Quotes About Continuity

the future is an infinite succession of presents

Books have a way of dwelling like parasites, carried forth in the minds of readers, turning up by force of succession in later works of art. I was part of that living chain of ideas reaching into the future.

As you were, I was. As I am, you will be.

It's the essence of a degenerating mind periodically, to lose all sense of continuous self, and therefore any regard for what others think of your lack of continuity.

The journal preserved her dignity; she might look and behave like and live the life of a trained nurse, but she was really an important writer in disguise. And at a time when she was cut off from everything she knew - family, home, friends - writing was the thread of continuity. It was what she had always done.

However withered, I still feel myself to be exactly the same person I've always been. Had to explain that to the young. We may look truly reptilian, but we're not a separate tribe.

Many historians emphasize the catastrophic breaks, ruptures, turning points, as the true stuff of history, but the field would be incomplete without a look into the continuities.

But a lot of the old fans are listening to a lot of the younger music. So I gotta keep moving forward, and they'll move forward too.

I'm passing on a tradition of which I am part. There's a long line of poets who went before me, and I'm another one, and I'm hoping to pass that on to other younger, or newer, poets than myself.

I think if you ignore the generation after yours, you will be obsolete very quickly.

There was no way I was going to write about Africa and not include the triumphant continuity of life that had also been part of my experience there. It's not just war and famine all the time.

The trouble with calling a book a novel, well, it's not like I'm writing the same book all the time, but there is a continuity of my interests, so when I start writing a book, if I call it 'a novel,' it separates it from other books.

I think the most important thing is God forbid anything were to happen to Mr. Trump as the president, you want someone who can take over the government the very next day and make sure that their agenda and Mr. Trump's agenda continues to move forward.

Of course it's the same old story. Truth usually is the same old story.

The past, as you suggest, is absolutely present at all times and the present is born from the past. I wouldn't want to suggest that the past determines the present.

Your mind is filled with thoughts and desires. Your moods shift constantly. You are not sure what it is you want, it changes from moment to moment; there is little or no continuity in your life.

upon what has gone before, and that one must be mindful of that at every moment, with every choice made and about to be made.

History meant nothing, because the only continuity was human stupidity. Oh, there were moments of greatness, of bright deeds, but how long did the light of such glory last? From one breath to the next, aye, and no more than that.

Anything that's continuous can be sliced exactly (not just approximately) into infinitely many infinitesimal pieces.

All of calculus, and hence all of theoretical physics, hinges on this assumption of continuous space and time. That assumption of continuity has been resoundingly successful so far.

Emma says after I was born I cried for days. She said I'd never shut up which is funny really because Dad says I never shut up now so maybe that's what happens, you get born and act the same your whole life.

He was aware only of a serpent biting its own tail; a circle completed.

Don't assume that what happens in our future invalidates what happened in our past.

Though weeks, even months, have at times gone by without contact, when we were separated by distance and occupied with busy lives and raising families, the thread of connection had continued true and deep, allowing us to pick up where we left off, as if there had been no time lost. Time had never been a part of the equation.