A COLLECTION OF GOOD WORDS
文明
Civilization
Everybody thinks that this civilization has lasted a very long time but it really does take very few grandfathers' granddaughters to take us back to the dark ages.
每个人都认为这个文明已经持续了很长时间，但它真的需要很少的祖父的孙女带我们回到黑暗时代。
The best security for civilization is the dwelling, and upon properly appointed and becoming dwellings depends, more than anything else, the improvement of mankind.
对文明来说，最好的保障是住所，而人类的进步，最重要的是取决于适当的布置和成为住所。
The line of least resistance in the progress of civilization is to make that theoretical postulate real by the continually increasing force of the world's public opinion.
文明进步中阻力最小的路线是通过不断增加的世界舆论力量使这一理论假设成为现实。
In civilized life, where the happiness, and indeed almost the existence, of man depends so much upon the opinion of his fellow men, he is constantly acting a studied part.
在文明生活中，一个人的幸福，甚至几乎是他的生存，在很大程度上取决于他的同胞的意见，他不断地扮演着一个研究的角色。
The two World Wars came in part, like much modern literature and art, because men, whose nature is to tire of everything in turn... tired of common sense and civilization.
两次世界大战的爆发，在一定程度上，就像许多现代文学和艺术一样，是因为人的本性是依次厌倦一切……厌倦了常识和文明。
Our civilization is still in a middle stage, scarcely beast, in that it is no longer wholly guided by instinct; scarcely human, in that it is not yet wholly guided by reason.
我们的文明仍处于中间阶段，几乎可以说是禽兽，因为它不再完全受本能的支配;几乎没有人性，因为它还没有完全被理性所引导。
It has been said that the position of woman is the test of civilization, and that of our women was secure. In them was vested our standard of morals and the purity of our blood.
有人说，妇女的地位是对文明的考验，我们妇女的地位是稳固的。我们的道德标准和我们血液的纯洁都赋予了他们。
Thousands of years and many civilizations have defined a marriage as the union between one man and one woman. With few exceptions, those civilizations that did not follow that perished.
几千年来，许多文明都把婚姻定义为一男一女之间的结合。除了少数例外，那些没有跟随其后的文明都灭亡了。
I have, for many years past, contemplated the noble races of red men who are now spread over these trackless forests and boundless prairies, melting away at the approach of civilization.
在过去的许多年里，我一直在思索着那些高贵的红族人，他们现在散布在这些无路可走的森林和无边无际的草原上，随着文明的到来而逐渐消失。
Our society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members.
我们的社会必须使老年人不惧怕年轻人或不被年轻人抛弃成为可能，这是正确的，因为对一个文明的考验是它如何照顾其无助的成员。
While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them. It has created palaces, but it was not so easy to create noblemen and kings.
虽然文明一直在改善我们的住房，但它并没有同样改善住在其中的人。它创造了宫殿，但创造贵族和国王并不容易。
Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.
文明是走向隐私社会的进步。野蛮人的整个存在是公开的，由他的部落的法律统治。文明是人类从人类中解放出来的过程。
KEEP EXPLORING
沿着这个主题，再读几句。
We are like ignorant shepherds living on a site where great civilizations once flourished. The shepherds play with the fragments that pop up to the surface, having no notion of the beautiful structures of which they were once a part.
我们就像无知的牧羊人，生活在曾经繁荣过伟大文明的地方。牧羊人玩弄着浮出水面的碎片，对它们曾经是其中一部分的美丽结构一无所知。
With the emergence of civilization, the rate of change shifted from hundreds of thousands of years to millennia. With the emergence of science as a way of knowing the universe, the rate of change shifted to centuries.
随着文明的出现，变化的速度从几十万年变成了几千年。随着科学作为了解宇宙的一种方式的出现，变化的速度转移到了几个世纪。
Inter library loans are a wonder of the world and a glory of civilization.
馆际互借是世界的奇迹，是文明的荣耀。
I would seriously question whether anybody is really foolish enough to really say what they mean. Sometimes I think that civilization as we know it would kind of break down if we all were completely honest.
我要严肃地质疑，是否有人真的愚蠢到说出自己的意思。有时我认为，我们所知道的文明会崩溃，如果我们都是完全诚实的。
The last struggle for our rights, the battle for our civilization, is entirely with ourselves.
为我们的权利而进行的最后一场斗争，为我们的文明而进行的斗争，完全是我们自己的斗争。