As Conservative Jews, we acknowledge without apology the many debts which Jewish religion and civilization owe to the nations of the world.

He argues that Greek civilization, revered for 250 years as the cradle of Western thought, owed a large debt to the ideas of Egypt and the Middle East.

They are so different in theory that drawing a sharp distinction between them is now probably the most important duty that civilization owes to its own safety.

Martin Bernal, a Cornell University professor of government who has written two volumes on what Greek civilization owes to the Egyptians and Phoenicians, argues that the scientific community has been slow in changing its framework of understanding the world.

In the ages to come, whole civilisations on worlds of which we've never heard will owe their existence to what we've done tonight.

What Western civilization owes an ancient nomadic tribe.

The cities, then, were in symbiosis with the countryside, and it is to that that European civilization owes its very special character.