Technology Quotes from Civilization 4

Theology 

"Two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self; the heavenly by the love of God."

- St. Augustine

Chemistry

"Chemistry means the difference between poverty and starvation and the abundant life."

- Robert Brent

Constitution

"No freeman shall be taken, imprisoned, or in any other way destroyed, except by the lawful judgment of his peers."

- The Magna Carta

Corporation

"Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility."

- Ambrose Bierce

Democracy

"It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."

- Winston Churchill

Economics

"Compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe."

- Albert Einstein

Education

"There is no wealth like knowledge, no poverty like ignorance."

- Ali ibn Abi-Talib

Gunpowder

"You can get more of what you want with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind word."

- Al Capone

Liberalism

"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."

- Benjamin Franklin

Military Science

"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philisophy."

- John Adams

Military Tradition

"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win."

- Sun-Tzu

Nationalism

"A man does not have himself killed for a half-pence a day or for a petty distinction. You must speak to the soul in order to electrify him."

- Napoleon Bonaparte

Printing Press

"What gunpowder did for war, the printing press has done for the mind."

- Wendell Phillips

Replaceable Parts

"The whole is more than the sum of its parts."

- Aristotle

Rifling

"Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."

- Mao Zedong

Biology

"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, but the one most responsive to change."

- Charles Darwin

Railroad

"I fooled you, I fooled you, I got pig iron, I got pig iron, I got all pig iron."

- Lonnie Donegan,"Rock Island Line"

Scientific Method

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."

- Galileo Galilei

Steam Power

"You would make a ship sail against the winds and currents by lighting a bon-fire under her deck? I have no time for such nonsense."

- Napoleon, on Robert Fulton's Steamship

Steel

"Before that steam drill shall beat me down, I'll die with my hammer in my hand."

- from"John Henry, the Steel-Driving Man"

Composites

"The whole is greater than the sum of its parts."

- Aristotle

Computers

"Never trust a computer you can't throw out a window."

- Steve Wozniak

Ecology

"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."

- Native American Song

Fiber Optics

"There is a single light of science and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere."

- Isaac Asimov

Flight

"For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

- Leonardo Da Vinci

Fusion

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

- Arthur C. Clarke

Future Technology

"The future will be better tomorrow."

- Dan Quayle

Genetics

"Soon it will be a sin for parents to have a child which carries the heavy burden of genetic disease."

- Bob Edwards

Laser

"Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws."

- Douglas Adams

Mass Media

"The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about."

- Oscar Wilde

Plastics

"I just want to say one word to you. Just one word: plastics."

- Calder Willingham, The Graduate

Radio

"Then one fine mornin' she puts on a New York station. You know her life was saved by Rock 'n' Roll."

- The Velvet Underground,"Rock And Roll"

Refrigeration

"Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are."

- Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Robotics

"The real problem is not whether machines think, but whether men do."

- B.F. Skinner

Rocketry

"The Earth is the cradle of the mind, but one cannot eternally live in a cradle."

- Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky

Satellites

"Beep... beep... beep... beep..."

- Sputnik I

Stealth

"Behind a veil, unseen yet present, I was the forceful soul that moved this mighty body."

- Jean Racine

Superconductors

"What is happiness? The feeling that power is growing, that resistance is overcome."

- Friedrich Nietzsche

Combustion

"Everything in life is somewhere else, and you get there in car."

- E.B. White

Communism

"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist."

- Dom Helder Camara

Electricity

"We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles."

- Thomas Edison

Fascism

"The great masses of the people... will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one."

- Adolf Hitler

Fission

"If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One... I am become Death, the Shatterer of Worlds."

- J. Robert Oppenheimer, quoting"The Bhagavad Gita"

Industrialism

"There is one rule for the industrialist and that is: Make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wage possible."

- Henry Ford

Medicine

"As to diseases make a habit of two things - to help, or at least, to do no harm."

- Hippocrates

Physics

"To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction."

- Isaac Newton

Engineering 

"A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

- Antoine de Saint-Exupry

Feudalism

"I will to my lord be true and faithful, and love all which he loves and shun all which he shuns."

- Anglo Saxon oath of Fealty

Guilds

"People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public."

- Adam Smith

Machinery

"A god from the machine."

- Menander

Music

"If music be the food of love, play on."

- William Shakespeare

Optics

"One doesn't discover new lands without losing sight of the shore."

- Andre Gide

Paper

"I cannot live without books."

- Thomas Jefferson

Philosophy

"I have gained this by philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law."

- Aristotle

Bronze Working

"It is entirely seemly for a young man killed in battle to lie mangled by the bronze spear. In his death all things appear fair."

- Homer

Fishing

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

- Lao Tzu

Horseback Riding

"If you speak the truth, have a foot in the stirrup."

- Turkish Proverb

Hunting

"If you chase two rabbits, you will lose them both."

- Native American saying

Masonry

"It is from their foes, not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of building high walls."

- Aristophanes

Meditation

"Meditation brings wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back."

- The Buddha

Mining

"The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones."

- Confucius

Monotheism

"I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me."

- The Bible, Exodus

Mysticism

"Nature herself has imprinted on the minds of all the idea of God."

- Cicero

Polytheism

"Not at all similar are the race of the immortal gods and the race of men who walk upon the earth."

- Homer

Pottery

"Hath not the potter power over the clay, to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?"

- The Bible, Romans

Priesthood

"The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace."

- The Bible, Numbers

Monarchy

"A multitude of rulers is not a good thing. Let there be one ruler, one king."

- Herodotus

Banking

"Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies."

- Thomas Jefferson

Civil Service

"The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy."

- Unknown

Divine Right

"I am the state."

- Louis XIV