In every age 'the good old days' were a myth. No one ever thought they were good at the time. For every age has consisted of crises that seemed intolerable to the people who lived through them.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that people tend to romanticize the past, believing it was better than the present, even though they did not appreciate it at the time.
Brooks Atkinson's quote reflects on the human tendency to look back at previous eras with nostalgia, often overlooking the difficulties and challenges faced during those times. He argues that each generation experiences crises that feel unbearable in the moment, yet in retrospect, those same periods are often viewed as 'the good old days.' This highlights the paradox of how time can reshape our perceptions of the past and make us value what we once took for granted.
In practice
During a speech about changes in society, one might quote this to illustrate how perceptions of past eras can be misleading.
This nation was built by men who took risks-pioneers who were not afraid of the wilderness, businessmen who were not afraid of failure, scientists who were not afraid of the truth, thinkers who were not afraid of progress, dreamers who were not afraid of action.
People everywhere enjoy believing things that they know are not true. It spares them the ordeal of thinking for themselves and taking responsibility for what they know.
Nothing recedes like progress.
Truth and non-violence are not cloistered virtues but applicable as much in the forum and the legislatures as in the market place.
The reveries of youth, in which so much energy is wasted, are the yearnings of a Spirit made for what it has not found but must forever seek as an Ideal.
Luxury lies not in the richness of things, but in the absence of vulgarity
In our patriarchal world, we are all taught - whether we like to think we are or not - that God, being male, values maleness much more than he values femaleness... that in order to propitiate God, women must propitiate men.
She [Alice] went on "And how do you know that you're mad?" "To begin with," said the Cat, "a dog's not mad. You grant that?" "I suppose so," said Alice. "Well, then," the Cat went on, "you see, a dog growls when it's angry, and wags it's tail when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore I'm mad."
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