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In this section, you'll find quotations and proverbs about the following topics: novelty, originality, invention, inventions, alternative, changes, custom, habits, conservatism, fixedness, past, memory, memories, remember, remembrance, forget, future, causes, effects, consequences, time, and history. Check out our Quotes on Conservatism and Radicalism, Power and Liberty for political slogans and maxims, or our main page for more high quality quotes on other subjects and categories.
Nothing that is violent is permanent. Proverb
Custom without reason is but ancient error. Proverb
He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils: for time is the greatest innovator. F. Bacon, 1st Baron Verulam, Essays. 24. Of Innovations
There is no new thing under the sun. The Bible, Ecclesiastes, 1, 9
Effect, n. The second of two phenomena which always occur together in the same order. The first called a Cause, is said to generate the other - which is no more sensible than it would be for one who has never seen a dog except in pursuit of a rabbit to declare the rabbit the cause of the dog. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Effect
Geology, n. The science of the earth's crust - to which, doubtless, will be added that of its interior whenever a man shall come up garrulous out of a well. The geological formations of the globe already noted are catalogued thus: The Primary or lower one, consists of rocks, bones of mired mules, gas-pipes, miners' tools, antique statues minus the nose, Spanish doubloons and ancestors. The Secondary is largely made up of red worms and moles. The Tertiary comprises railway tracks, patent pavements, grass, snakes, mouldy boots, beer bottles, tomato cans, intoxicated citizens, garbage, anarchists, snap-dogs and fools. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Geology
Outcome, n. A particular type of disappointment. By the kind of intelligence that sees in an exception a proof of the rule the wisdom of an act is judged by the outcome, the result. This is immortal nonsense; the wisdom of an act is to be judged by the light that the doer had when he performed it. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Outcome
Past, n. That part of Eternity with some small fraction of which we have a slight and regrettable acquaintance. A moving line called the Present parts it from an imaginary period known as the Future. These two grand divisions of Eternity, of which the one is continually effacing the other, are entirely unlike. The one is dark with sorrow and disappointment, the other bright with prosperity and joy. The Past is the region of sobs, the Future is the realm of song. In the one crouches memory, clad in sackcloth and ashes, mumbling penitential prayer; in the sunshine of the other Hope flies with a free wing, beckoning to temples of success and bowers of ease. Yet the Past is the Future of yesterday, the Future is the Past of to-morrow. They are one - the knowledge and the dream. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Past
Precocious, adj. A four-year-old who elopes with his sister's doll. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Precocious
Present, n. That part of eternity dividing the domain of disappointment from the realm of hope. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Present
Reform, n. A thing that mostly satisfies reformers opposed to reformation. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Reform
Reminiscence, n. The chief luxury of the unfortunate. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Reminiscence
Telephone, n. An invention of the devil which abrogates some of the advantages of making a disagreeable person keep his distance. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Telephone
Telescope, n. A device having a relation to the eye similar to that of the telephone to the ear, enabling distant objects to plague us with a multitude of needless details. Luckily it is unprovided with a bell summoning us to the sacrifice. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Telescope
Study the past, if you would divine the future. Confucius, Analects
Habit with him was all the test of truth, "It must be right: I've done it from my youth."G. Crabbe, The Borough, Letter 3, The Vicar, 138
The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs? Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, Introduction
We are strangely affected by seeing the shore from a moving ship, from a balloon, or through the tints of an unusual sky. The least change in our point of view gives the whole world a pictorial air. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, Idealism, VI, 1
This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it. Ralph Waldo Emerson, The American Scholar
Imitation cannot go above its model. The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity. The inventor did it because it was natural to him, and so in him it has a charm. In the imitator something else is natural, and he bereaves himself of his own beauty, to come short of another man's. Ralph Waldo Emerson, An Address Delivered Before the Senior Class in Divinity College, Cambridge. Sunday Evening, July 15, 1838
All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance. E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Ch. 71
Custom, then, is the great guide of human life. D. Hume, Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding, 5, 1
It is the customary fate of new truths to begin as heresies and to end as superstitions. T. H. Huxley, The Coming of Age of the Origin of Species
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. [The more things change, the more they are the same.] A. Karr, Les Guêpes, Jan. 1849
It is often said, inconsiderately, that very original writers always fail in popularity - that such and such persons are too original to be comprehended by the mass. "Too peculiar," should be the phrase, "too idiosyncratic." It is, in fact, the excitable, undisciplined and childlike popular mind which most keenly feels the original. E. A. Poe, Twice-Told Tales
The fact is, that originality (unless in minds of very unusual force) is by no means a matter, as some suppose, of impulse or intuition. In general, to be found, it must be elaborately sought, and although a positive merit of the highest class, demands in its attainment less of invention than negation. E. A. Poe, The Philosophy of Composition
I reflected that man is the veriest slave of custom, and that many points in the routine of his existence are deemed essentially important, which are only so at all by his having rendered them habitual. E. A. Poe, The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall
[...] because the snail is sure of foot, for this reason must we clip the wings of the eagles? E. A. Poe, Eureka
But the memory of past sorrow - is it not present joy? E. A. Poe, The Colloquy of Monos and Una
A sonnet is a moment's monument, - Memorial from the Soul's eternity To one dead deathless hour.D. G. Rossetti, The House of Life, Part 1, Introduction
The nature of bad news infects the teller.W. Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, 1, 2, 92
Time travels in divers paces with divers persons.W. Shakespeare, As You Like It, 3, 2, 290
How many ages hence Shall this our lofty scene be acted over In states unborn and accents yet unknown!W. Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, 3, 1, 112
Things sweet to taste prove in digestion sour.W. Shakespeare, Richard the Second, 1, 3, 236
For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds: Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.W. Shakespeare, Sonnet 94
History, sir, will tel lies, as usual. G. B. Shaw, The Devil's Disciple, Act 3
We learn from history that we learn nothing from history. G. B. Shaw, Man and Superman, The Revolutionist's Handbook, Foreword
Time enough to think of the future when you haven't any future to think of. G. B. Shaw, Pygmalion, Act 2
Time: that which man is always trying to kill, but which ends in killing him. H. Spencer, Definitions
Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits. M. Twain (S. Langhorne Clemens), Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar, Ch. 15
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