“ We think of the future, not the past, as the more glorious time in comparison with which the present is nothing. Progress, development,—those are modern words. The modern idea is to leave the past and press onward to something new. ”
Woodrow Wilson, The New Freedom (1913). copy citation
Author | Woodrow Wilson |
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Source | The New Freedom |
Topic | comparison progress |
Date | 1913 |
Language | English |
Reference | |
Note | |
Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14811/14811-h/14811-h.htm |
Context
“They thought in the other direction. Their stories of heroisms and glory were tales of the past. The ancestor wore the heavier armor and carried the larger spear. "There were giants in those days." Now all that has altered. We think of the future, not the past, as the more glorious time in comparison with which the present is nothing. Progress, development,—those are modern words. The modern idea is to leave the past and press onward to something new. But what is progress going to do with the past, and with the present? How is it going to treat them? With ignominy, or respect? Should it break with them altogether, or rise out of them, with its roots still deep in the older time?”
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