HTML vs CSS?

From what I read, HTML is used as the base & CSS adds the content. Is CSS needed at all? Is there an alternative that would be better? Are the two easy to learn when you put them together?

HTML is, so to speak, the mother/father of the structure of a web page, since many of the sites you see everywhere are created based on this.

CSS is like the child, because thanks to it the colors, element arrangements, images, etc. are generated.

Let's say that without CSS you can't do anything usable, it would be the same as writing on Microsoft Word without any back to line or any space - impossible to be used

On a basic website, all the content is supplied by the HTML. All instances of text, images etc. are HTML objects. But they look quite dull without CSS, and everything that has to do with colors, positioning, borders, padding, rounded corners etc. are the result of the CSS "manipulating" the HTML to look a certain way.

Here's an example: this thread without CSS. Doesn't look very good, but all the information is there.

I know this is an old topic but still, for future reference I would say:
HTML is the basic look with no look. It's like building a house. You make it functional but it looks like crap. Next step is to make house beautiful, and that's what CSS does.

YoshiGM wrote:HTML is, so to speak, the mother/father of the structure of a web page, since many of the sites you see everywhere are created based on this.

CSS is like the child, because thanks to it the colors, element arrangements, images, etc. are generated.

I like this explanation. Even a small kid can be able to learn and understand the difference between HTML and CSS by reading this response. I like it.