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Past Quotes

“Any proposals for the future, while they should use to the full the experience gathered in the past, should not be restricted by consideration of sectional interests established in the obtaining of that experience. Now, when the war is abolishing landmarks of every kind, is the opportunity for using experience in a clear field. A revolutionary moment in the world's history is a time for revolutions, not for patching.”

WorldShouldKindWarMomentsUsePastOpportunityInterestClearFieldsRevolutionRevolutionaryConsiderationProposalObtainingLandmarks
Author:William Beveridge
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“In recent years, we've become enamored with our own past success. Lulled into complacency by the glitter of our own achievements. We've become accustomed to the title of Military Superpower, forgetting the qualities that got us there. We've become accustomed to our economic dominance in the world, forgetting that it wasn't reckless deals and get rich quick schemes that got us where we are, but hard work and smart ideas, quality products and wise investments.”

WorldYearsIdeasHardAmericaPastForgetDealsQualityRichWiseEconomicMilitaryProductsHard WorkAchievementSmartInvestmentTitlesSchemesAccustomedRecklessComplacencyGet RichDominanceGlitterSuperpowerEnamoredPast SuccessGet Rich Quick
Author:Barack Obama
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“Any change in customs ... takes generations to accomplish, and must come about by general consent. Even a superficial study of sociology shows the futility of past efforts to make a lasting change in manners by an act of will or authority.”

ShowsPastEffortStudyGenerationsAuthorityAccomplishMannersLastingCustomsSuperficialConsentSociologyFutilityLasting Change
Book:Vogue's book of etiquette: a complete guide to traditional forms and modern usage
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“History, the winnowing wind, never halts. We see the chaff rise, forget the waiting grain, seed of the future, fallen to the threshing floor. We never learn, but live on, slit-narrow, as if our living were a pencil line traced upon paper, behaving as trapped denizens of a flat world hemmed in by the bigoted horizon of our own making. Yet the meaning of living is a pushing back, a pulling down of the great walls and domes of fear and ignorance, is relinquishing the nest for the sky, ignorance for understanding. The look back is also a look forward.”

IfsWorldLooksPastWaitingUnderstandingLinesForgetHistorySkyIgnoranceWindWallPaperSeedsFallenPushingFlatsHorizonGrainTrappedPullingPencilsNestsHaltDomesSlitsRelinquishingGreat WallPushing Back
Author:Han Suyin
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“All normal human beings are interested in their past. Only when the interest becomes an obsession, overshadowing present and future conduct, is it a danger. In much the same way healthy nations are interested in their history, but a morbid preoccupation with past glories is a sign that something is wrong with the constitution of the State.”

WayHumansStatesPastNationsInterestHuman BeingsHistoryDangerHealthyNormalGloryConstitutionObsessionPreoccupationMorbidOvershadowing
Author:C. V. Wedgwood
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“This is a city of absolute enchantment in the literal sense of the word. It loosens all the bonds binding the traveller to his own age and sets him free to live in a past that is vital and crude but never ugly. Herat is as old as history and as moving as a great epic poem - if Afghanistan had nothing else it would have been worth coming to experience this.”

IfsHas BeensAgePastMovingCitiesAbsolutesUglyAfghanistanEpicAsiaLiteralTravellerCrudeBindingEnchantmentEpic Poems
Book:Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle
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“The moral government of God is a movement in a line onwards towards some grand consummation, in which the principles, indeed, are ever the same, but the developments are always new - in which, therefore, no experience of the past can indicate with certainty what new openings of truth, what hew manifestations of goodness, what new phases of the moral heaven may appear.”

MayGodGovernmentPastHeavenLinesMoralPrinciplesMovementDevelopmentGoodnessOpeningCertaintyManifestationPhases
Author:Mark Hopkins
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“I endeavor to drink deep of philosophy, and to be wise when I cannot be merry, easy when I cannot be glad, content with what cannot be mended, and patient where there is no redress. The mighty can do no more, and the wise seldom do as much. ... I am resolved to make the best of all circumstances around me, that this short life may not be half lost in pains ... Between the periods of birth and burial, I would fain insert a little happiness, a little pleasure, a little peace: to-day is ours, yesterday is past, and to-morrow may never come.”

MayLittlesPhilosophyWisdomPainPastLostEasyCan DoPleasureHalfWiseAcceptanceBirthPeriodsCircumstancesDrinkPatientYesterdayGladEndeavorMerryBeing WiseMorrowShort LifeBurialInsertRedress
Author:Elizabeth Montagu
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“The ablest administrators do not merely draw logical conclusions from the array of facts of the past which their expert assistants bring to them, they have a vision of the future.”

FactsPastLeadershipVisionDrawsConclusionExpertsLogicalAssistantsAdministratorsVisions Of The Future
Book:Mary Parker Follett--prophet of management: a celebration of writings from the 1920s
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“It is always the sign of the second-rate man when the decision merely meets the present situation. It is the left-over in a decision which gives it its greatest value. It is the carry-over in the decision which helps develop the situation in the way we wish it to be developed. The ablest administrators do not merely draw logical conclusions from the array of facts of the past which their expert assistants bring to them; they have a vision of the future.”

MenWayGivingFactsHelpingPastValuesLeftWishDecisionSituationVisionDrawsRateConclusionExpertsLogicalAssistantsAdministratorsSecond RateVisions Of The FuturePresent Situation
Book:Dynamic administration: the collected papers of Mary Parker Follett
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“Even when men approve of the same arrangements, it must be asked whether they approve of them because they exist or because they are desirable in themselves. The common resistance to the collectivist tide should not be allowed to obscure the fact that the belief in integral freedom is based on an essentially forward-looking attitude and not on any nostalgic longing for the past or a romantic admiration for what has been.”

MenShouldHas BeensFactsPastBeliefCommonAttitudeLongingResistanceAdmirationTidesArrangementsObscureDesirableNostalgic
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
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“The trouble with the new world we have watched being created over the past decade is that it sees no further than money. People have always been obsessed with money, of course - greed is as old as history. But when the institutions that govern all our lives forget there was ever anything else, then it gets dangerous.”

PeopleWorldPastCoursesForgetMoneyOur LivesTroubleDangerousInstitutionsGreedDecadesObsessedNew WorldOver The Past
Book:Take it personally: how to make conscious choices to change the world
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“While all the pomp and circumstance of war animated others, it only saddened me; and all of past reflection, all of future dread, made the whole grandeur of the martial scene, and all the delusive seduction of martial music, fill my eyes frequently with tears.”

MadeWarWholeEyePastTearsCircumstancesSceneReflectionDreadSeductionAnimatedGrandeurMilitarismSaddened
Book:Complete Works of Frances Burney (Delphi Classics)
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