“I feel that's one of the central questions of fantasy. What did we lose when we entered the 20th and 21st century, and how can we mourn what we lost, and what can we replace it with? We're still asking those questions in an urgent way.” WayFeelsStillsLostLosesFantasyCenturyAsking21st CenturyUrgentMourn Author:Lev Grossman
“They say that each generation inherits from those that have gone before; if this were so there would be no limit to man's improvements or to his power of reaching perfection. But he is very far from receiving intact that storehouse of knowledge which the centuries have piled up before him; he may perfect some inventions, but in others, he lags behind the originators, and a great many inventions have been lost entirely. What he gains on the one hand, he loses on the other.” IfsMenMayHas BeensHandsWould BeLostLosesPerfectBehindsGoneGenerationsCenturyLimitsGainsPerfectionImprovementInventionGreat MenReachingReceivingLag Author:Eugene Delacroix
“In the century that has just passed, many of the intellectual elite went mad. It was as if, with the death of God, everyone suddenly turned into a saviour who wanted either to annihilate the obsolete world order or to establish a utopia. Naturally, there were writers among those who went mad. The fact that they had knowledge did not exempt intellectuals: there is madness everywhere. When one loses control over one's self, the result is madness.” IfsWorldSelfFactsWantedOrderLosesResultsCenturyIntellectualMadnessMadElitesUtopiaSaviourObsoleteWorld Order Author:Gao Xingjian
“Fifteen hundred years is ample time in which to lose mutual comprehension. Iceland was colonized by the Norwegians at the end of the ninth century AD. Today's Icelanders, with considerable effort, can understand people from the Scandinavian peninsula, but the Scandinavians hardly understand the Icelanders. A thousand years is the minimum time span for a language to change so much that it becomes incomprehensible.” PeopleYearsEndsTodayLanguageLosesEffortCenturyEvolutionThousandHundredMutualAdsFifteenMinimumThousand YearsComprehensionIcelandNorwegiansPeninsulasScandinavians Author:Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza
“People seem to lose all respect for the past; events succeed each other with such velocity that the most remarkable one of a few years gone by, is no more remembered than if centuries had closed over it.” PeopleIfsYearsSeemsPastLosesGoneCenturyEventsSucceedRememberedRemarkableOver ItVelocityPast EventsYears Gone By Book:The Confessions of an Elderly Lady Source: The Confessions of an Elderly Lady
“If we lose half the species, which could happen by the end of the century if we don't do anything, that's going to create a big difference down the line in the stability and even the economic potential in the living world. Irreversibly.” IfsWorldEndsBigsHappensLosesDifferencesLinesHalfEconomicCenturySpeciesStability Author:E. O. Wilson