“[R]eligion arises not out of sacerdotal invention or chicanery, but out of the persistent wonder, fear, insecurity, hopefulness and loneliness of man.”

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.