The New Penguin History of The World Quotes

“Europeans showed in 1900 much the same confidence in the continuing success of their culture as the Chinese elite had shown in theirs a century earlier. The past, they were sure, proved them right.”
― J.M. Roberts, The Penguin History of the World

“Civilization is the name we give to the interaction of human beings in a very creative way, when, as it were, a critical mass of cultural potential and a certain surplus of resources have been built up.”
― J M Roberts, The Penguin History of the World

“More people than ever before look to government as their best chance of securing well-being rather than as their inevitable enemy. Politics as a contest to capture state power has at times apparently replaced religion (sometimes even appearing to eclipse market economics) as the focus of faith that can move mountains.”
― John Morris Roberts, The New History of the World

“Ever since 1945 the federal government has held and indeed increased its importance as the first customer of the American economy. Government spending had been the primary economic stimulant and to increase it had been the goal of hundreds of interest groups; hopes of balanced budgets and cheap, business-like administration always ran aground upon this fact. What was more, the United States was a democracy; whatever the doctrinaire objections to it, and however much rhetoric might be devoted to attacking it, a welfare state slowly advanced because voters wanted it that way. These facts gradually made the old ideal of totally free enterprise, unchecked and uninvaded by the influence of government, unreal.”
― John Morris Roberts, The New Penguin History of The World

“Outsiders became keen to join an organization [European Community] that offered attractive bribes to the poor. Greece did so in 1981 and Spain and Portugal in 1986.” - written before 2003.”
― John Morris Roberts, The New Penguin History of The World

“Homo Sapiens”
― J.M. Roberts, The Penguin History of the World

“The Sumerian language lived on for centuries in temples and scribal schools, much as Latin lived on for the learned in the muddle of vernacular cultures in Europe after the collapse of the western classical world of Rome. The comparison is suggestive, because literary and linguistic tradition embodies ideas and images which impose, permit and limit different ways of seeing the world; they have, that is to say, historic weight.”
― J.M. Roberts, The Penguin History of the World

“It is important none the less that our remotest identifiable ancestors lived in trees because what survived in the next phase of evolution were genetic strains best suited to the special uncertainties and accidental challenges of the forest. That environment put a premium on the capacity to learn. Those survived whose genetic inheritance could respond and adapt to the surprising, sudden danger of deep shade, confused visual patterns and treacherous handholds. Strains prone to accident in such conditions were wiped out. Among those that prospered (genetically speaking) were some species with long digits which were to develop into fingers and, eventually, the oppositional thumb, and other forerunners of the apes already embarked upon an evolution towards three-dimensional vision and the diminution of the importance of the sense of smell.”
― J.M. Roberts, The Penguin History of the World

“For a quarter-century British governments had tried and failed to combine economic growth, increased social service provision and a high level of employment. The second depended ultimately on the first, but when difficulty arose, the first had always been sacrificed to the other two. The United Kingdom was, after all, a democracy whose votes, greedy and gullible, had to be placated.”
― John Morris Roberts, The New Penguin History of The World

“If there was a spectre haunting France in the 1780's, it was not that of revolution but that of state bankruptcy. The whole social and political structure of France stood in the way of tapping the wealth of the better-off, the only sure way of emerging from the financial impasse.”
― John Morris Roberts, The New History of the World

“Few men were better fitted by temperament or education to discern”
― J.M. Roberts, The Penguin History of the World

“By then”
― J.M. Roberts, The Penguin History of the World

“Constantine’s greatest act in the ordering of religion came just after he had formally declared himself a Christian in 324 (a declaration preceded by another victory over an imperial rival who had”
― J.M. Roberts, The Penguin History of the World

“Constantine gave the Church official houseroom. He thus played a more important part in shaping its future than any other Christian layman”
― J.M. Roberts, The Penguin History of the World

“Christianity’s greatest contribution to a later western civilization would be its stubbornly prophetic and individualistic assertion that life should be regulated with reference to a moral guidance independent not only of government but of any other merely human authority. It is not hard”
― J.M. Roberts, The Penguin History of the World

“The nationalists of Judaea apart”
― J.M. Roberts, The Penguin History of the World

“After the revolt had been suppressed with difficulty (and guerrilla warfare went on long after)”
― J.M. Roberts, The Penguin History of the World

“Thus was the empire made by the republic. Like all empires”
― J.M. Roberts, The Penguin History of the World

“Whatever the exact date”
― J.M. Roberts, The Penguin History of the World

“Of course”
― J.M. Roberts, The Penguin History of the World

“In Stoicism”
― J.M. Roberts, The Penguin History of the World

“Another form of this philosophic reaction advocated the ideals of renunciation and non-attachment. The school”
― J.M. Roberts, The Penguin History of the World

“Weak as the cement of the Alexandrine empire must have been”
― J.M. Roberts, The Penguin History of the World

“Both his conquests and their organization in empire bear the stamp of individual genius; the word is not too strong”
― J.M. Roberts, The Penguin History of the World

“The story is simple to summarize. Legend says that after crossing to Asia Minor he cut the Gordian Knot. He then defeated the Persians at the battle of Issus. This was followed by a campaign which swept south through Syria”
― J.M. Roberts, The Penguin History of the World

“The Republic and its arguments were to provoke centuries of discussion and imitation”
― J.M. Roberts, The Penguin History of the World

“What mattered about the Ionians and the school they founded was what has rightly been called their ‘astonishing’ novelty. They pushed aside gods and demons from the understanding of nature. Time was to overwhelm some of what they had done”
― J.M. Roberts, The Penguin History of the World

“The achievement which made Greece the teacher of Europe (and through it of the world) is too rich and varied to generalize about even in long and close study; it is impossible to summarize in a page or so. But there is a salient theme which emerges in it: a growing confidence in rational”
― J.M. Roberts, The Penguin History of the World

“If Athenian democracy’s exclusion of women”
― J.M. Roberts, The Penguin History of the World

“Soon after 500 BC”
― J.M. Roberts, The Penguin History of the World