Lewis Mumford Quotes

Conservatism cherishes tradition; innovation fetishizes novelty. They tug in different directions, the one toward the past, the other toward the future.

Those interested in perpetuating present conditions are always in tears about the marvelous past that is about to disappear.

The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact a return to the idealized past.

I don't feel the depression the people who are always looking back to the '50s, to 'Father Knows Best' feel. I can see the coming of another glorious era.

The past is a source of knowledge, and the future is a source of hope. Love of the past implies faith in the future.

There are certain moments when we might wish the future were built by men of the past.

Those who cling to the past won't give up without a fight.

… we should not indulge in looking backwards with envy to the past, but to keep our eyes ahead of us with hope for the future.

Fogeydom is the last bastion of the bore and reminiscence is its anthem. It is futile to want the old days back, but that doesn't mean one should ignore the lessons of the visitable past.

Change is not what we expect from religious people. They tend to love the past more than the present or the future.

I think some people are just very passionate that things remain the way they were when they were kids.

Those who compare the age in which their lot has fallen with a golden age which exists only in imagination, may talk of degeneracy and decay; but no man who is correctly informed as to the past, will be disposed to take a morose or desponding view of the present.

When you talk about change, you know what makes it really tough for people is on the one hand you've got tradition, and on the other hand you've got change; in many people's mind, change equals modernization. Tradition, however. I'm a big tradition guy.

The way you remember the past depends upon your hope for the future. And if what you see in your future has no hope, it has no potential, then you view the past that brought you to here as not very good.

One thing we have lost, that we had in the past, is a sense of progress, that things are getting better. There is a sense of volatility, but not of progress.

My hunch is that pop culture began to stagnate the moment Americans started to love the past more than they did the future.

I'm living in the present, thinking about the past, hoping for the future.

The old always think the world is getting worse; it is for the young, equipped with historical facts, to point out that, compared with 1509, or even 1939, life in 2009 is sweet as honey.

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.

There will always be men struggling to change, and there will always be those who are controlled by the past.

I think experience will teach you a combination of liberalism and conservatism. We have to be progressive and at the same time we have to retain values. We have to hold onto the past as we explore the future.

At every crossroads on the path that leads to the future, tradition has placed 10,000 men to guard the past.

So moderates of the world unite! We have nothing to lose but our pessimism. Either we make the future bury the past, or the bad guys will ensure that the past buries the future.

[Addressing Thomas Jefferson:] Your taste is judicious in liking better the dreams of the future than the history of the past.

Events have moved on, yet some people still keep talking about the past.