
The Gay Science (1882)
Source: The Characteristics of the Present Age (1806), p. 11
The Gay Science (1882)
Part 1.3 Rights of Man
1790s, Rights of Man, Part I (1791)
Context: There never did, there never will, and there never can, exist a Parliament, or any description of men, or any generation of men, in any country, possessed of the right or the power of binding and controlling posterity to the "end of time," or of commanding for ever how the world shall be governed, or who shall govern it; and therefore all such clauses, acts or declarations by which the makers of them attempt to do what they have neither the right nor the power to do, nor the power to execute, are in themselves null and void. Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself in all cases as the age and generations which preceded it. The vanity and presumption of governing beyond the grave is the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies. Man has no property in man; neither has any generation a property in the generations which are to follow.
“He was not of an age, but for all time!”
Source: To the Memory of My Beloved, the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare (1618), Lines 41 - 50
Context: Triumph, my Britain, thou hast one to show
To whom all Scenes of Europe homage owe.
He was not of an age, but for all time!
And all the muses still were in their prime,
When, like Apollo, he came forth to warm
Our ears, or like a Mercury to charm!
Nature herself was proud of his designs,
And joy'd to wear the dressing of his lines!
Which were so richly spun, and woven so sit,
As, since she will vouchsafe no other wit.
“One of the characteristics of age was that all avenues of talk led backward in time.”
Source: Greybeard (1964), Chapter 1 “The River: Sparcot” (p. 21)
“This is, above all, the age of liberty.”
2000s, 2003, Address to the National Endowment for Democracy (November 2003)
Source: Law in Modern Societyː Toward a Criticism of Social Theory (1976), p. 38
Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh
Context: The time must come when the imperative necessity for the holding of a vast, an all-embracing assemblage of men will be universally realized. The rulers and kings of the earth must needs attend it, and, participating in its deliberations, must consider such ways and means as will lay the foundations of the world's Great Peace amongst men. Such a peace demandeth that the Great Powers should resolve, for the sake of the tranquillity of the peoples of the earth, to be fully reconciled among themselves. Should any king take up arms against another, all should unitedly arise and prevent him. If this be done, the nations of the world will no longer require any armaments, except for the purpose of preserving the security of their realms and of maintaining internal order within their territories. <!-- p. 249
“One age misunderstands another; and a petty age misunderstands all the others in its own ugly way.”
Source: Culture and Value (1980), p. 98e