Every old man complains of the growing depravity of the world, of the petulance and insolence of the rising generation. He recounts the decency and regularity of former times, and celebrates the discipline and sobriety of the age in which his youth was passed; a happy age which is now no more to be expected, since confusion has broken in upon the world, and thrown down all the boundaries of civility and reverence.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the tendency of older generations to lament the decline of societal values and moral standards compared to their youth.
Lyndon B. Johnson's quote captures a common sentiment among older generations who often perceive the world as deteriorating, particularly regarding the behavior and attitudes of younger individuals. This nostalgia for the past suggests a longing for the discipline and decorum that once characterized society, highlighting the generational gap in values and experiences, and raises questions about societal progress and the cyclical nature of moral standards.
In practice
During a family gathering, reflecting on how different the younger generation is compared to their upbringing.
You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, "you are free to compete with all the others," and still justly believe that you have been completely fair. We seek not just legal equity but human ability, not just equality as a right and a theory but equality as a fact and equality as a result.
Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.
We do this in order to slow down aggression. We do this to increase the confidence of the brave people of South Vietnam who have bravely born this brutal battle for so many years with so many casualties. And we do this to convince the leaders of North Vietnam-and all who seek to share their conquest-of a simple fact: We will not be defeated. We will not grow tired. We will not withdraw either openly or under the cloak of a meaningless agreement.
So far are we generally from thinking what we often say of the shortness of life, that at the time when it is necessarily shortest we form projects which we delay to execute, indulge such expectations as nothing but along train of events can gratify, and suffer those passions to gain upon us which are only excusable in the prime of life.
You do not examine legislation in the light of the benefits it will convey if properly administered, but in the light of the wrongs it would do and the harms it would cause if improperly administered.
If government is to serve any purpose it is to do for others what they are unable to do for themselves.
All resistance is a rupture with what is. And every rupture begins, for those engaged in it, through a rupture with oneself.
Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 153
If church prelates, past or present, had even an inkling of physiology they'd realize that what they term this inner ugliness creates and nourishes the hearing ear, the seeing eye, the active mind, and energetic body of man and woman, in the same way that dirt and dung at the roots give the plant its delicate leaves and the full-blown rose.
I would rather be a man of paradoxes than a man of prejudices.
Everyone carries a piece of the puzzle. Nobody comes into your life by mere coincidence. Trust your instincts. Do the unexpected. Find the others.
Very well then; emancipation from usury and money, that is, from practical, real Judaism, would constitute the emancipation of our time.
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