Quotes about Decline

Nations rise, they flourish for a time, and then they decline. Eventually every empire comes to an end; not even the greatest can last forever.

There is no doubt that nations come to an end when they have ceased to fulfill the function that God meant for them.

Ancient historians tell us that one of the symptoms of a declining civilization is a desexualization of the human race, with men becoming more effeminate and women becoming more masculine, not only in physical [appearance] but in their basic characters.

Man is not growing better! Man is not climbing upward. Instead of progress in man himself there is degeneracy—degeneracy of body, mind, and spirit. Man is going downhill.

The imminent demise of the church has been predicted since the middle of the 18th century. This is the regular secular mantra if churchgoing declines. I could take you to plenty of churches that are full to bursting and new churches being built.

As civilization advances, the sense of wonder declines. Such decline is an alarming symptom of our state of mind. Mankind will not perish for want of information; but only for want of appreciation.

The Fall was ongoing, but its trajectory led ever downward.

By virtue of being created by God, the world knows how to live and is under obligation to live that way, but it has declined. It has thus "profaned" the earth, made it something God no longer wishes to have anything to do with, something God could not continue to have anything to do with without compromising who he is.

The Roman world is falling, yet we hold our heads erect instead of bowing our necks.

Midlife is about surrendering things that no longer matter, not because our lives are in decline, but because they're on an incline

The love of God is like himself — equal, constant, not capable of augmentation or diminution; our love is like ourselves — unequal, increasing, waning, growing, declining. His, like the sun, always the same in its light, though a cloud may sometimes interpose; ours, as the moon, has its enlargements and straightenings.

The poet Melvin B. Tolson once said, 'A civilization is judged only in its decline.' That made sense to me. I would imagine the same is true for poets and tennis players.