Since the same human mire remains beneath, does not all civilisation reduce itself to the superiority of smelling nice and living well?
~ Émile Zola
Sweat, scalded meat, puke, blood, smoke and a dozen kinds of bad ale and wine: the bouquet of civilized nightlife
~ Scott Lynch
You see, Mersualt, all the misery and cruelty of our civilisation can be measured by this one stupid axiom: happy nations have no history.
~ Albert Camus
So now what?” I ask.She is quiet for a long time, long enough that I assume she’s gone to sleep.“I think this is just part of it,” she says. “Civilisations fall. People keep going.
~ Daniel H. Wilson
