“As for comics, one has only to turn to the characteristic output of Marvel Comics, for the period from about 1961 to about 1975, to find not an expression of base and cynical impulses but of good, old-fashioned liberal humanism of a kind that may strike us today, God help us, as quaint, but which nevertheless appealed, in story after story, to ideals such as tolerance, technological optimism, and self-sacrifice for the benefit of others.” KindMaySelfHelpingStoriesTodayTurnsSacrificeExpressionPeriodsBenefitsIdealsOptimismHumanismStrikesToleranceImpulseCharacteristicsCynicalNeverthelessTechnologicalOld FashionedSelf SacrificeOutputGod HelpQuaintGod Help UsMarvel Comics Author:Michael Chabon
“the most comfortable characteristic of the period [1775-1825], and the one which incites our deepest envy, is the universal willingness to accept a good purpose as a substitute for good work.” PurposeAcceptingPeriodsComfortableUniversalEnvyCharacteristicsWillingnessSubstitutesGood Work Author:Agnes Repplier
“A tendency to resume the same mode of action at stated times is peculiarly the characteristic of the nervous system; and on this account regularity is of great consequence in exercising the moral and intellectual power. All nervous diseases have a marked tendency to observe regular periods; and the natural inclination to sleep at the approach of night is another instance of the same fact.” FactsActionNightNaturalSleepMoralHabitPeriodsExerciseDiseaseApproachIntellectualConsequenceAccountsTendenciesInstanceNervousCharacteristicsInclinationNervous SystemResumesRegularity Author:George Combe
“When you look back on a historical period of music, it seems so obvious to you what the characteristics of it are, but they're not obvious at the time. So, when I look back at my own work, I could easily write a very convincing sort of account of it that made it look like I had planned it all out from day one and that this led logically to that and then I did this and then that followed quite naturally from that. But that's not how it felt.” WritingLooksMadeSeemsFeltMy OwnPeriodsAccountsHistoricalObviousMade ItCharacteristicsConvincing Author:Brian Eno
“Type is one of the most eloquent means of expression in every epoch of style. Next to architecture, it gives the most characteristic portrait of a period and the most severe testimony of a nation's intellectual status.” GivingMeanNextNationsStyleExpressionTypePeriodsIntellectualArchitectureCharacteristicsPortraitsSevereTestimonyEloquentEpoch Author:Peter Behrens