Top 15 Will Durant Quotes

Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.

Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.

Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves. . . let us be above such transparent egotism.

We are what we repeatedly do. Greatness then, is not an act, but a habit

A nation is born stoic, and dies epicurean

How much more suffering is caused by the thought of death than by death itself.

Forget mistakes. Forget failure. Forget everything except what you're going to do now and do it. Today is your lucky day

A nation is born stoic, and dies epicurean. At its cradle (to repeat a thoughtful adage) religion stands, and philosophy accompanies it to the grave.
In the beginning of all cultures a strong religious faith conceals and softens the nature of things, and gives men courage to bear pain and hardship patiently; at every step the gods are with them, and will not let them perish, until they do. Even then a firm faith will explain that it was the sins of the people that turned their gods to an avenging wrath; evil does not destroy faith, but strengthens it. If victory comes, if war is forgotten in security and peace, then wealth grows; the life of the body gives way, in the dominant classes, to the life of the senses and the mind; toil and suffering are replaced by pleasure and ease; science weakens faith even while thought and comfort weaken virility and fortitude. At last men begin to doubt the gods; they mourn the tragedy of knowledge, and seek refuge in every passing delight.
Achilles is at the beginning, Epicurus at the end. After David comes Job, and after Job, Ecclesiastes.

History reports that the men who can manage men manage the men who can manage only things, and the men who can manage money manage all.

Tolerance grows only when faith loses certainty; certainty is murderous.

Those who have suffered much become very bitter or very gentle.

Sixty years ago I knew everything; now I know nothing; education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.