"Searching for the window into nature's soul" http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian/issues97/feb97/golds.html Smithsonian magazine (February 1997)
“If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old”
“Saying hello to something new means saying good-bye to something old and loved.”
Source: Incredibly Alice
“Everything new endangers something old.”
The Rickover Effect (1992)
Context: Everything new endangers something old. A new machine replaces human hands; a new source of power threatens old businesses; a new trade route wipes out the supremacy of old ports and brings prosperity to new ones. This is the price that must be paid for progress and it is worth it.
The Serpent, in Pt I : In the Beginning
1920s, Back to Methuselah (1921)
“When you repeat an old pattern in a new location, you sometimes make something new.”
Brace Yourself: The Five Heresies
The God Problem: How a Godless Cosmos Creates (2012)
“Turn, turn, my wheel! All things must change
To something new, to something strange”
Kéramos http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/poetry/TheCompletePoeticalWorksofHenryWadsworthLongfellow/chap22.html, st. 3 (1878).
Context: Turn, turn, my wheel! All things must change
To something new, to something strange;
Nothing that is can pause or stay;
The moon will wax, the moon will wane,
The mist and cloud will turn to rain,
The rain to mist and cloud again,
To-morrow be to-day.
Will Grayson, p. 260
Will Grayson, Will Grayson (2010)
“Confusing ‘Character’ with ‘Temperament’”
Clearing the Ground (1986)
Context: Character is something you forge for yourself; temperament is something you are born with and can only slightly modify. Some people have easy temperaments and weak characters; others have difficult temperaments and strong characters.
We are all prone to confuse the two in assessing people we associate with. Those with easy temperaments and weak characters are more likable than admirable; those with difficult temperaments and strong characters are more admirable than likable. Of course, the optimum for a person is to possess both an easy temperament and a strong character, but this is a rare combination, and few of us are that lucky. The people who get things done tend to be prickly, and the people we enjoy being with tend to be accepting, and there seems to be no way to get around this. Obviously, there are many combinations of character and temperament, in varying degrees, so that this is only a rough generalization — but I think it is one worth remembering when we make personal judgments.
“If you want something you have never had, you must be willing to do something you have never done.”
Not found in Jefferson's writings, according to the Jefferson Monticello center https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/if-you-want-something-you-have-never-had-quotation. First known appearance in print is from 2004.
Misattributed
“If you are going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy.”
Interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C6K0umwZwo by Diane Sawyer (1994)
