WIST Quotations

Dylan, Bob -- Song (1964), “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” v. 4

Dave — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 22:33:40 +0000

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’

Bob Dylan (b. 1941) American singer, songwriter
Song (1964), “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” v. 4

(Source (Audio))

Montesquieu -- Spirit of Laws [The Spirit of the Laws; De l’esprit des lois], Book 4, ch. 5 (4.5) (1748) [tr. Nugent (1750)]

Dave — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 22:43:07 +0000

It is not the young people that degenerate: they are not spoilt till those of maturer age are already sunk into corruption.

[Ce n’est point le peuple naissant qui dégénere ; il ne se perd que lorsque les hommes faits sont déja corrompus.]

Charles-Lewis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689–1755) French political philosopher
Spirit of Laws [The Spirit of the Laws; De l’esprit des lois], Book 4, ch. 5 (4.5) (1748) [tr. Nugent (1750)]

On society's need to educate the young into a love for the republic.

(Source (French)). Other translations:

It is not young people who degenerate; they are ruined only when grown men have already been corrupted.
[tr. Cohler/Miller/Stone (1989)]

It is not the rising people that degenerates ; it only declines when the fully-formed men are already corrupted.
[tr. Stewart (2018)]

Bastard, Thomas -- Chrestoleros, Book 7, Epigram 9 “De senectute & juventute” (7.9) (1598)

Dave — Fri, 26 Dec 2025 20:56:13 +0000

Age is deformed, youth unkinde,
We scorn their bodies, they our minde.

Thomas Bastard (1565–1618) English clergyman, epigrammist
Chrestoleros, Book 7, Epigram 9 “De senectute & juventute” (7.9) (1598)

Cox, Marcelene -- “Ask Any Woman” column, Ladies’ Home Journal (1960-05)

Dave — Mon, 28 Nov 2022 18:43:26 +0000

Not anything is more responsible for the good old days than the fact that the grownups of one generation always remember the world as it looked to them in their young days, not as it looked to their elders.

Marcelene Cox (1900–1998) American writer, columnist, aphorist
“Ask Any Woman” column, Ladies’ Home Journal (1960-05)

Cicero, Marcus Tullius -- De Divinatione [On Divination], Book 2, ch. 2 (2.2) / sec. 4 (44 BC) [tr. Yonge (1853)]

Dave — Thu, 13 Jan 2022 17:09:41 +0000

For what greater or better service can we render to our country, than by thus educating and instructing the rising generation, especially in times like these, and in the present state of morality, when society has fallen into such disorders as to require everyone to use his best exertions to check and restrain it?

[Quod enim munus rei publicae afferre maius meliusve possumus, quam si docemus atque erudimus iuventutem, his praesertim moribus atque temporibus, quibus ita prolapsa est, ut omnium opibus refrenanda atque coercenda sit?]

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
De Divinatione [On Divination], Book 2, ch. 2 (2.2) / sec. 4 (44 BC) [tr. Yonge (1853)]

(Source (Latin)). Another translation:

For what greater or better service can I render to the common wealth than to instruct and train the youth -- especially in view of the fact that our young men have gone so far astray because of the present moral laxity that the utmost effort will be needed to hold them in check and direct them in the right way?
[tr. Falconer (1923)]

What nobler employment, or what more advantageous to the state, than that of the man who instructs the rising generation!
[Source (<1864)]

Aristophanes -- The Clouds, l. 914 (c. 423 BC) [tr. Arrowsmith (1962)]

Dave — Thu, 12 May 2016 16:40:36 +0000

Times change. The vices of your age are stylish today.

Aristophanes (c. 450-c. 388 BC) Athenian comedic playwright
The Clouds, l. 914 (c. 423 BC) [tr. Arrowsmith (1962)]

This phrase comes from a single translation, by William Arrowsmith (1962), of Aristophanes, The Clouds, l. 914. It is the only translation that includes anything like that:

[909] Philosophy: Why, you Precocious Pederast! You Palpable Pervert!
[910] Sophistry: Pelt me with roses!
[910] Philosophy: You Toadstool! O Cesspool!
[911] Sophistry: Wreath my hairs with lilies!
[911] Philosophy: Why, you Parricide!
[912] Sophistry: Shower me with gold! Look, don't you see I welcome your abuse?
[913] Philosophy: Welcome it, monster? In my day we would have cringed with shame.
[914] Sophistry: Whereas now we're flattered. Times change. The vices of your age are stylish today.

Compare to Hickey (1853):

[909] Just Cause: You are debauched and shameless.
[910] Unjust Cause: You have spoken roses of me.
[910] Just Cause: And a dirty lickspittle.
[911] Unjust Cause: You crown me with lilies.
[911] Just Cause: And a parricide.
[912] Unjust Cause: You don't know that you are sprinkling me with gold.
[913] Just Cause: Certainly not so formerly, but with lead.
[914] Unjust Cause: But now this is an ornament to me.

Kristofferson, Kris -- “Blame It on The Stones” (1970) [with Bucky Wilkin]

Dave — Tue, 02 Feb 2016 17:13:41 +0000

Mister Marvin Middle Class is really in a stew
Wond’rin’ what the younger generation’s coming to
And the taste of his martini doesn’t please his bitter tongue
Blame it on the Rolling Stones.
Blame it on the Stones; blame it on the Stones
You’ll feel so much better, knowing you don’t stand alone
Join the accusation; save the bleeding nation
Get it off your shoulders; blame it on the Stones.

Kris Kristofferson (b. 1936) American singer, songwriter, musician, actor
“Blame It on The Stones” (1970) [with Bucky Wilkin]

Peter, Lawrence J. -- Peter’s Quotations (1977)

Dave — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:41:01 +0000

Middle age is when you stop criticizing the older generation and start criticizing the younger one.

Lawrence J. Peter (1919–1990) American educator, management theorist
Peter’s Quotations (1977)

Stevenson, Adlai -- Speech (1954-03-22), “The Educated Citizen,” Senior Class Banquet, Dillon Gymnasium, Princeton University

Dave — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:00:29 +0000

What a man knows at fifty that he did not know at twenty is, for the most part, incommunicable. The laws, the aphorisms, the generalizations, the universal truths, the parables and the old saws — all of the observations about life which can be communicated handily in ready, verbal packages — are as well known to a man at twenty who has been attentive as to a man at fifty. He has been told them all, he has read them all, and he has probably repeated them all before he graduates from college; but he has not lived them all.

Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) American politician, diplomat, statesman
Speech (1954-03-22), “The Educated Citizen,” Senior Class Banquet, Dillon Gymnasium, Princeton University

Orwell, George -- Essay (1945-12), Review of Herbert Read, A Coat of Many Colours, Poetry Quarterly, Vol. 7, No. 4 (1945, Winter)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.

George Orwell (1903–1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1945-12), Review of Herbert Read, A Coat of Many Colours, Poetry Quarterly, Vol. 7, No. 4 (1945, Winter)