Epoch Quotes - Page 6

• In the history of education, the most striking phenomenon is that schools of learning, which at one epoch are alive with a ferment of genius, in a succeeding generation exhibit merely pedantry and routine.

  Ted Sizer

  School, Routine, Generations

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• What I am asserting is that in this particular epoch a conjunction of historical circumstances has led to the rise of an elite of power; that the men of the circles composing this elite, severally and collectively, now make such key decisions as are made; and that, given the enlargement and the centralization of the means of power now available, the decisions that they make and fail to make carry more consequences for more people than has ever been the case in the world history of mankind

  C. Wright Mills

  Mean, Men, Keys

  C. Wright Mills (2000). “The Power Elite”, p.28, Oxford University Press

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• It seems to me that the novel is very much alive as a form. Without any question, every epoch has its own forms, and the novel nowadays cannot resemble that of the nineteenth century. In this domain all experiments are justified, and it is better to write something new clumsily than to repeat the old brilliantly. In the nineteenth century, novels dealt with the fate of a person or of a family; this was linked to life in that period. In our time the destinies of people are interwoven. Whether man recognizes it or not, his fate is much more linked to that of many other people than it used to be.

  Ilya Ehrenburg

  Writing, Fate, Destiny

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• Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders; no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way out for himself if society is sweeping toward destruction. Therefore, everyone, in his own interests, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle. None can stand aside with unconcern; the interest of everyone hangs on the result. Whether he chooses or not, every man is drawn into the great historical struggle, the decisive battle into which our epoch has plunged us.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Struggle, Responsibility, Men

  Ludwig Von Mises (1974). “Planning for freedom, and twelve other essays and addresses”

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• It seems to me I am trying to tell you a dream - making a vain attempt, because no relation of a dream can convey the dream-sensation, that commingling of absurdity, surprise, and bewilderment in a tremor of struggling revolt, that notion of being captured by the incredible which is of the very essence of dreams.

  Joseph Conrad

  Dream, Struggle, Essence

  "Heart of Darkness". Book by Joseph Conrad, 1902.

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• It is quite possible for a work of literature to operate as a war machine upon its epoch.

  Monique Wittig

  War, Machines, Literature

  Monique Wittig (1992). “The Straight Mind: And Other Essays”, Beacon Press (MA)

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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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• Every epoch has its character determined by the way its population reacts to the material events which they encounter.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Character, Personality, Encounters

  Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Adventures of Ideas”, p.99, Simon and Schuster

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• At each epoch of history the world was in a hopeless state, and at each epoch of history the world muddled through; at each epoch the world was lost, and at each epoch it was saved.

  Jacques Maritain

  History, World, Hopeless

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• In all the areas within which the spiritual life of humanity is at work, the historical epoch wherein fate has placed us is an epoch of stupendous happenings.

  Edmund Husserl

  Spiritual, Fate, Soul

  Edmund Husserl, Peter McCormick, Frederick Elliston (1981). “Husserl, shorter works”, Univ of Notre Dame Pr

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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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• In Europe, charters of liberty have been granted by power. America has set the example . . . of charters of power granted by liberty. This revolution in the practice of the world, may, with an honest praise, be pronounced the most triumphant epoch of its history, and the most consoling presage of its happiness.

  James Madison

  Freedom, Europe, Practice

  James Madison, David B. Mattern (1997). “James Madison's "Advice to My Country"”, p.20, University of Virginia Press

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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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• 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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• My interest has always been in an architecture which reflects the modernity of our epoch as opposed to the rethinking of historical references. My work deals with what is happening now—our techniques and materials, what we are capable of doing today.

  Jean Nouvel

  Historical, Today, Technique

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• And dead an epoch of our existence, which in a world destined to humiliate us was moral light and resistance.

  Pier Paolo Pasolini

  Light, World, Resistance

  Pier Paolo Pasolini, Norman MacAfee, Luciano Martinengo (1982). “Poems”, New York : Random House

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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 live in a time of global transformation. The power on Earth no longer lies with the forces of imperialistic globalisation, but with those groups who are now connecting with the forces of transformation. It is not terror and violence, but trust and solidarity which will lead the new world. This is not just a wishful dream, but the objective reality of the coming epoch.

  Dieter Duhm

  Dream, Lying, Reality

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• Today we are on the brink of another extraordinary revolution. The Information Age is already over and an exciting new epoch is taking its place. Remember, the key point is this: When wealth is derived from a new source - say information rather than industry - a new economic era is born.

  Patricia Aburdene

  Keys, Age, Information

  Patricia Aburdene (2005). “Megatrends Two Thousand and Ten”, Hampton Roads Publishing Company Incorporated

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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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• 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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• 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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