Quotes
Quotes about Present
The present contains nothing more than the past, and what is found in the effect was already in the cause.
It cannot be denied that for a society which has to create scarcity to save its members from starvation, to whom abundance spells disaster, and to whom unlimited energy means unlimited power for war and destruction, there is an ominous cloud in the distance though at present it be no bigger than a man's hand.
All men carry about them that which is poyson to serpents: for if it be true that is reported, they will no better abide the touching with man's spittle than scalding water cast upon them: but if it happed to light within their chawes or mouth, especially if it come from a man that is fasting, it is present death.
The essential characteristic of Western civilization that distinguishes it from the arrested and petrified civilizations of the East was and is its concern for freedom from the state. The history of the West, from the age of the Greek polis down to the present-day resistance to socialism, is essentially the history of the fight for liberty against the encroachments of the officeholders.
...it may fairly be doubted if any political tyranny ever imposed on its people such a fear, such a longing for freedom, such a paralysis of the spirit, as disease. I doubt if the average Englishman felt himself as much oppressed by Charles I as by the plague; or if any colonial American was as much in dread of taxation without representation as of smallpox. And it may reasonably be contended that Walter Reed and William Crawford Gorgas brought to man freedom in a more happy sense and in a larger measure than any military or political leader.
To those who feel that their values are the values, the less controlled systems necessarily present a spectacle of "chaos," simply because such systems respond to a diversity of values. The more successfully such systems respond to diversity, the more "chaos" there will be, by definition, according to the standards of any specific set of values- other than diversity or freedom as values. Looked at another way, the more self-righteous observers there are, the more chaos (and "waste") will be seen.
If there were a verb meaning "to believe falsely," it would not have any significant first person, present indicative.
History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.
Man, living, feeling man, is the easy sport of the over-mastering present.
The future is purchased by the present.
Those who live to the future must always appear selfish to those who live to the present.
He to whom the present is the only thing that is present, knows nothing of the age in which he lives.
Fast closed with double grills And triple gates--the cell To wicked souls is hell; But to a mind that's innocent 'Tis only iron, wood and stone. [Fr., Doubles grilles a gros cloux, Triples portes, forts verroux, Aux ames vraiment mechantes Vous representez l'enfer; Mais aux ames innocentes Vous n'etes que du bois, des pierres, du fer.]
So that every man lawfully ordained must bring a bow which hath two strings, a title of present right and another to provide for future possibility or chance.
If you see in any given situation only what everybody else can see, you can be said to be so much a representative of your culture that you are a victim of it.
Science itself, therefore, may be regarded as a minimal problem, consisting of the completest possible presentment of facts with the least possible expenditure of thought.
...the conviction persists - though history has shown it to be a hallucination - that all the questions that the human mind has asked are questions that can be answered in terms of the alternatives that the questions themselves present. But in fact intellectual progress usually occurs through sheer abandonment of questions together with both of the alternatives they assume - an abandonment that results from their decreasing vitality and change of urgent interest. We do not solve them: we get over them. Old questions are solved by disappearing, evaporating, while new questions corresponding to the changed attitude of endeavor and preference take their place.
Because we do not understand the brain very well we are constantly tempted to use the latest technology as a model for trying to understand it. In my childhood we were always assured that the brain was a telephone switchboard. ('What else could it be?') I was amused to see that Sherrington, the great British neuroscientist, thought that the brain worked like a telegraph system. Freud often compared the brain to hydraulic and electro-magnetic systems. Leibniz compared it to a mill, and I am told some of the ancient Greeks thought the brain functions like a catapult. At present, obviously, the metaphor is the digital computer.
Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.
Money is the representative of a certain quantity of corn or other commodity. It is so much warmth, so much bread.
He presents me with what is always an acceptable gift who brings me news of a great thought before unknown. He enriches me without impoverishing himself.
Reality is a question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seemsâbut as you approach the present, it inevitably seems incredible.
If there were a verb meaning "to believe falsely," it would not have any significant first person, present indicative.
Life is a tightrope with God at the end. If we walk with our eyes down, looking at what is happening right now in our lives, we are likely to waver and fall. However, if we focus at the end of the rope, where God and Heaven await us, we can see past all of the petty troubles this present life and walk more steadily. We may sometimes still stumble, but if we get back up and train our eyes on God once again, He will guide us to the end.
That it may please you leave these sad designs To him that hath most cause to be a mourner, And presently repair to Crosby House; Where--after I have solemnly interred At Chertsey monast'ry with noble king-- And wet his grave with my repentant tears-- I will with all expedient duty see you.
