Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
Variant: Custom without Reason, is but an ancient Error.
Context: 1226. Custom without Reason, is but an ancient Error.
“Of course it's the same old story. Truth usually is the same old story.”
“The old customs are dead, and we keep trying on new ones, like badly fitting clothes.”
Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Shards of Honor (1986), Chapter 3 (p. 50)
“Nothing is more damaging to a new truth than an old error.”
Maxim 715, trans. Stopp
Maxims and Reflections (1833)
“The truth is that history constantly presents new problems in the guise of old.”
Source: Barbarian Sentiments - How The American Century Ends (1989), Chapter 5, Nationalism, p. 155.
“Blasphemy is what an old mistake says of a newly discovered truth.”
The trial of Charles B. Reynolds for blasphemy (1887)
Context: Blasphemy is what an old mistake says of a newly discovered truth.
Blasphemy is what a withered last year's leaf says to a this year's bud.
Blasphemy is the bulwark of religious prejudice.
Blasphemy is the breastplate of the heartless.
And let me say now, that the crime of blasphemy, as set out in this statute, is impossible. No man can blaspheme a book. No man can commit blasphemy by telling his honest thought. No man can blaspheme a God, or a Holy Ghost, or a Son of God. The Infinite cannot be blasphemed.
“In prayerful sympathy and love. Hold to the old truth -- double distilled.”
Last card to Homer W. Hodge, dated 26 June 1913.
“An old truth asserts that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Speech at the 49th session of the United Nations General Assembly (excerpts) (1994)
Amazon's Jeff Bezos looks to the future - CBS News http://www.cbsnews.com/news/amazons-jeff-bezos-looks-to-the-future/.
