Epoch Quotes - Page 2

• Looking at the world as a whole, the drift for many decades has been not towards anarchy but towards the reimposition of slavery. We may be heading not for general breakdown but for an epoch as horribly stable as the slave empires of antiquity.

  George Orwell

  World, Slavery, May

  George Orwell (1968). “The Collected Essays, Journalism, and Letters of George Orwell: In front of your nose, 1945-1950”

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• For most of human history, we could only watch, like bystanders, the beautiful dance of Nature. But today, we are on the cusp of an epoch-making transition, from being passive observers of Nature to being active choreographers of Nature. The Age of Discovery in science is coming to a close, opening up an Age of Mastery.

  Michio Kaku

  Beautiful, Science, Bystanders

  Michio Kaku (1999). “Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century”, p.5, Oxford Paperbacks

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• It is customary to complain of the bustle and strenuousness of our epoch. But in truth the chief mark of our epoch is a profound laziness and fatigue; and the fact is that the real laziness is the cause of the apparent bustle.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Real, Profound, Causes

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.93, Simon and Schuster

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• One judges an epoch as much by its Art as by its customs.

  Henri Gaudier-Brzeska

  Art, Judging, Customs

  Letter to Sophie Brzeska-Savage Messiah By Harold Stanley (Jim) Ede, 1931.

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• Our relationship with nature has changed radically, irreversibly, but by no means all for the bad. Our new epoch is laced with invention. Our mistakes are legion, but our talent is immeasurable.

  Diane Ackerman

  Mistake, Mean, Talent

  "The Human Age: The World Shaped By Us". Book by Diane Ackerman, September 14, 2015.

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• Yes, gentlemen, give me the map of any country, its configuration, its climate, its waters, its winds, and the whole of its physical geography; give me its natural productions, its flora, its zoology, &c., and I pledge myself to tell you, a priori, what will be the quality of man in history:-not accidentally, but necessarily; not at any particular epoch, but in all; in short, -what idea he is called to represent.

  Victor Cousin

  Country, Men, Wind

  Victor Cousin (1832). “Introduction to the History of Philosophy”, p.240

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• We should be most careful about retreating from the specific challenge of our age. We should be reluctant to turn our back upon the frontier of this epoch... We cannot be indifferent to space, because the grand slow march of our intelligence has brought us, in our generation, to a point from which we can explore and understand and utilize it. To turn back now would be to deny our history, our capabilities.

  James A. Michener

  Space, Our Generation, Challenges

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• The discovery which has been pointed to by theory is always one of profound interest and importance, but it is usually the close and crown of a long and fruitful period, whereas the discovery which comes as a puzzle and surprise usually marks a fresh epoch and opens a new chapter in science.

  Oliver Lodge

  Science, Discovery, Long

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• Beauty is also submitted to the taste of time, so a beautiful woman from the Belle Epoch is not exactly the perfect beauty of today, so beauty is something that changes with time.

  Karl Lagerfeld

  Beauty, Beautiful, Fashion

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• Ever since my youth it has disturbed me that of the literary works that survived their own epoch, so many dealt with historical rather than contemporary subjects.

  Lion Feuchtwanger

  Historical, Youth, Disturbed

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• God grant that this is the work of the Communists. You are witnessing the beginning of a great new epoch in German history. This fire is the beginning.

  Adolf Hitler

  War, Fire, German History

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• We are at a major epoch in human history, which is that we don't need sex to recreate the race. You can have babies without sex. This is the first time in human history that has been true, and it means, for example, we could do some extraordinary things.

  David Cronenberg

  Baby, Sex, Mean

  "Controversial visionary David Cronenberg sees technology, mankind, sexuality merging in 'eXistenZ'". Interview with Rob Blackwelder, splicedwire.com. April 14, 1999.

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• Buddhism, I think, is probably facing the single most difficult transition from one historical epoch to another, which is really the transition to modernity.

  Stephen Batchelor

  Buddhism, Thinking, Historical

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• The death of a dear friend, wife, brother, lover, which seemed nothing but privation, somewhat later assumes the aspect of a guide or genius; for it commonly operates revolutions in our way of life, terminates an epoch of infancy or of youth which was waiting to be closed, breaks up a wonted occupation, or a household, or style of living, and allows the formation of new ones more friendly to the growth of character.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Love, Brother, Character

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2015). “Essays”, p.22, Xist Publishing

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• The publication in 1859 of the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin made a marked epoch in my own mental development, as it did in that of human thought generally. Its effect was to demolish a multitude of dogmatic barriers by a single stroke, and to arouse a spirit of rebellion against all ancient authorities whose positive and unauthenticated statements were contradicted by modern science.

  Francis Galton

  Science, Development, Spirit

  Francis Galton (2015). “Memories of My Life”, p.211, Routledge

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• From the building of the temple of Solomon, which is also treated as a leading epoch in chronology, a new period in the history of worship is accordingly dated, - and to a certain extent with justice.

  Julius Wellhausen

  Justice, Temples, Geek

  Julius Wellhausen (2013). “Prolegomena to the History of Israel: With a Reprint of the Article 'Israel' from the Encyclopaedia Britannica”, p.20, Cambridge University Press

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• Every country should realize that its turn at world domination, domination because its rights coincided more or less with the character or progress of the epoch, must terminate with the change brought about by this progress.

  Juan Ramon Jimenez

  Country, Character, Rights

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• A mind might ponder its thought for an epoch, and not gain so much self-knowledge as the passion of love shall teach in a day.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Love, Educational, Philosophy

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• In the Spanish people there is a mixture of Gothic, Frankish and Moorish blood. One can speak of the Spaniard as one would speak of a brave anarchist. The Arabian epoch-the Arabs look down on the Turks as they do on dogs-was the most cultured, the most intellectual and in every way best and happiest epoch in Spanish history. It was followed by the period of the persecutions with its unceasing atrocities.

  Adolf Hitler

  Dog, Blood, People

  Adolf Hitler (1953). “Secret conversations, 1941-1944”

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• All men and women are born, live, suffer and die; what distinguishes us one from another is our dreams, whether they be dreams about worldly or unworldly things, and what we do to make them come about... We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time and conditions of our death. But within this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we live.

  Joseph Epstein

  Inspirational, Life, Dream

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• All epoch-making revolutionary events have been produced not by the written, but by the spoken word.

  Adolf Hitler

  Events, Revolutionary, Spoken Word

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• When geologists announced the beginning of a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene, humans destroying the environment, one of the main things they pointed to is the use of plastics in the earth. We don't think about it, but it has a tremendous effect. But these are things you don't see right in front of your eyes. You need to think about them a little, to see what the consequences are. It's easy to put them aside, and the media don't talk about them.

  Noam Chomsky

  Eye, Thinking, Media

  Source: www.salon.com

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• Doubtless many can recall certain books which have greatly influenced their lives, and in my own case one stands out especially-a translation of Hofmeister's epoch-making treatise on the comparative morphology of plants. This book, studied while an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, was undoubtedly the most important factor in determining the trend of my botanical investigation for many years.

  Douglas Houghton Campbell

  Book, Science, Years

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• The intensive use of photographs by mass media lays ever fresh responsibilities upon the photographer. We have to acknowledge the existence of a chasm between the economic needs of our consumer society and the requirements of those who bear witness to this epoch. This affects us all, particularly the younger generations of photographers. We must take greater care than ever not to allow ourselves to be separated from the real world and from humanity.

  Henri Cartier-Bresson

  Photography, Real, Responsibility

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• Men get tired of everything, of heaven no less than of hell; and that all history is nothing but a record of the oscillations of the world between these two extremes. An epoch is but a swing of the pendulum; and each generation thinks the world is progressing because it is always moving.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Moving, Tired, Men

  George Bernard Shaw (2012). “Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy”, p.201, The Floating Press

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