Gunther Schuller Quotes

We can't look for greatness in the past.

We can't be beholden to the past.

When you have such a huge past, a big background as we have, you can play off that - a lot of people do. But we felt we wouldn't have a legitimate future unless we put something new together.

The Past: Our cradle, not our prison; there is danger as well as appeal in its glamour. The past is for inspiration, not imitation, for continuation, not repetition.

We should not fear what is new, but we should not throw out that which is in the past but is still valuable.

We don't want to live in the past; we want to go into the future.

Whatever worked in the past, build on it; whatever didn't work in the past, break the chain that binds you to it.

We must not be hampered by yesterday's myths in concentrating on today's needs.

I am not interested in the past, except as the road to the future.

We need to open up the future. We also need to keep everything valuable from the past.

Building the future holds more attraction than ancestor worship, whichever ancestor we're talking about.

One must always maintain one's connection to the past and yet ceaselessly pull away from it.

Slumber not in the tents of your fathers. The world is advancing.

You'd like people to remember you for these great times on the ice. In reality, you want them to forget because you're doing something new and better.

To endeavor to rehabilitate the sabbath of our forefathers is as foolish as to try to make people go back into log houses and cook in a fire-place. Some persons can never realize that the world grows; that what was a help to one age becomes a hindrance to another; that time corrects the mistakes of men and that respect and reverence for our ancestors does not necessarily require us to adopt their clothes or their habits.

The past should have a vote but not a veto.

Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.

Tradition means nothing. It's about what you do tomorrow as a football club, not what you did yesterday.

I think you're in trouble if you start chasing what you've done in the past. You always need to move on and look forward and do something new.

Each generation must go further than the last or what's the use in it?

The past does not equal the future.

We make the future better than the past. We don't hide from history. We make history.

Traditions are lovely thingsto create traditions, that is, not to live off them.

Tradition simply means that we need to end what began well and continue what is worth continuing

Tradition and heritage are all dead people's baggage, stop carrying it. Move forward.