CIVILISING NOTIONS

"A nation is not civilised because a handful of its members are successful in acquiring large sums of money and in persuading their fellows that a catastrophe will occur if they do not acquire it...What matters to a society is less what it owns than what it is and how it uses its possessions. It is civilized in so far as its conduct is guided by a just appreciation of spiritual ends, in so far as it uses its material resources to promote the dignity and refinement of the individual human beings who compose it."

"Clever [persons] are impressed in their differences from their fellows. Wise [persons] are conscious of their resemblance to them" - R. H. Tawney