Quotes About Transition

Claudite jam rivos, pueri: Sat prata biberunt.

It is true, as the champions of the extremists say, that there can be no life without change, and that to be afraid of what is different or unfamiliar is to be afraid of life. It is no less true, however, that change may mean death and not life, and retrogression instead of development.

The ever-whirling wheelOf Change; the which all mortal things doth sway.

But times do change and move continually.

For whatsoever from one place doth fall, Is with the tide unto an other brought: For there is nothing lost, that may be found, if sought.

Capitalism has run its course, and we shall have to look for other ideals than the ones that capitalism has encouraged.

Things used to be plain and simple; you did a thing and you knew how it would turn out. But not now. The world was changing.

That's it! We belong to the nineteen hundreds, Vaughan, and Dike and Lina and even Madam, old as she is. But Mike and Reggie and kids like that, why, they're demi-siècle, they're half century, they belong to the two thousands. It scares you, it sounds so far away—but not to them. They'll have the job of fixing up all our mistakes, the demi-siècle boys and girls will. We're tail end of an era.

My mother died when I was 18. Up until then, I never saw a tin can in my house. (Washington Post interview, 1990)

Guess I'll weep awhile. Guess I won't, I mean.

I only know that summer sang in meA little while, that in me sings no more.

Listen, children: Your father is dead. From his old coats I'll make you little jackets; I'll make you little trousers From his old pants. There'll be in his pockets Things he used to put there, Keys and pennies Covered with tobacco; Dan shall have the pennies To save in his bank; Anne shall have the keys To make a pretty noise with. Life must go on, Though good men die; Anne, eat your breakfast; Dan, take your medicine; Life must go on; I forget just why.

And her voice is a string of colored beads, Or steps leading into the sea.

into the darkness they go, the wise & the lovely

This summer has been so short, so small. I think that like "Alice" it ate the cake that said "Eat Me", and dwindled and dwindled until it was so tiny that it ran out through the cracks under the door.

Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely.

Childhood is not from birth to a certain age and at a certain age. The child is grown, and puts away childish things. Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies.

Night falls fast. Today is in the past. Blown from the dark hill hither to my door Three flakes, then four Arrive, then many more.

Decisione non e' difficile, pero' si dolorosa. Tempi cambiano e noi no. Li sta nocciolo e midollo di questione.

All things are in motion, all is in process, nothing abides, nothing will ever change in this eternal moment.

The plow of mortality drives through the stubble, turns over rocks and sod and weeds to cover the old, the worn-out, the husks, shells, empty seedpods and sapless roots, clearing the field for the next crop. A ruthless, brutal process—but clean and beautiful.

There comes a time in a man's life when he has to pull up stakes. Has to light out. Has to stop straddling, and start cutting, fence.

Every monster was a man first.

Time passes. You're not as ... recognizable now as you were.