“Book burning is a charming old custom, hallowed by antiquity. It has been practiced for centuries by fascists, communists, atheists, school children, rival authors, and tired librarians. Like everything of importance since the invention of the cloak and the shroud, its origins are cloaked in mystery and shrouded in secrecy. Some scholars believe that the first instance of book burning occurred in the Middle Ages, when a monk was trying to illuminate a manuscript. All agree that book burning was almost non-existent during the period when books were made of stone.” TryingFirstsBelieveChildrenHas BeensMadeBookAgeSchoolMysteryMiddleCenturyPeriodsStonesImportanceAgreeTiredAtheistInventionInstanceBurningCustomsCommunistScholarCharmingMonkRivalsSecrecyMiddle AgesLibrarianFascistsAntiquityManuscriptsCloaksShroudsBook Burning Author:Richard Armour
“For is it not possible that middle age can be looked upon as a period of second flowering, second growth, even a kind of second adolescence? It is true that society in general does not help one accept this interpretation of the second half of life.” KindDoeHelpingAgeGrowthHalfAcceptingMiddlePeriodsInterpretationAdolescenceMiddle AgesFlowering Author:Anne Morrow Lindbergh
“The signs that presage growth, so similar, it seems to me, to those in early adolescence: discontent, restlessness, doubt, despair, longing, are interpreted falsely as signs of decay. In youth one does not as often misinterpret the signs; one accepts them, quite rightly, as growing pains. One takes them seriously, listens to them, follows where they lead. ... But in the middle age, because of the false assumption that it is a period of decline, one interprets these life-signs, paradoxically, as signs of approaching death.” DoeSeemsAgePainGrowthAcceptingDoubtGrowingMiddleYouthPeriodsDespairLongingAssumptionDeclineDecayAdolescenceMiddle AgesDiscontentRestlessnessGrowing PainsFalse AssumptionsApproaching Death Author:Anne Morrow Lindbergh
“The secret of life is to let every segment of it produce its own yield at its own pace. Every period has something new to teach us. The harvest of youth is achievement; the harvest of middle-age is perspective; the harvest of age is wisdom; the harvest of life is serenity.” AgeLife IsSecretTeachMiddleYouthProducePerspectivePeriodsAchievementMaturitySomething NewYieldPaceSerenityPhasesHarvestMiddle AgesSecret LifeAspects Of LifeDifferent Walks Of Life Author:Joan D. Chittister
“Ressentiment is always to some degree a determinant of the romantic type of mind. At least this is so when the romantic nostalgia for some past era (Hellas, the Middle Ages, etc.) is not primarily based on the values of that period, but on the wish to escape from the present. Then all praise of the “past” has the implied purpose of downgrading present-day reality.” MindRealityAgePastPurposeValuesWishMiddleTypePeriodsDegreesPraiseNostalgiaErasEtcMiddle AgesPresent DayImpliedDowngrading Book:On Feeling, Knowing, and Valuing: Selected Writings Source: On Feeling, Knowing, and Valuing: Selected Writings
“In western civilization, the period ruled by mysticism is known as the 'Dark Ages' and the 'Middle Ages'. I will assume that you know the nature of that period and the state of human existence in those ages. The Renaissance broke the rules of the mystics. "Renaissance" means the "rebirth". Few people today will care to remind you that it was a rebirth of reason - of man's mind.” PeopleKnowsMenMindHumansMeanStatesReasonCareAgeTodayDarkExistenceKnownHistoryMiddlePeriodsCivilizationAssumingWesternBrokeMysticismRebirthMiddle AgesDark AgesRenaissanceHuman ExistenceWestern Civilization Author:Ayn Rand
“Why do I feel so exercised about what we think of the people of the Middle Ages? ... I guess it's because so many of their voices are ringing vibrantly in my ears - Chaucer's, Boccaccio's, Henry Knighton's, Thomas Walsingham's. Froissart's, Jean Creton's... writers and contemporary historians of the period who seem to me just as individual, just as alive as we are today. We need to get to know these folk better in order to know who we are ourselves.” PeopleThinkingKnowsNeedsFeelsSeemsAgeTodayOrderIndividualVoiceAliveMiddlePeriodsEarsFolksContemporaryWho We AreHistorianMiddle AgesChaucer Author:Terry Jones
“The word Gothic, in the sense in which it is generally employed, is wholly unsuitable, but wholly consecrated. Hence we accept it and we adopt it, like all the rest of the world, to characterize the architecture of the second half of the Middle Ages, where the ogive is the principle which succeeds the architecture of the first period, of which the semi-circle is the father.” WorldFirstsAgeFatherHalfAcceptingPrinciplesMiddlePeriodsSucceedArchitectureCirclesEmployedMiddle AgesGothic Book:The Works of Victor Hugo Source: The Works of Victor Hugo
“Everybody in mathematics had given up for 100 years or 200 years the idea that you could from pictures, from looking at pictures, find new ideas. That was the case long ago in the Middle Ages, in the Renaissance, in later periods, but then mathematicians had become very abstract.” YearsLongIdeasAgeGivenCasesMiddlePeriodsMathematicsAbstractLong AgoNew IdeasMathematicianMiddle AgesGiven UpRenaissance Author:Benoit Mandelbrot