Arthur Keith Quotes

A drunkard is one thing, and a temperate man is quite another.
Arthur Keith

Before the discovery of agriculture mankind was everywhere so divided, the size of each group being determined by the natural fertility of its locality.
Arthur Keith

Christianity has not conquered nationalism; the opposite has been the case nationalism has made Christianity its footstool.
Arthur Keith

Civilization never stands still; if in one country it is falling back, in another it is changing, evolving, becoming more complicated, bringing fresh experience to body and mind, breeding new desires, and exploiting Nature's cupboard for their satisfaction.
Arthur Keith

Civilization, we shall find, like Universalism and Christianity, is anti evolutionary in its effects; it works against the laws and conditions which regulated the earlier stages of man's ascent.
Arthur Keith

Good men, whether they be Christians or rationalists, do not desire to discriminate between races, but the distinctions implanted by Nature are too conspicuous to escape the observation of our senses.
Arthur Keith

I am a rank individualist.
Arthur Keith

I prize the conditions under which I have lived because they have permitted me to choose my opportunities, to inquire into such matters as interested me, and to publish what I believed to be true, uncontrolled by any central authority.
Arthur Keith

In a tribal organization, even in time of peace, service to tribe or state predominates over all self seeking; in war, service for the tribe or state becomes supreme, and personal liberty is suspended.
Arthur Keith

In every man there is an instinctive and passionate reaction if his person or liberty is attacked.
Arthur Keith

It is just because civilization is ever evolving, changing, and becoming more complicated, that experts find it so difficult to define it in explicit terms.
Arthur Keith

Man is by nature competitive, combative, ambitious, jealous, envious, and vengeful.
Arthur Keith

My personal conviction is that science is concerned wholly with truth, not with ethics.
Arthur Keith

No tribe unites with another of its own free will.
Arthur Keith

Nowhere is Universalism welcomed and encouraged by a people; everywhere governments have forced and are forcing Universalism upon unwilling and resistant subjects.
Arthur Keith

Reason has not tamed desire: it is as strong as ever.
Arthur Keith

The discovery of agriculture was the first big step toward a civilized life.
Arthur Keith

The main force used in the evolving world of humanity has hitherto been applied in the form of war.
Arthur Keith

The proper balance between individual liberty and central authority is a very ancient problem.
Arthur Keith

There are the further difficulties of building a population out of a diversity of races, each at a different stage of cultural evolution, some in need of restraint, many in need of protection; everywhere a bewildering Babel of tongues.
Arthur Keith