Past Quotes - Page 28

• The facile delusions which conceal from us our true situation all amount to this: that we are, or can be, wiser than the wisest men of the past. We are thus induced to play the part, not of attentive and docile listeners, but of impresarios and lion-tamers.

  Leo Strauss

  Men, Play, Wisest Man

  Leo Strauss (1995). “Liberalism Ancient and Modern”, p.8, University of Chicago Press

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• Press on! If Fortune play thee false To-day, tomorrow she'll be true; Whom now she sinks she now exalts, Taking old gifts and granting new, The wisdom of the present hour Makes up the follies past and gone; To weakness, strength succeeds, and power From frailty springs! Press on, press on!

  Benjamin

  Spring, Play, Weakness

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• I am afraid that I do not believe that any body of men can have enough knowledge of the past, the present and the future to establish "development priorities" - which presumably means procuring some developments as being good and prohibiting others as being bad.

  John James Cowperthwaite

  Believe, Mean, Men

  Official Report of Proceedings of the Hong Kong Legislative Council (p. 212), March 27, 1968.

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• The black arrowed swoop of the moment swung high into the unceilinged future, ten, fifty, sixty years, may be: then, past seeing, up to that warmthless unconsidered mock-time, when nothing shall be left but the memorial that fits all (except, if there be, the most unhappiest) of human kind: I was not, I lived and loved, I am not.

  Eric Rucker Eddison

  Years, Memorial, Black

  "A Fish Dinner in Memison". Book by Eric Rucker Eddison, 1941.

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• Fascism was part of the absolute evil. (...) We have to denounce the ashaming pages in the history of our past. (...) There included all the pages related to the discrimination and the persecution of jews and, more in general, of minoritires. And therefore that one [The Italian Social Republic of Salò] is also included.

  Gianfranco Fini

  Italian, Evil, Republic

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• One woman approached me as she walked past and, pointing to her four children who were manfully helping the smallest ones over the rough ground, whispered: 'How can you bring yourself to kill such beautiful, darling children? Have you no heart at all?' One old man, as he passed me, hissed: 'Germany will pay a heavy penance for this mass murder of the Jews.' His eyes glowed with hatred as he said this. Nevertheless he walked calmly into the gas-chamber.

  Rudolf Hoss

  Beautiful, Children, Heart

  "Commandant of Auschwitz: The Autobiography of Rudolf Hoess". Book by Rudolf Höss, p. 150, 2000.

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• Too many are focused on rewriting the past, invent the future!

  Philippe Kahn

  Rewriting, Focused

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• After that, whenever I drove past Mangakahia, I would empty my ashtray - and I was a heavy smoker in those days - on the road outside the hall.

  David Lange

  Empty, Heavy, Halls

  "Dominion", (p. 10), October 4, 1993.

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• God looked through eternity past and He saw you and He chose to reach out and redeem you by His own grace. It's hard to imagine that kind of love.

  James MacDonald

  Grace, Saws, Kind

  James MacDonald (2011). “Always True: God's 5 Promises When Life Is Hard”, p.114, Moody Publishers

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• Yesterday people were going past my window in t shirts and dresses. But that's the men at the BBC for you.

  Eddie Mair

  Men, Yesterday, People

  "Weather" by Eddie Mair, www.bbc.co.uk. September 22, 2006.

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• Over the past fifty years or so, scientists have allowed the conventions of expression available to them to become entirely too confining.

  David Mermin

  Expression, Years, Fifty

  N. David Mermin (1990). “Boojums All the Way Through: Communicating Science in a Prosaic Age”, p.11, Cambridge University Press

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• Too often, the pastoralist blames the weeds and seeks a chemical rather than a management solution; too seldom do we find an approach combining the sensible utilisation of grasshoppers and grubs as a valuable dried-protein supplement for fish or food pellets, and a combination of soil conditioning, slashing, and de-stocking or re-seeding to restore species balance.

  Bill Mollison

  Weed, Balance, Soil

  "Permaculture: A Designers' Manual". Book by Bill Mollison, 1988.

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• The politics of our society are a conversation in which past, present and future each has a voice; and though one or other of them may on occasion properly prevail none permanently dominates, and on this account we are free.

  Michael Joseph Oakeshott

  Voice, May, Our Society

  1962 Rationalism in Politics.

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• Art of all periods teaches us that humanity changes, and that a period, once past, never returns.

  Philipp Otto Runge

  Art, Humanity, Return

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• The best way to suppose what may come, is to remember what is past.

  Jimmy Savile

  May, Way, Remember

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• The harvest-home or supper is a thing of the past. To those who feel the fascination of the past this may appear sad, but it is not so really for, even while it existed, this surface goodwill was often an empty show.

  Flora Thompson

  Home, Fascination, May

  Flora Thompson (2008). “The Peverel papers: nature notes written in Liphoo, Hampshire, 1921-1927”

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• Now, with the glamour of the past upon them we are inclined to look back on old world festivities with regret and consider present day dances as a poor substitute for the old. From an artistic point of view, they maybe, but in individual freedom and independence of spirit they mark a stage upward.

  Flora Thompson

  Regret, Views, Independence

  "The Peverel Papers: A Yearbook of the Countryside". Book by Flora Thompson. August Chapter, 1986.

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• I do not compare the past with the present without a prejudice for either, but, great as the improvement in country life is in many respects, it seems a pity the old cheap, wholesome dishes have gone to make way for tinned and preserved foods.

  Flora Thompson

  Country, Prejudice, Gone

  "The Peverel Papers: A Yearbook of the Countryside". Book by Flora Thompson. August Chapter, 1986.

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• Manner and morals have improved, improved wages and world travel during the war have had effect, and the farm labourer now is an intelligent, self respecting workman, on a level at least with the town artisan. The village rustic of the past no longer exists outside of the comic papers.

  Flora Thompson

  War, Intelligent, Self

  Flora Thompson (2008). “The Peverel papers: nature notes written in Liphoo, Hampshire, 1921-1927”

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• I'm not concerned about avoiding anything that happened three years ago or worried about letdowns or things of that nature. When you use the term 'letdown' you proceed with the assumption that this is a continuation of something that happened in the past.

  Mike Tomlin

  Years, Use, Three

  "Tomlin Looks Ahead". Interview with Ed Bouchette, www.post-gazette.com. August 01, 2009.

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• The importance of recovering the customs and the institutions of the past thus inaugurating the archaeological approach to art.

  Raja Ravi Varma

  Art, Institutions, Importance

  "Art and Nationalism in Colonial India, 1850-1922: Occidental Orientations". Book by Partha Mitter, 1994.

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• Moving forward in science is as much unwinding the distorted thinking of the past as it is putting a clearer idea on the table.

  Craig Venter

  Moving, Thinking, Ideas

  YouTube Channel "Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science"/"Craig Venter - The Genius of Charles Darwin: The Uncut Interviews - Richard Dawkins", www.youtube.com. June 30, 2009.

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• Generally speaking, I am not interested in the future and don't believe in it. First, I guess it is true that I don't trust the future, but, more to the point, I don't even trust the "myself" of tomorrow, nor, for that matter, of the day after. Basically, all I know, and all I am capable of understanding, is the "me" that is here, now, the "me" that has dragged his past with him to this point.

  Yohji Yamamoto

  Believe, Understanding, Matter

  "Notebook on Cities and Clothes". Documentary, 1989.

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• To accept with unquestioning faith, or to refuse to reconsider any particular view held by the Church in the past, is as unreasonable as it is unsafe. The faith of the Church is a progressive affair.

  George Trumbull Ladd

  Views, Church, Affair

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• I'm sure I've dated my share of loonies in the past. Sometimes I realized it early on and sometimes not that fast. Love can be blinding, even for therapists. Plus, crazy can be fun sometimes. Don't you think?! Maybe that's just me!

  Robi Ludwig

  Fun, Crazy, Thinking

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