Those Who Know Nothing About History Are

Every Form Of Government Tends To Perish By Excess Of Its Basic Principle.

War Is One Of The Constants Of History, And It Has Not Diminished With Civilization Or Democracy.

Civilization Is Social Order Promoting Cultural Creation. Four Elements Constitute It: Economic Provision, Political Organization, Moral Tradition, And The Pursuit Of Knowledge And The Arts. It Begins Where Chaos And Insecurity End. For When Fear Is Overcome, Curiosity And Constructiveness Are Free, And Man Passes By Natural Impulse Towards The Understanding And Embellishment Of Life.

We Conclude That The Concentration Of Wealth Is Natural And Inevitable, And Is Periodically Alleviated By Violent Or Peaceable Partial Redistribution. In This View All Economic History Is The Slow Heartbeat Of The Social Organism, A Vast Systole And Diastole Of Concentrating Wealth And Compulsive Redistribution.

And Last Are The Few Whose Delight Is In Meditation And Understanding; Who Yearn Not For Goods, Nor For Victory, But For Knowledge; Who Leave Both Market And Battlefield To Lose Themselves In The Quiet Clarity Of Secluded Thought; Whose Will Is A Light Rather Than A Fire, Whose Haven Is Not Power But Truth: These Are The Men Of Wisdom, Who Stand Aside Unused By The World.