Not a change for the better in our human housekeeping has ever taken place that wise and good men have not opposed it—have not prophesied that the world would wake up to find its throat cut in consequence.
—James Russell Lowell, 1884Quotes
Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.
—Book of Proverbs, c. 150 BCWe must confess that at present the rich predominate, but the future will be for the virtuous and ingenious.
—Jean de La Bruyère, 1688The world began without man, and it will end without him.
—Claude Lévi-Strauss, 1955Fate leads the willing and drags along those who hang back.
—Cleanthes, c. 250 BCPeople will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors.
—Edmund Burke, 1790Little folks become their little fate.
—Horace, c. 20 BCIt would be madness, and inconsistency, to suppose that things which have never yet been performed can be performed without employing some hitherto untried means.
—Francis Bacon, 1620The future is no more uncertain than the present.
—Walt Whitman, 1856I’ve seen the future, brother; it is murder.
—Leonard Cohen, 1992As natural selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress toward perfection.
—Charles Darwin, 1859Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.
—Oscar Wilde, 1893The future comes like an unwelcome guest.
—Edmund Gosse, 1873