NBD NTL
alberty111 | Jan. 2, 2026, 9:09 p.m.
book notesBeen reading this book <The Lessons of History> by Will and Ariel Durant this week, below is some notes I take and phrase that I think worth noticing.
The history is the fragment of biology because after all, it is human history what all the decision human made that created the history. The Will/Ariel commented that Competition is essential to human existant and cooperation is a tool for competition. This is from the biology perspective.
From economical perspective: Inequality is natural, the breakpoint is when wealth is so concentrated that many poor rival the power of the few rich. And the resolution are only in two ways: reforms or revolution.
From the political point of view. The history tends to move in the cycle, concept called "Anacyclosis", the history moves from Monarchy -> Aristocracy -> Democracy -> Tyranny -> Monarchy...
Above is sort of the summary of the book, in some sense, I would agree with the book. Below are some phraces in the book that I think worth thinking apon. Quotes:
Page 7: In pholosophy we try to see the part in the light of the whole; in the "philosophy of history" we try to see this moment in the light of the past.
Page 14: Only the man who is below the average in economic ability desires equality, those who are conscious of superior ability desires freedom, and in the end superior ability has its way.
Page 28: Evolution in man during recoded time has been social rather than biological: it has proceeded not by heritable variations in the sepcies, but mostly by economic, political, intellectual, and moral innovation transmitted to individuals and generations.
Page 29: History in large is the conflict of minorities: the majority applauds the victor and supplies the human material of social experiment.
Page 44: Generally religion and puritanism prevail in periods when the laws are feeble and morals must bear the burden of maintaining social ordes.
Page 45: As long as there is poverty there will be gods.
Page 48: Perhaps it is one secret of their power that, having studied the fluctuation of prices, they know that history is inflationary and that money is the last thing a wise man will hoard.
Page 66: The only real revolution is in the enlightenment of the mind and the improvement of character, the only real emancipation is individual and the only real revolutionists are philosophers and saints.
Page 75: If it foresaw conflict with any particular country it fomented, in its people, hatred of that country, and formulated catchwords to bring that hatred to a lethal point, meanwhile it stressed its love of peace.
Page 82: History repeats itself in the large because human nature changes with geological leisureliness and man is equipped to respond in stereotyped ways to frequently occurring situations and stumuli like hunger, danger and sex.
Page 86: When the group or a civilization declines, it is through no mystic limitation of a corporate life, but through the failure of its political or intellectual leaders to meet the challges of change.
Just a guy who likes to go to gym, play Texas hold'em and bouldering.
Know more!