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Generations Quotes

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Generations Quotes

“And it may be that a crowd at a particular moment of history creates the object to justify its gathering, as it did at the first Human Be-In and Monterey Pop and Woodstock. Or it may be that two generations of war and surveillance had left people craving the embodiment of their own unease in the form of a lone, unsteady man on a slide guitar.”

PeopleMenFirstsHumansMayTwoWarMomentsFormLeftGenerationsObjectsParticularGuitarCrowdsPopsJustifyGatheringCravingSlidesSurveillanceEmbodimentLoneWoodstockMonterey
Book:A Visit From the Goon Squad
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“Ethical and moral questions and how we answer them may determine whether primal scenes will continue to be a source of joy and comfort to future generations. The decisions are ours and we have to search our minds and souls for the right answers... We must be eternally vigilant, embrace the broad concept of an environmental ethic to survive.”

MindMaySoulJoyDecisionAnswersMoralGenerationsSourceComfortFutureSceneEthicsConceptsEmbraceEnvironmentalDetermineBroadsEthicalFuture GenerationPrimalVigilantRight Answers
Author:Sigurd F. Olson
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“The environmental crisis is somber evidence of an insidious fraud hidden in the vaunted productivity and wealth of modern, technology-based society. This wealth has been gained by rapid short-term exploitation of the environmental system, but it has blindly accumulated a debt to nature-a debt so large and so pervasive that in the next generation it may, if unpaid, wipe out most of the wealth it has gained us.”

IfsMayHas BeensNextTermWealthTechnologyGenerationsModernEvidenceCrisisEnvironmentalDebtProductivityFraudExploitationRapidsNext GenerationShort TermWipeInsidiousSomberModern TechnologyEnvironmental Crisis
Author:Barry Commoner
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“Man is the same today that he has always been. He is a rebel against God. He may, in some generations, hide his rebellion a little more carefully than at other times, but there is no change in his heart. The men who builded the city against God back in the days of Babylon had the same hatred as that which possessed the men who nailed the Lord Jesus Christ to the cross.”

MenHeartMayLittlesTodayChristianJesusChristCitiesLordGenerationsHe ManJesus ChristCrossesHatredRebellionRebelPossessedPreacherLord Jesus ChristBabylon
Author:Donald Barnhouse
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“There comes a terrible moment to many souls when the great movements of the world, the larger destinies of mankind, which have lain aloof in newspapers and other neglected reading, enter like an earthquake into their own lives--when the slow urgency of growing generations turns into the tread of an invading army or the dire clash of civil war, and grey fathers know nothing to seek for but the corpses of their blooming sons, and girls forget all vanity to make lint and bandages which may serve for the shattered limbs of their betrothed husbands.”

KnowsWorldMayWarSoulMomentsTurnsGirlReadingFatherForgetDestinyGrowingGenerationsMankindMovementSonTerribleHusbandArmyNewspapersVanityCivil WarGreyLimbsNeglectedCorpsesClashEarthquakesUrgencyShatteredBloomingAloofInvadingBandages
Book:Daniel Deronda
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“Each generation is inclined to educate its young so as to get along in the present world instead of with a view to the proper end of education: the promotion of the best possible realization of humanity as humanity. Parents educate their children so that they may get on; princes educate their subjects as instruments of their own purpose.”

WorldMayChildrenEndsYoungPurposeHumanityParentViewsGenerationsSubjectsInstrumentsRealizationEducatePromotion
Book:Democracy and Education: Top American Authors
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“Something else was different when we were young: our parents were outdoors. I’m not saying they were joining health clubs and things of that sort, but they were out of the house, out on the porch, talking to neighbors. As far as physical fitness goes, today’s kids are the sorriest generation in the history of the United States. Their parents may be out jogging, but the kids just aren’t outside.”

MayDifferentStatesKidsTodayYoungHouseParentUnitedTalkingUnited StatesGenerationsClubsNeighborJoiningPorchJoggingPhysical Fitness
Book:Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder
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“We all know that each generation has its own test, the contemporaneous and current standard by which alone it can adequately judge of its own moral achievements, and that it may not legitimately use a previous and less vigorous test. The advanced test must indeed include that which has already been attained; but if it includes no more, we shall fail to go forward, thinking complacently that we have "arrived" when in reality we have not yet started.”

IfsThinkingKnowsMayUseRealityMoralProgressFailingGenerationsJudgingAchievementStandardsTestsCurrentsVigorousForward Thinking
Book:Democracy and Social Ethics
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“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
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“You may well ask why I write. And yet my reasons are quite many. For it is not unusual in human beings who have witnessed the sack of a city or the falling to pieces of a people to set down what they have witnessed for the benefit of unknown heirs or of generations infinitely remote; or, if you please, just to get the sight out of their heads.”

PeopleIfsWritingHumansWellsMayReasonFallAsksHuman BeingsCitiesPiecesGenerationsPleaseBenefitsSightUnusualHeirsFalling To Pieces
Book:The Bodley Head Ford Madox Ford: The good soldier. Selected memories. Poems
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“It's not always easy for a father to understand the interests and ways of his son. It seems the songs of our children may be in keys we've never tried. The melody of each generation emerges from all that's gone before. Each one of us contributes in some unique way to the composition of life.”

WayMayChildrenSeemsSongFatherEasyInterestGoneGenerationsSonKeysUniqueOur ChildrenMelodyComposition
Book:Wisdom from the World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember
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“Children must be free to think in all directions irrespective of the peculiar ideas of parents who often seal their children's minds with preconceived prejudices and false concepts of past generations. Unless we are very careful, very careful indeed, and very conscientious, there is still great danger that our children may turn out to be the same kind of people we are.”

PeopleThinkingMindKindMayChildrenStillsIdeasPastTurnsParentGenerationsDangerConceptsPrejudiceOur ChildrenCarefulPeculiarSealsPast Generations
Author:Brock Chisholm
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“I don't mean to imply that we are in imminent danger of being wiped off the face of the earth - at least, not on account of global warming. But climate change does confront us with profound new realities. We face these new realities as a nation, as members of the world community, as consumers, as producers, and as investors. And unless we do a better job of adjusting to these new realities, we will pay a heavy price. We may not suffer the fate of the dinosaurs. But there will be a toll on our environment and on our economy, and the toll will rise higher with each new generation.”

WorldMayMeanDoeRealityEarthJobsFacesSufferingNationsCommunityPayEconomyEnvironmentFateGenerationsDangerHigherMembersAccountsProfoundClimateClimate ChangeHeavyProducersConsumersGlobal WarmingInvestorsOur EnvironmentDinosaursNew GenerationTollsBetter JobsAdjusting
Author:Eileen Claussen
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“The Web is cool, but the library is magic. Where else can the spirit of generations of writers stir your soul? So many writers talk about libraries setting them on their magical paths, it's almost a groaner. But we know it's true. Wander through the stacks and you can feel the dreams, the unique worlds bubbling within each volume. The magic enters you as if by osmosis. On the Web, you may feel clever, lucky and driven to download--but rarely inspired to dream and to write.”

IfsKnowsWorldFeelsWritingMaySoulDreamSpiritPathGenerationsMagicLuckyUniqueInspiredLibraryDrivenCleverSettingSettingsWanderYour SoulVolumeDownloadsOsmosis
Author:Arthur Plotnik
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“So, from generation to generation, the spiritual church is rising upwards toward its perfection; and, though one after another the workmen pass away, the fabric remains, and the great Master-builder carries on the undertaking. Be it ours to build in our portion in a solid and substantial manner, so that they who come after us may be at once thankful for our thoroughness, and inspired by our example.”

MaySpiritualChurchGenerationsExampleMastersPerfectionRemainsInspiredRisingCarriePortionsFabricPassing AwayUndertakingsBuilderWorkmenThoroughness
Author:William Mackergo Taylor
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“We shall all consider ourselves unauthorized to saddle posterity with our debts, and morally bound to pay them ourselves; and consequently within what may be deemed the period of a generation, or the life of the majority.”

MayWisdomPoliticsPayEconomyGenerationsPeriodsMajorityBoundsDebtLiberalismPosteritySaddles
Book:The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence and Papers, 1808-1816
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“As we get older it is our short term memory that fades rather than our long term memory. Perhaps we have evolved like this so that we are able to tell the younger generation about the stories and experiences that have formed us which may be important to subsequent generations if they are to thrive.I worry though, about what might happen to our minds if most of the stories we hear are about greed, war, and atrocity”

IfsMindMayLongImportantWarStoriesMightHappensAbleTermMemoriesWorryGenerationsGreedLong TermThriveFadesShort TermAtrocitiesYounger GenerationShort Term Memory
Book:How to Stay Sane
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“The longest time that man may live, The lapse of generations of his race, The continent entire of time itself, Bears not proportion to Eternity; Huge as a fraction of a grain of dew Co-measured with the broad, unbounded ocean! There is the time of man--his proper time, Looking at which this life is but a gust, A puff of breath, that's scarcely felt ere gone!”

MenMayLife IsFeltRaceGoneGenerationsHugeBearsOceanEternityBreathsThis LifeProportionBroadsGrainContinentsDewFractionsPuffLapsesProper Time
Book:The Maid of Mariendorpt: A Play, in Five Acts
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“I would not be running for President if I didn't believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation - the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.”

PeopleIfsWantGivingBelieveHeartMayMadeCountryFeelingsRunningTodayYoungNextBeliefPresidentPerfectAttitudeGenerationsPossibilityMy HeartGive MeElectionMajorityUnionsOpennessCynicalNext GenerationDoubtful
Author:Barack Obama
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“There may never be a baby book that offers the conclusive answer to every question, but it's possible to extract some wisdom from the suffering of past generations of parents. Does the book you're reading contradict itself repeatedly, require you to override all your parental instincts, or send you into a panic over your own inadequacy? If so, burn it.”

IfsMayDoeBookPastSufferingReadingParentAnswersGenerationsBabyOffersInstinctOver YouPanicParentalInadequacyPast Generations
Author:Libby Copeland
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“We have not chosen this time. We cannot help it if we are born as men of the early winter of full Civilization, instead of on the golden summit of a ripe Culture, in a Phidias or a Mozart time. Everything depends on our seeing our own position, our destiny, clearly, on our realizing that though we may lie to ourselves about it, we cannot evade it. He who does not acknowledge this in his heart, ceases to be counted among the men of his generation, and remains either a simpleton, a charlatan, or a pedant.”

IfsMenHeartMayDoeHelpingLyingCultureRealizingBornDestinySeeingGenerationsPositionHe ManDependsCivilizationRemainsWinterCeaseChosenGoldenAcknowledgeOur DestinySummitRipeCharlatansPedantsSimpletonsPhidias
Book:Form and actuality
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“It’s irrelevant to me what young Singaporeans think of me. What they think of me after I’m dead and gone in one generation will be determined by researchers who do PhDs on me, right? So there will be a lot of revisionism. As people revised Stalin, Brezhnev and one day now Yeltsin, and later on Putin. I’ve lived long enough to know that you may be idealised in life and reviled after you’re dead.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsMayLongEnoughYoungGoneGenerationsOne DayDeterminedIrrelevantPutinResearchersThink Of MeHard TruthsPhdsRevisionismBrezhnev
Author:Lee Kuan Yew
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“The present Luddism over genetic engineering may die a natural death as the computer-illiterate generation is superseded.... I fear that, if the green movement's high-amplitude warnings over GMOs turn out to be empty, people will be dangerously disinclined to listen to other and more serious warnings.”

PeopleIfsMayDiesTurnsNaturalGenerationsAtheismMovementSeriousComputerEmptyGreenPositive AtheismWarningEngineeringIlliterateGmosGenetic EngineeringNatural DeathGreen Movement
Book:A Devil's Chaplain: Selected Writings
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“There may perhaps be a new generation of doctors horrified by lacerations, infections, women who have douched with kitchen cleanser. What an irony it would be if fanatics continued to kill and yet it was the apathy and silence of the medical profession that most wounded the ability to provide what is, after all, a medical procedure.”

IfsMayWould BeAbilitySilenceRightsGenerationsDoctorsMedicineProfessionMedicalIronyKitchenAbortionApathyWoundedProceduresFanaticsNew GenerationInfectionMedical ProfessionMedical Procedures
Author:Anna Quindlen
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“Everywhere we are told that our human resources are all to be used, that our civilization itself means the uses of everything it has - the inventions, the histories, every scrap of fact. But there is one kind of knowledge - infinitely precious, time-resistant more than monuments, here to be passed between the generations in any way it may be: never to be used. And that is poetry.”

WayHumansKindMayMeanFactsUseUsedPoetryKnowledgeGenerationsPoetCivilizationResourcesInventionMonumentUsefulnessHuman ResourcesScrapPrecious Time
Author:Muriel Rukeyser
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“... there are some who, believing that all is for the best in the best of possible worlds, and that to-morrow is necessarily better than to-day, may think that if culture is a good thing we shall infallibly be found to have more of it that we had a generation since; and that if we can be shown not to have more of it, it can be shown not to be worth seeking.”

IfsThinkingWorldBelieveMayCultureFoundProgressGenerationsGood ThingsSeekingMorrow
Author:Katharine Fullerton Gerould
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“In battle, combatants engaged in war against America get no due process and may lawfully be killed. But citizens not in a battlefield - however despicable - are guaranteed a trial by our Constitution. No one argues that Americans who commit treason shouldn't be punished. The maximum penalty for treason is death. But the Constitution specifies the process necessary to convict.”

MayWarRealityAmericaFatherPoliticsProcessCommunityJusticeHistoryTechnologyDemocracyViolenceGenerationsPolicyCitizensBattleEqualEthicsConstitutionHuman RightsTerrorismDuesArguingTrialsCommitIdeologyEngagedFree SpeechPenaltiesMaximumEqual RightsDeath PenaltyBattlefieldsTreasonDespicableConvictsDue Process
Author:Rand Paul
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