I've never wanted to say that the classical world offers us ready-made lessons to solve our own problems. But, whatever I morally think about some of the things that the ancient world in general stood for, I do know that the ancient writers faced the same kinds of problems that we face.
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The savage in man is never quite eradicated. I have just read of a manthe other day picking up an arrowhead on the Assabet, and it suggested the same thoughts as if I had found it myself—that there is something very congenial between the sight of such an object and the human mind.
Henry David Thoreau — Journal
Nostalgia can be a toxic impulse, reactionary and uncritical, but it can also hold revolutionary potential for the future. Here, nostalgia is more than a self-soothing search for comfort; it's about engaging with loss, reconnecting with ideals that might improve the future.
Brendan Fitzgerald
We are all of us the debtors of the past. We did not make the language we speak, the roads we travel, the beds we sleep in, or the laws that protect us. We came to a table already spread, and it is only decent that we should leave it a little more abundantly furnished for those who come after us.
William Ralph Inge — Outspoken Essays: Second Series