The young people think the old people are fools; but the old people know the young people are fools!
Now every tradition grows continually more venerable, the farther off lies its origin, the more this is lost sight of; the generation paid it accumulates from generation to generation, the tradition at last becomes holy and excites awe.
Great men, unknown to their generation, have their fame among the great who have preceded them, and all true worldly fame subsides from their high estimate beyond the stars.
Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.
Every generation had its weaklings – that that was one of the penalties of greatness – but that their failings were seldom remembered by posterity.
