“We are tossed about by external causes in many ways, and like waves driven by contrary winds, we waver and are unconscious of the issue and our fate.' We think we are most ourselves when we are most passionate, whereas it is then we are most passive, caught in some ancestral torrent of impulse or feeling, and swept on to a precipitate reaction which meets only part of the situation because without thought only part of a situation can be perceived.”

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.