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Past Quotes

“Based on first-hand evidence of your own senses - the improved health and later ages at which acquaintances die nowadays as compared with the past; the material goods that we now possess; the speed at which information, entertainment, and we ourselves move freely throughout the world - it seems to me that a person must be literally deaf and blind not to perceive that humanity is in a much better state than ever before.”

World Firsts Persons States Hands Seems Age Past Moving Humanity Dies Information Materials Evidence Blind Entertainment Speed Senses Perceive Goods Deaf Acquaintance Deaf And Blind

Author:Julian Simon

“To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past.”

Believe Has Beens Today Past Faces Victory Evidence Optimist Vietnam War Stalemate

Book:The challenges of change

Source: The challenges of change

“In my photographic work I'm generally attracted to places that contain memories, history, atmospheres and stories. I'm interested in the places where people have lived, worked and played. I look for traces of the past, visual fingerprints, evidence of activities - they fire my imagination and connect into my own personal experiences. Using the analogy of the theater, I would say that I like to photograph the empty stage, before or after the performance, even in between acts. I love the atmosphere of anticipation, the feeling in the air that events have happened, or will happen soon.”

“I think Santa Claus is, by and large, quite beneficial, for when the child is finally allowed -- or forced -- to recognize the nonexistence of Santa Claus, then the child is able to go through the vital intellectual process of reconstructing reality in light of new evidence, complete with back-forming new stories to account for past events. This prepares the child for many other disillusionments and gives her vital and well-supported experience in maintaining her grip on reality independent of the stories told to her at any given time.”

“The first job of the historian and of the journalist is to find facts. Not the only job, perhaps not the most important, but the first. Facts are the cobblestones from which we build roads of analysis, mosaic tiles that we fit together to compose pictures of past and present. There will be disagreement about where the road leads and what reality or truth is revealed by the mosaic picture. The facts themselves must be checked against all the available evidence. But some are round and hard--and the most powerful leaders in the world can trip over them. So can writers, dissidents and saints.”

“In Britain, journalists often view comparisons with our society going back two, three, or seven centuries as more relevant than comparisons going back two, three, or seven decades. Drunkenness centuries ago is more illuminating than comparative sobriety 30 years ago. The distant past, selectively mined for evidence that justifies our current conduct, becomes more important than living memory.”

“Right actions for the future are the best apologies for wrong ones in the past - the best evidence of regret for them that we can offer, or the world receive.”

World Action Past Regret Offers Evidence Apology Right Action

Book:The World's Laconics: Or, The Best Thoughts of the Best Authors

Source: The World's Laconics: Or, The Best Thoughts of the Best Authors

“I dare say you will try to make me believe that Editors are human. Now I deny that, for I myself have, in past days, had evidence to the contrary.”

Trying Believe Humans Past Evidence Dare Deny Contrary Editors

Book:Caper-sauce: A Volume of Chit-chat about Men, Women, and Things

Source: Caper-sauce: A Volume of Chit-chat about Men, Women, and Things

“The best way to look at countries on a map is like a chalk outline drawn by the police when someone dies what you are seeing with the borders are just outlines of historical crimes past warlords empires its nothing to be loyal to. Have loyalty to reason, to evidence, to ideals not to lines drawn up mostly by criminals.”

Way Looks Country Reason Past Dies Lines Seeing Crime Evidence Ideals Police Historical Criminals Loyalty Best Way Borders Empires Maps Loyal Outlines Chalk Warlords When Someone Dies

Author:Stefan Molyneux