Quotes About Modernization

But for the silly chaps, we would still be living in the Stone Age.

By all but the pathologically romantic, it is now recognized that this is not the age of the small man.

That which is the wonder of one age is the commonplace of the next.

In my day we let the wolfswans incapable of birthing our young die. (Markus) Then it's a good thing we're in the twenty-first century and not the Dark Ages, isn't it? (Fang)

What is happening here is we are living past the age, by the millions, living past the age where cultural values make any sense at all.

The age of recalcitrance is over. The best solution is no longer just to regurgitate a 19th-century design.

We long ago gave up the wish to have things that were adequate or even excellent; we have preferred instead to have things that were up-to-date.

Whether we like it or not, modern ways are going to alter and in part destroy traditional customs and values.

Dr Jaffery said that very few people in Delhi now wanted to study classical Persian, the language which, like French in Imperial Russia, had for centuries been the first tongue of every educated Delhi-wallah. 'No one has any interest in the classics today,' he said. 'If they read at all, they read trash from America. They have no idea what they are missing. The jackal thinks he has feasted on the buffalo when in fact he has just eaten the eyes, entrails and testicles rejected by the lion.

You could buy a burrito there, a lottery ticket, batteries, tests for various diseases. You could do voice-mail, e-mail, send faxes. It had occurred to Laney that this was probably the only store for miles that sold anything that anyone ever really needed; the others all sold things that he couldn't even imagine wanting.

We call it getting a haircut," Flynne said, giving him a look as she got to her feet, "back in frontier days.

I'll be darned if I'd let any man tell me whether I could bob my hair or not. Why, I wouldn't go back to long hair now for anything. Morris says maybe I should take up smoking cigarettes now. Would you believe it, Cora? Women all over Oklahoma City are smoking cigarettes now. Isn't that disgraceful? What in God's name are we all coming to?

The old Televisions had an off switch.

himself: after the locomotive

I don't think I've missed much." "Wireless Internet, digital photographs, smartphones, Facebook, YouTube . . ." Molly taps the fingers of one hand. "The entire world has changed in the past decade." "Not my world." "But you're missing out on so much." Vivian laughs. "I hardly think FaceTube—whatever that is—would improve my quality of life.

Someone needs to drag you kicking and screaming into this century.

He [Mosaddegh] was part of a generation of Iranian men who were inspired by Europe but who expected their wives to remain Iranian. (p37)

an image of the city, becoming fixed upon it as a threat and above all as a source of destabilization.

Cars are evolving to match the new paradigm. Soon, things like steering wheels, pedals and rear-view mirrors will seem ancient. More practically, we will all be better able to optimize our time and attention to focus on more important tasks, family, work, and self care.

it is a vice to spend years and centuries saying of progress, 'I should like it, but I do not want it.

Any good music must be an innovation.

When people say they come from the country, they say it abjectly, apologetically. Unlike Londoners, Tokyoites do not drive out to the country at the weekend or yearn for a country cottage. Everyone, if they had the chance, would live in Tokyo. Four hours to the next train, while inconceivable in Tokyo, was only to be expected of inaka.

This whole world was a processed petroleum product.

The clock, not the steam-engine, is the key-machine of the modern industrial age.