Q0625

“Our ambition is to help build a Civilization of the Universal, a…” — Léopold Sédar Senghor (essays on the "civilization of the…)

Verified English quotation. Primary source: essays on the "civilization of the universal". Theme: society.

English

Our ambition is to help build a Civilization of the Universal, a rendezvous of giving and receiving among the cultures of the world.
Thinker Léopold Sédar Senghor
School Africana Philosophy
Source essays on the "civilization of the universal"
Theme Society
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source and attribution

The archive attributes this English wording to essays on the "civilization of the universal" and files it under Africana Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

About Léopold Sédar Senghor

Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906–2001) was a Senegalese poet, theorist of Négritude, and Senegal’s first president. With Césaire and Damas he forged a black cultural affirmation in French; his essays treat Négritude as an ontology and aesthetics of vital force as well as a politics of cultural rendezvous.

How to read this passage

Social philosophy asks how individuals and collectives constitute each other, and what justice requires of shared life. This passage enters that discussion through society, humanity.

Concepts in this quote

Society
Society is the web of institutions, customs, and mutual expectations in which individual freedom takes shape.
Humanity
Humanity names both the species and the moral quality of being humane—bridging anthropology and ethics.

How to cite this quotation

APA: Léopold Sédar Senghor. (n.d.). Our ambition is to help build a Civilization of the Universal, a rendezvous of giving and receiving among the cultures of the world. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0625

MLA: Léopold Sédar Senghor. “Our ambition is to help build a Civilization….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0625.

Chicago: Léopold Sédar Senghor. “Our ambition is to help build a Civilization….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0625.

Frequently asked questions

What is the source of the quotation “Our ambition is to help build a Civilization…”?

The passage is attributed to Léopold Sédar Senghor, essays on the "civilization of the universal". The archive attributes this English wording to essays on the "civilization of the universal" and files it under Africana Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

What does Léopold Sédar Senghor mean by society?

Social philosophy asks how individuals and collectives constitute each other, and what justice requires of shared life. This passage enters that discussion through society, humanity.

Same thinker

More from Léopold Sédar Senghor

  1. Emotion is Negro, as reason is Hellenic.
  2. Négritude is the sum of the cultural values of the black world.
  3. The whole system is founded on the notion of vital force. Pre-existing, anterior to being, it constitutes being.
  4. The African does not stand outside reality but enters into communion with it; knowledge is participation, not only analysis.

All quotations by Léopold Sédar Senghor

Same theme

More on society

  1. Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.
  2. Habit is the enormous fly-wheel of society, its most precious conservative agent.
  3. Study problems, import theories, reorganize the national heritage, and recreate civilization.
  4. When the granaries are full, people know ritual and restraint; when food and clothing are sufficient, they know honor and shame.
  5. Toward the past history of one’s own country, one should hold a warmth of feeling and a sense of respect.

Browse the society theme