Will Durant Quotes

“The constant steaming in of thoughts of others must suppress and confine our own and indeed in the long run paralyze the power of thought… The inclination of most scholars is a kind of fuga vacui ( latin for vacuum suction )from the poverty of their own mind , which forcibly draws in the thoughts of others… It is dangerous to read about a subject before we have thought about it ourselves… When we read, another person thinks for us; merely repeat his mental process. So it comes about that if anybody spends almost the whole day in reading, he gradually loses the capacity for thinking. Experience of the world may be looked upon as a kind of text, to which reflection and knowledge form the commentary. Where there is a great deal of reflection and intellectual knowledge and very little experience , the result is like those books which have on each page two lines of text to forty lines of commentary”
― Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers

“ارسطو ميگويد همه چيز، بارها و بارها كشف شده و از ياد رفته است. او به ما اطمينان خاطر ميدهد كه پيشرفت يك توهم است؛ امور انسان مانند درياست كه در سطح خود هزاران حركت و آشفتگي دارد و چنين به نظر مي رسد كه به سوي جايي پيش مي رود، در حالي كه در تهِ خود بالنسبه بي تغيير و آرام است. آنچه ما آن را پيشرفت مي خوانيم شايد فقط تغييرات سطحي محض باشد؛ توالي اي از سبك ها و مدها در لباس، حمل و نقل، حكومت، روان شناسي و دين، علم مسيحي، رفتارگرايي، دموكراسي، اتومبيل و شلوار پيشرفت نيستند، آنها تغييرند؛ آنها راه هاي جديدي در انجام كارهاي قديمي اند، خطاهايي جديد در كوشش بيهوده براي فهم اسرار ابدي و ازلي. در زير اين پديده هاي متنوع، گوهر و ذات امور يكسان مي ماند.”
― Will Durant, On the Meaning of Life

“What is often called will, as the impulsive force which determines the duration of an idea in consciousness, should be called desire,-which 'is the very essence of man.' Desire is an appetite or instinct of which we are conscious; but instincts need not always operate through conscious desire.”
― The Story of Philsophy