Is civilization only a higher form of idolatry, that man should bow down to a flesh-brush, to flannels, to baths, diet, exercise, and air? – Mary Baker Eddy
People sometimes tell me that they prefer barbarism to civilization. I doubt if they have given it a long enough trial. Like the people of Alexandria, they are bored by civilization; but all the evidence suggests that the boredom of barbarism is infinitely greater. – Kenneth Clark
I found that a new oath holds pretty well; but… when it is become old and frayed out and damaged by a dozen annual retryings of its remains, it ceases to be serviceable; any little strain will snap it. – Mark Twain (1835–1910), speech, Tile Club Dinner for Laurence Hutton, New
