurja's thoughts on the progress. Don't take it for granted

Volume I. Our Oriental Heritage

With an introduction on how civilizations develop, the first volume covers the history of civilization in Egypt and the Near East to the death of Alexander, and in India, China to the early 20th century.

I.X.1

Introduction

"The moment man begins to take thought of the morrow he passes out of the Garden of Eden into the vale of anxiety; the pale cast of worry settles down upon him, greed is sharpened, property begins, and the good cheer of the “thoughtless” native disappears."

I.X.2

"It is the routine that keeps men sane; for if there were no grooves along which thought and action might move with unconscious ease, the mind would be perpetually hesitant, and would soon take refuge in lunacy."

I.X.3

"...men are more easily ruled by imagination than by science."

I.X.4

Egyptian scribe or blogger?

"His life is monotonous, but he consoles himself by writing essays on the hardships of the manual worker’s existence, and the princely dignity of those whose food is paper and whose blood is ink."

I.1.1

1600 B.C. scientific documents.

"The author notes, with a clarity unrivaled till the eighteenth century of our era, that control of the lower limbs is localized in the “brain”—a word which here appears for the first time in literature."

I.1.2

Egyptians, fasting, and enemas.

"Herodotus reports that the Egyptians “purge themselves every month, three days successively, seeking to preserve health by emetics and enemas; for they suppose that all diseases to which men are subject proceed from the food they use.”

I.1.3

"Nevertheless the sands have destroyed only the body of ancient Egypt; its spirit survives in the lore and memory of our race."

The "contributions were not lost, even when their finest exemplars were buried under the desert, or overthrown by some convulsion of the globe."

I.1.4

The 1st law of Hammurabi's Code.

"Litigation was discouraged; the very first law of the Code reads, with almost illegal simplicity: “If a man bring an accusation against a man, and charge him with a (capital) crime, but cannot prove it, the accuser shall be put to death.”

I.1.5

"In the end nothing is lost; for good or evil every event has effects forever."

I.1.6

"We think war less frequent today because we are conscious of the lucid intervals of peace, while history seems conscious only of the fevered crises of war."

I.1.7

Why do we idealize the past?

"The Zend-Avesta, sacred scriptures of the Persians, idealized the racial memory of this ancient home-land, and described it as a paradise: the scenes of our youth, like the past, are always beautiful if we do not have to live in them again."

I.1.8

Words that ring true even today.

"Man’s duty, says the Avesta, is three-fold: “To make him who is an enemy a friend; to make him who is wicked righteous; and to make him who is ignorant learned.”"

I.1.9

Why some religions fall, while others flourish.

"But humanity loves poetry more than logic, and without a myth the people perish."

I.1.10

Persians vs. the Greeks.

"But it would be unfair to judge the people from their kings; virtue is not news, and virtuous men, like happy nations, have no history."

I.1.11

We could learn a thing or two from the schooling of past civilizations.

"[Persian] Boys of the unpretentious classes were not spoiled with letters, but were taught only three things—to ride a horse, to use the bow, and to speak the truth."

I.1.12

Book Two: India and Her Neighbors

"NOTHING should more deeply shame the modern student than the recency and inadequacy of his acquaintance with India."

I.2.1

Civilizations, like the sun, rise and fall.

"Forever the north produces rulers and warriors, the south produces artists and saints, and the meek inherit heaven."

I.2.2

The oldest known religion of India, the Vedas.

"A nation, like an individual, begins with poetry, and ends with prose. And as things became persons, so qualities became objects, adjectives became nouns, epithets became deities."

I.2.3

@visakanv or the Buddha?

"Buddha taught through conversation, lectures, and parables. Since it never occurred to him, any more than to Socrates or Christ, to put his doctrine into writing, he summarized it in sutras (“threads”) designed to prompt the memory."

I.2.4

Buddha's advice for dealing with trolls. Spectacular.

"Unlike most saints, Buddha had a sense of humor, and knew that metaphysics without laughter is immodesty."

I.2.5

The Alexander of India, Chandragupta.

"When Megasthenes came to Pataliputra as ambassador from Seleucus Nicator, King of Syria, he was amazed to find a civilization which he described to the incredulous Greeks—still near their zenith—as entirely equal to their own."

I.2.6

"Every state begins with violence, and (if it becomes secure) mellows into liberty."

I.2.7

"Life is a stage with one entrance, but many exits."

I.2.8

East & West

"it saw only superficiality and childishness in our merciless busyness, our discontented ambition, our nerve-racking labor-saving devices, our progress and speed;

...Heat cannot understand cold."

I.2.9

"our Western systems, so confident that “knowledge is power,” are the voices of a once lusty youth exaggerating human ability & tenure"

"quietism & resignation do not comport with our electric atmosphere, or with the vitality born of rich resources & a spacious terrain"

I.2.10

Lovely sentence on Indian painting

"first, it seeks to represent not things but feelings, and not to represent but to suggest; that it depends not on color but on line; that it aims to create esthetic and religious emotion rather than to reproduce reality"

1.2.11

The Taj Mahal, the perfect building?

"If time were intelligent it would destroy everything else before the Taj, and would leave this evidence of man’s alloyed nobility as the last man’s consolation."

I.2.12

We could learn a thing or two from Gandhi's diet:

- Eat what's available around you
- Fast occasionally, sometimes for longer periods of time
- Moderate amounts of fruit, nuts, and milk

+ occasionally some meat.

I.2.13

"Perhaps, in return for conquest, arrogance and spoliation, India will teach us the tolerance and gentleness of the mature mind, the quiet content of the unacquisitive soul, the calm of the understanding spirit and a unifying, pacifying love for all living things."

I.2.14

Book Three: The Far East

A. China

I.3.A.1

Lao-tze, Tao, and why a return to nature is at the heart of lasting happiness

"Returning to their origin means rest, or fulfillment of destiny. This reversion is an eternal law. To know that law is wisdom."

I.3.A.2

Lao-tze's notion of the sage and the quietness of the mind

"...the wise man does not speak, for wisdom can be transmitted never by words, only by example and experience."

I.3.A.3

Knowledge according to Confucius:

Aim to know what you don't know.

“The whole end of speech is to be understood”—a lesson not always remembered by philosophy. “When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not, to admit the fact—this is knowledge.”

I.3.A.4

Essence of Confucianism

Well-ordered state
Regulated family
Self cultivation
Rectify the heart
Sincere in thought
Discover knowledge
Investigate things

And repeat

I.3.A.5

The ideal man according to Confucius, has these 3 virtues in harmonious balance:

1. Intelligence
2. Courage
3. Good will

+ LOVED this description too, "Intelligence is intellect with its feet on the earth."

I.3.A.6

The Great Wall

"beside it, said Voltaire, “the pyramids of Egypt are only puerile and useless masses.”4 It took ten years and countless men; “it was the ruin of one generation,” say the Chinese, “and the salvation of many.”"

I.3.A.7

Chinese music

"The sages, said Han Yü, “taught man music in order to dissipate the melancholy of his soul.” They agreed with Nietzsche that life without music would be a mistake."

I.3.A.8

& art, artist = artisan

"nearly all industry was manufacture, & all manufacture was handicraft; industry, like art, was the expression of personality in things."

as @wrathofgnon often reiterates

I.3.A.9

Chinese architecture - work with, instead of against nature

"The Chinese temple or palace seeks not to dominate nature, but to cooperate with it in that perfect harmony of the whole which depends upon the modesty of the parts."

I.3.A.10

Chinese & and the legendary, Ku K’ai-chih

"His contemporaries ranked him as the outstanding man of his time in three lines: in painting, in wit, and in foolishness."

+ this passage below, which I think you, @simonsarris, might enjoy

I.3.A.11

End of Confucianism

"Revolution is made of youth, and will have none of these ancient restraints; it smiles at the old sage’s warning that “he who thinks the old embankments useless and destroys them is sure to suffer from the desolation caused by overflowing water."

I.3.A.12

Rise of China from the perspective of someone writing in the 1930's is prescient

"The invader will lose funds or patience before the loins of China will lose virility;"..."China has died many times before; and many times she has been reborn."

cc @MacaesBruno

I.3.A.13

B. Japan

Art of gardening, while imported from China, they transformed into something aesthetically pleasing to their own sensibilities.

"Where space and means allowed they attached their homes to their gardens rather than their gardens to their homes." https://twitter.com/fraveris/status/1288851369584144390?s=20

Kyuso & learning

"Seclusion is one method, and is good; but a superior man rejoices when his friends come. A man polishes himself by association with others. Every man who desires learning should seek to be polished in this way."

May be up your alley, @ankitshah

I.3.B.2

Possibly the greatest Confucian scholar of his day, Kaibara Ekken, sought to unify character rather than knowledge.

Timeless wisdom for all generations. Worth reading in its entirety.

"The aim of learning is not merely to widen knowledge but to form character."

I.3.B.3

& this passage reminds me of @nntaleb's Lindy Effect when hearing advice from elders.

"Though you may think the tradition of your family stupid, do not break it into pieces, for it is the embodiment of the wisdom of your fathers."

I.3.B.4

One of the few prefaces worth reading.

Kokinshu, "Poems Ancient and Modern", wonderfully expresses the central theme to Japanese poetry.

"moods and phases, the blossoming and decay, of nature in isles made scenic by volcanoes, and verdant with abundant rain."

I.3.B.5

Sage advice for writers

"the real artist must not so much think for the reader as lure him into active thought; he must seek and find one fresh perception that will arouse in him all the ideas"

"Each poem...must be the quiet record of one moment's inspiration"

I.3.B.6

The art of the little things

"The outward forms of Japanese art, like almost every external feature of Japanese life, came from China; the inner force and spirit, like everything essential in Japan, came from the people themselves."

I.3.B.7

The detail, craftsmanship, & subtle nuances of Japanese inros, is one of the finest examples of just how passionate the Japanese people are when it comes to art.

Mastery of the microcosm.

I.3.B.8

Japanese painting was more akin to poetry, than photography.

"The Japanese artist wished to convey a feeling rather than an object, to suggest rather than to represent; it was unnecessary, in his judgment, to show more than a few significant elements in a scene"

I.3.B.9

So, after 4,000 years of history, what do we think lies at the heart of civilizations?

1. Labor
2. Government
3. Morality
4. Religion
5. Science
6. Philosophy
7. Letters
8. Art

I.3.B.10

Continue here https://twitter.com/DanielCJonas/status/1297569756686548999?s=20