Top 9 Quotes by Ronald Wright

If civilization is to survive, it must live on the interest, not the capital, of nature.

If civilization is to survive, it must live on the interest, not the capital, of nature.

Ronald Wright

Nature, Civilization, Interest

Ronald Wright (2010). “A Short History Of Progress”, p.129, Canongate Books

Each time history repeats itself, the price goes up.

Ronald Wright

Inspirational, History Repeats Itself, Historian

Ronald Wright (2010). “A Short History Of Progress”, p.107, Canongate Books

Like all creatures, humans have made their way in the world by trial and error. Unlike other creatures we have a presence so colossal that error is a luxury we can no longer afford. The world has grown too small to forgive us any big mistakes.

Ronald Wright

Mistake, Luxury, Errors

Ronald Wright (2010). “A Short History Of Progress”, p.3, Canongate Books

the most compelling reason for reforming our system is that the system is in no one's interest. It is a suicide machine.

Ronald Wright

Suicide, Compelling Reason, Machines

Capitalism lures us onward like the mechanical hare before the greyhounds, insisting that the economy is infinite and sharing therefore irrelevant. Just enough greyhounds catch a real hare now and then to keep the others running till they drop. In the past it was only the poor who lost this game; now it is the planet.

Ronald Wright

Running, Real, Past

Ronald Wright (2010). “A Short History Of Progress”, p.124, Canongate Books

Like most problems with technology, pollution is a problem of scale. The biosphere might have been able to tolerate our dirty old friends coal and oil if we burned them gradually, but how long can it withstand a blaze of consumption so frenzied that the dark size of this planet glows like a fanned ember in the night of space.

Ronald Wright

Dirty, Dark, Night

Ronald Wright (2010). “A Short History Of Progress”, p.7, Canongate Books

Even today, some opt for the comforts of mystification, preferring to believe that the wonders of the ancient world were built by Atlanteans, gods, or space travelers, instead of by thousands toiling in the sun. Such thinking robs our forerunners of their due, and us of their experience. Because then one can believe whatever one likes about the past - without having to confront the bones, potsherds, and inscriptions which tell us that people all over the world, time and again, have made similar advances and mistakes.

Ronald Wright

Mistake, Believe, Thinking

Ronald Wright (2006). “An Illustrated Short History of Progress”