“There are two kinds of fools: one says, "This is old, therefore it is good"; the other says, "This is new, therefore it is better."”

— William Ralph Inge

More Lay Thoughts of a Dean (1931), p. 200

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William Ralph Inge 18

Dean of St Pauls 1860–1954

John Brunner The Shockwave Rider

Source: The Shockwave Rider

“Conceptions of good and bad are all mental speculations. Therefore, it is erroneous to say, "this is good" and "this is bad."”

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486–1534) Indian saint

Quoted in 1,001 Pearls of Wisdom, David Ross, 2006, p. 47

“There are two ways of waking up in the morning. One is to say, 'Good morning, God,' and the other is to say, 'Good God, morning'!”

Fulton J. Sheen (1895–1979) Catholic bishop and television presenter

“I say, therefore, that he who would write history well must be possessed of these two principal qualifications, a fine understanding and a good style: one is the gift of nature, and cannot be taught; the other may be acquired by frequent exercise, perpetual labour and an emulation of the ancients.”

Lucian (120) ancient Greek writer

How to Write History

“Saying hello to something new means saying good-bye to something old and loved.”

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor book Incredibly Alice

Source: Incredibly Alice

“They new the old folk wisdom: what has been built might be really crap and therefore it doesn’t make any sense to dig it, for the smell could make the life really impossible. They regarded Gorbachev exactly that kind of a fool, who had broken the rule.”

Aleksandr Zinovyev (1922–2006) Russian writer

Katastroika (1988)

“A thing final in itself and, therefore, good:
One of the vast repetitions final in
Themselves and, therefore, good,”

Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) American poet

Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction (1942), It Must Give Pleasure
Context: A thing final in itself and, therefore, good:
One of the vast repetitions final in
Themselves and, therefore, good, the going round And round and round, the merely going round,
Until merely going round is a final good,
The way wine comes at a table in a wood.

“The Guide sang: The new age, the new art, the new ethic and thought, And fools crying, Because it has begun It will continue as it has begun! The wheel runs fast, therefore the wheel will run Faster for ever, The old age is done, We have new lights and see without the sun.”

Clive Staples Lewis book The Pilgrim's Regress

Though they lay flat the mountains and dry up the sea, Wilt thou yet change, as though God were a god?
Pilgrim’s Regress 186–187
The Pilgrim's Regress (1933)

“There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

Speech in http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/09/20020917-7.html Nashville, Tennessee, (September 17, 2002), in which the president confused a centuries-old proverb ("Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.")
2000s, 2002

“Doth some one say that there be gods above?
There are not; no, there are not. Let no fool,
Led by the old false fable, thus deceive you.”

Euripidés Bellerophon

Bellerophon
Context: Doth some one say that there be gods above?
There are not; no, there are not. Let no fool,
Led by the old false fable, thus deceive you.
Look at the facts themselves, yielding my words
No undue credence: for I say that kings
Kill, rob, break oaths, lay cities waste by fraud,
And doing thus are happier than those
Who live calm pious lives day after day. All divinity
Is built-up from our good and evil luck.

“There are two kinds of fools: one says, "This is old, therefore it is good"; the other says, "This is new, therefore it is better."”

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William Ralph Inge 18

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