“The past is what provides us with the building blocks. Our job today is to create new buildings out of them.”

— Theodore Zeldin

"Theodore Zeldin - historian, philosopher" in History Today (July 1999)

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Theodore Zeldin 8

English academic 1933

John H. Holland (1929–2015) US university professor

Source: Hidden Order - How Adaptation Builds Complexity (1995), Ch 2. Adaptive Systems, p. 62

“What I enjoy most about being an entrepreneur is making a difference. By building a business we create jobs, pay taxes, and build families and communities.”

Nina Vaca businessperson

CEO Spotlight: Nina Vaca https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-ceo/2016/june/nina-vaca-pinnacle-group-ceo/, D Magazine (June 2016)

“Tomorrow, the entire ANC leadership and I will be back at our desks. We are rolling up our sleeves to begin tackling the problems our country faces. We ask you all to join us — go back to your jobs in the morning. Let's get South Africa working.
For we must, together and without delay, begin to build a better life for all South Africans. This means creating jobs building houses, providing education and bringing peace and security for all.”

Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) President of South Africa, anti-apartheid activist

1990s, Victory speech (1994)

“Growth and prosperity. These are the blocks with which we must build our welfare society.”

Lars Løkke Rasmussen (1964) Danish politician

From the Opening Address to the Folketing (The Danish Parliament) on Tuesday 6 October 2009.
2000s, 2009

“Fundamentals are the building blocks of fun.”

Mikhail Baryshnikov (1948) Soviet-American dancer, choreographer, and actor born in Letonia, Soviet Union

“Devolutionary reform will not provide a factory, a machine or jobs, build a school, train a doctor or put a pound on pensions.”

Neil Kinnock (1942) British politician

South Wales Echo (November 1, 1975).

“This use of building blocks to generate internal models is a pervasive feature of complex adaptive systems.”

John H. Holland (1929–2015) US university professor

Source: Hidden Order - How Adaptation Builds Complexity (1995), Ch 1. Basic Elements, p. 37

“Where the bricks are fallen
We will build with new stone
Where the beams are rotten
We will build with new timbers
Where the word is unspoken
We will build with new speech
There is work together
A Church for all
And a job for each
Every man to his work.”

T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author

Choruses from The Rock (1934)

“We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.”

Winston S. Churchill book The Second World War

Speech to the House of Commons (October 28, 1943), on plans for the rebuilding of the Chamber (destroyed by an enemy bomb May 10, 1941), in Never Give In! : The best of Winston Churchill’s Speeches (2003), Hyperion, p. 358 ISBN 1401300561
The Second World War (1939–1945)

“If you understand this refrain, you're gonna' understand everything I want to say to you today. It has four parts:
Creativity and innovation always builds on the past.
The past always tries to control the creativity that builds upon it.
Free societies enable the future by limiting this power of the past.
Ours is less and less a free society.”

Lawrence Lessig (1961) American academic, political activist.

OSCON 2002

“The past is what provides us with the building blocks. Our job today is to create new buildings out of them.”

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