“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.”

American historian and philosopher

Will Durant was an American historian and philosopher, best known for The Story of Civilization, the eleven-volume history he wrote with his wife, Ariel Durant. He lived from 1885 to 1981. He first gained wide notice with The Story of Philosophy in 1926, a book that helped bring philosophy to a broader public. His work focused on the sweep of civilization and the ideas that shape it, especially the history of Eastern and Western cultures.