#civilization

"No civilization, including Plato's, has ever been destroyed because its citizens learned too much."

"Caius was one of those who gloried in his ignorance, called his lack of letters purity, scorned any subtlety of thought or expression. A man for his time, indeed."

"No one species shall make the life of the world its own.' … That's one expression of the law. Here's another: 'The world was not made for any one species."

"What can oppose the decline of the west is not a resurrected culture but the utopia that is silently contained in the image of its decline."

"You're captives of a civilizational system that more or less compels you to go on destroying the world in order to live. … You are captives—and you have made a captive of the world itself. That's what's at stake, isn't it?—your captivity and the captivity of the world."

"I am beginning to understand,"said the little prince. "There is a flower... I think that she has tamed me..."

"If you alone found out what the lie was, then you're probably right—it would make no great difference. But if you ALL found out what the lie was, it might conceivably make a very great difference indeed."

"Societies in decline have no use for visionaries."