Improvement-Impairment

The civilized man is a larger mind but a more imperfect nature than the savage. (Margaret Fuller)

Not a having and a resting, but a growing and a becoming, is the character of perfection as culture conceives it. (Matthew Arnold)

It is an error to imagine that evolution signifies a constant tendency to increased perfection. That process undoubtedly involves a constant remodelling of the organism in adaptation to new conditions; but it depends on the nature of those conditions whether the direction of the modifications effected shall be upward or downward. (Thomas Henry Huxley)

The crimes of extreme civilization are probably worse than those of extreme barbarism, because of their refinement, the corruption they presuppose, and their superior degree of intellectuality. (Jules Barbey)