"We have learned so well how to absorb novelty that receptivity itself has turned into a kind of tradition- "the tradition of the new." Yesterdays avant-garde experiment is today's chic and tomorrows cliche."

--

Source : Richard Hofstadter (2012). “Anti-Intellectualism in American Life”, p.418, Vintage

Richard Hofstadter

#Yesterday Quotes #Today Quotes #Novelty Quotes

“In a time not distant, it will be possible to flash any image formed in thought on a screen and render it visible at any place desired. The perfection of this means of reading thought will create a revolution for the better in all our social relations.”
“You know what it's like," said Storm, "when you want to--just--pour a woman into a glass and--just-drink her--just drink her down, one gulp, body and soul?”
“I am the spirit of the morning sea, I am the awakening and the glad surprise.”

Source : Richard Watson Gilder (1900). “Five Books of Song”
“Consider children as a beat. Clearly not an institution of power, children don't vote and they don't pass taxes. They have no money, and they don't buy newspapers or watch the news on television. Consequently, children are one of the most neglected segments of society in the news, except as a subtopic of other power beats such as education, family, and crime. Children are in serious trouble in this society, which means the foundation of our society is in trouble, which means the future is in trouble, and that is news.”
“Cowards never lasted long enough to become real cowboys.”
“If I'm being forgiving of myself, I could say I'm somebody who was really hungry for experiences. The same thing that would make me go try to be a trail cook on a ranch was the same thing that would make me want to have sex with a couple cowboys while I was there.”
“As a general rule, when something gets elevated to apple-pie status in the hierarchy of American values, you have to suspect that its actual monetary value is skidding toward zero. Take motherhood: nobody ever thought of putting it on a moral pedestal until some brash feminists pointed out, about a century ago, that the pay is lousy and the career ladder nonexistent. Same thing with work: would we be so reverent about the 'work ethic' if it wasn't for the fact that the average working stiff's hourly pay is shrinking, year by year ...”
“The happiness that is genuinely satisfying is accompanied by the fullest exercise of our faculties and the fullest realization of the world in which we live.”

You may also like:

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Historian
C. Wright Mills
Sociologist
Charles A. Beard
Historian
Christopher Lasch
Historian
Douglas Hofstadter
Professor
Eric Foner
Historian
Franklin D. Roosevelt
32nd U.S. President
Howard Zinn
Historian
Susan Jacoby
Author