The old know what they want; the young are sad and bewildered.
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) American-British Essayist, Bibliophile
Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself in all cases as the ages and generations which preceded it. The vanity of governing beyond the grave is the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies.
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809) American Nationalist, Author, Pamphleteer, Radical, Inventor
Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.
—George Orwell (1903–50) English Novelist, Journalist
A match-stick has a head, but it does not have a brain.
—Unknown
We have to hate our immediate predecessors to get free of their authority.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Literary Critic
It’s all that the young can do for the old, to shock them and keep them up to date.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Recently I labeled the argument-that 18-year-olds were old enough to vote if they were old enough to fight-a perfect example of a non sequitur. This precipitated a spirited discussion by two of my sons at the dinner table; (said) our 15-year-old, Tim: “Pop, fellow at 18 today are a lot smarter than your generation was at 18, and for sure smarter than teenagers were when voting-age requirements were first set in law”. His older brother Bob elucidated: “Maybe not smarter, but certainly better informed, more knowledgeable…. More guys in school and college have helped, but primarily the boob tube has done it”.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
Most oldsters are fascinated by the Future, while the young love to look back to earlier days, especially their own.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
In a higher world it is otherwise; but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to change often.
—John Henry Newman (1801–90) British Theologian, Poet
To young people everything looks permanent, established-and in their eyes everything should be, needs to be changed. To older people everything seems to change, and in their view almost nothing should.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
Nothing so dates a man as to decry the younger generation.
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–65) American Diplomat, Politician, Orator
The dead might as well try to speak to the living as the old to the young.
—Willa Cather (1873–1947) American Novelist, Writer
To hope is not to demand.
—Unknown
Every generation, no matter how paltry its character, thinks itself much wiser than the one immediately preceding it, let alone those that are more remote.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
The person, who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn and feel and change and grow and love and live.
—Leo Buscaglia (1924–98) American Motivational Speaker
I avoid talking before the youth of the age as I would dancing before them: for if one’s tongue don’t move in the steps of the day, and thinks to please by its old graces, it is only an object of ridicule.
—Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (1717–97) English Art Historian, Man of Letters, Politician
If you believe in yourself, then nothing can stop you from achieving what you believe in.
—Unknown
I suppose you think that persons who are as old as your father and myself are always thinking about very grave things, but I know that we are meditating the same old themes that we did when we were ten years old, only we go more gravely about it.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
The man who sees two or three generations is like one who sits in the conjuror’s booth at a fair, and sees the same tricks two or three times. They are meant to be seen only once.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
A writer must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid.
—William Faulkner (1897–1962) American Novelist
Remember that life is neither pain nor pleasure; it is serious business, to be entered upon with courage and in a spirit of self-sacrifice.
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59) French Historian, Political Scientist
You will not find what you do not live.
—Unknown
The longer I live the more keenly I feel that whatever was good enough for our fathers is not good enough for us.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Older generations are living proof that younger generations can survive their lunacy.
—Cullen Hightower (b.1923) American Humorist
If deeply based in wisdom, even anger is allowed.
—Hans Taeger
I have had enough experience in all my years, and have read enough of the past, to know that advice to grandchildren is usually wasted. If the second and third generations could profit by the experience of the first generation, we would not be having some of the troubles we have today.
—Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) American Head of State
Few can be induced to labor exclusively for posterity. Posterity has done nothing for us.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Generations are as the days of toilsome mankind…. What the father has made, the son can make and enjoy but has also work of his own appointed him. Thus all things wax and roll onwards; arts, establishments, opinions; nothing is ever completed, but ever completing.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
Tradition is not a fetish to be prayed to-but a useful record of experiences. Time should bring improvement-but not all old things are worthless. We are served by both the moderns and the ancients. The balanced man is he who clings to the best in the old-and appropriates the desirable in the new.
—Richard Steele (1672–1729) Irish Writer, Politician
Leave a Reply