1  One might be contemplating for the reason, why humanity has survived so far, in spite of the violent and impulsive human nature, further multiplied through malevolence.
 2  One reason might be, that unlike other primates, homo sapiens sapiens has a larger prefrontal cortex.
 3  That part of the brain restrains impulsive behaviour, which importance was emphasized in the quote:
 4  "Self-maintenance originates society, while excessive self-gratification destroys civilization."   
 5  Those who seek to understand why self-gratification might be destructive might appreciate these words:   
 6  "Every high civilization decays by forgetting obvious things."   
 7  Those who seek to understand whatever might be "obvious", might appreciate these words:
 8  "The obvious is that which is never seen until someone expresses it simply."   
 9  Those who seek to understand what causes such oblivion, might appreciate such simplicity in these words:   
10  "Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense."    
11  Those who seek to understand what "common sense" might be, might appreciate the following definition:   
12  "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."   
13  Those who seek to understand the nature of prejudice might appreciate these words:   
14  "Prejudice is opinion without judgement."    
15  Those who seek to understand the origin of one's own prejudice might appreciate these words:   
16  "Prejudice is a product of ignorance that hides behind barriers of tradition."   
17  Those who are ignorant of their own prejudice might appreciate these words:   
18  "Prejudice is always dangerous."   
19  One might understand one reason why prejudice might be of such danger in these words:   
20  "Prejudice is the pinnacle of self injected ignorance. It enables poor choices to be pre-chosen."    
21  Those who seek to understand why such choices might be "poor" in a sense of lethal, might appreciate these words:   
22  "The downfall of every civilization comes, not from the moral corruption of the common man, but rather from the moral complacency of common men in high places."    
23  One might appreciate the clarification of the phrase "men in high places" as beings who are higher ranking in the predominant social hiearchy system implying the magnitude of the influnce towards other beings, which one might refer to as "power".
24  Those who seek to understand such "common" beings, might appreciate the chapter on "normal". Those who seek to prevent such downfall might appreciate the chapters "integrity" and "preperation". 
25  Those who might find themselves struggling with such downfall might be tempted to seek a simple solution as in these words:   
26  "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."   
27  Those who seek to simplify might appreciate these words:   
28  "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."    
29  One might understand one reason why not to simplify further in these words:    
30  "Dictators have always played on the natural human tendency to blame others and to oversimplify."    
31  Those who have oversimplified themselves might appreciate these words:    
32  "Never oversimplify yourself by using a single word or category to describe who you are. Take the time to tell your story."    
33  Those who seek why telling one's own story might be important might appreciate these words:    
34  "The world will ask you who you are, and if you don’t know, the world will tell you."    
35  Those who seek to know who they might be, might appreciate the following relization:   
36  "Sophistication demands honesty."   
37  Those who seek to undestand honesty might appreciate these words:   
38  "Honesty is telling the truth to ourselves and others. Integrity is living that truth."   
39  Those who aspire to such integrity might appreciate these words:   
40  "Integrity is choosing your thoughts and actions based on values rather than personal gain."    
41  Those who seek to discover what such value might be, might appreciate these words:   
42  "The key to all of life is understanding how to add value to others."    
43  Those who seek to add value to others might appreciate these words:   
44  "Self-restraint may be alien to the human temperament, but humanity without restraint will dig its own grave."    
45  Those who seek to understand what to restraint, might appreciate these words:   
46  "Self restraint in speech, food, entertainment and vanity are the most essential fundamental of spiritual growth."   
47  Those who seek such growth might realize the following:   
48  "The simplest things that need self-restraint are the most difficult to replicate."    
49  Those who struggle with such difficulty might appreciate the following encouragement:   
50  "In times of difficulty, those brave enough to stay the course will be victors in the end."   
51  Those who seek to understand how to become such victor, might appreciate these words:      
52  "Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization."   
53  Those who seek to understand such unity might appreciate the chapter on "unity". One might refer to the unity in diversity as "cooperation" in the book "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind". In order to cooperate one might become aware of the obligation to civilize oneself through reading such as "etiquette". The importance of reading might become apparent in this statement:   
54  "The culture of a civilization is the art and literature through which it rises to consciousness of itself and defines its vision of the world."   
55  Those who seek to raise such consciousness of such a civilization, might appreciate these words:    
56  "Transparency is for those who carry out public duties and exercise public power. Privacy is for everyone else."    
57  One might understand one reason why transparency might be for those who carry out public duties in these words:    
58  "Transparency seeds collaboration."   
59  Those who seek to excersise such public power, might appreciate the following insight:   
60  "Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men."   
61  One may appreciate the following realization as well:   
62  "Privacy, precisely because it ensures that we are never fully known to others, provides a shelter for imaginative freedom, curiosity and self-reflection."    
63  One might then appreciate the following advice:   
64  "Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape."   
65  Given the social nature of the mammalian brain it is inevitable to struggle to be alone. Those might find clues on how to enjoy solitude in these words:   
66  "Why love if losing hurts so much? We love to know that we are not alone."   
67  One may appreciate the following quote goes a step further:   
68  "One of the most important things you can do on this earth is to let people know they are not alone."   
69  One might appreciate the following mantra to remind oneself and others that one is not alone:   
70  "We are all on the way to Pro."