Fallen Leaves

3.5 stars - Will Durant was an American writer, historian and philosopher. Over the course of his life, people asked for his personal take on things, and this book is the culmination of those thoughts. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this; a nice mix of timeless thoughts and ideas best understood in th......more

A person will always be of their time and place even if they've synthesized so perfectly the times and places of so many others. Here, Will Durant, who I love as an author beyond measure, lays out his personal thoughts on many things worth having thoughts on, indeed almost everything worth having th......more

I suspect the author of the sweeping eleven-volume series The Story of Civilization (1935-1975) is right about this: "An effective approach to the problem of war will proceed, not by large and generous emotions, but by the specific study and patient adjustment of specific causes and disputes. Peace m......more

"I know that life is in its basis a mystery; a flowing river from an unseen source and in its development an infinite subtlety; a "a dome on many-colored glass", too complex for thought , much less for utterance. And yet the thirst for unity draws me eternally on. To chart this wilderness of experien......more

Since college I always wanted to read his 11 volume "Story of Civilization", so when I saw Fallen Leaves in the local library I immediately recognized the authors name. I was thinking that anyone who took 40 years to research and write the story of all human time, would probable have something inter......more