Because civilizations are finite, in the life of each of them there comes a moment when the center ceases to hold. What keeps them at such times from disintegration is not legions but language.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Historically, if you look at great civilizations, why do they crumble? Is it because of what's outside or because of something internal? It's always internal. It is.
Civilization in its present form hasn't got long.
A civilization is destroyed only when its gods are destroyed.
For a century longer, Rome still retains its outward form, but the swarming nations are now in full career.
A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.
When civilizations collide, it usually isn't the more primitive one that prevails.
One civilization after another has been wrecked upon the attempt to secure sufficient leadership from a single group or class.
Speech is civilization itself.
Civilizations can only be understood by those who are civilized.
When the French nation gradually came into existence among the ruins of the Roman civilization in Gaul, a new language was at the same time slowly evolved.
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