“Who stemm'd the torrent of a downward age.”

Section 2.5 <!-- p. 102 -->
The Crosswicks Journal, A Circle of Quiet (1972)
Context: It isn't always the middle-aged who refuse to listen, who will not even try to understand another point of view. One boy would not get it through his head that for all adults God is not an old man in a white beard sitting on a cloud. As far as this boy was concerned, this old gentleman was the adult's god, and therefore he did not believe in God.

George Bernard Shaw (1909)

With regard to this fundamental principle, as we have now declared and adopted it without farther definition or limitation, this third Age is precisely similar to that which is to follow it, the fourth, or age of Reason as Science,—and by virtue of this similarity prepares the way for it. Before the tribunal of Science, too, nothing is accepted but the Conceivable. Only in the application of the principle there is this difference between the two Ages,—that the third, which we shall shortly name that of Empty Freedom, makes its fixed and previously acquired conceptions the measure of existence; while the fourth—that of Science—on the contrary, makes existence the measure, not of its acquired, but of its desiderated beliefs.
Source: The Characteristics of the Present Age (1806), p. 19

What I Think (1956), p. 142

Vol. I, ch. 1
History of England (1849–1861)

Variant: A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age.

Source: The Deserted Village (1770), Line 99.

Source: I Will Fear No Evil (1970), Chapter 14, p. 224

Source: Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller - Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century