We need to distinguish between nostalgia and the reassuring memory of happy times, which serves to link the present to the past and to provide a sense of continuity. The emotional appeal of happy memories does not depend on disparagement of the present, the hallmark of the nostalgic attitude. Nostalgia appeals to the feeling that the past offered delights no longer obtainable. Nostalgic representations of the past evoke a time irretrievably lost and for that reason timeless and unchanging. Strictly speaking, nostalgia does not entail the exercise of memory at all, since the past it idealizes stands outside time, frozen in unchanging perfection. Memory too may idealize the past, but not in order to condemn the present. It draws hope and comfort from the past in order to enrich the present and to face what comes with good cheer.

I've directed seven movies and know a thing or two about dealing with unexpected crises.

Penny Marshall

A man who has a million dollars is as well off as if her were rich.

John Jacob Astor

Technology determines the possibilities of society. It doesn't matter whether you start out from a fascist state or a communist state or a free-market state.

Iain Banks

Grief is a normal and natural response to loss. It is originally an unlearned feeling process. Keeping grief inside increases your pain.

Anne Grant

Fear is the instructor of great sagacity, and the herald of all revolutions

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries.

Carl Sagan, Cosmos, p.333

My age is as a lusty winter, frosty but kindly.

William Shakespeare

Sometimes the nicest thing to do with a guitar is just look at it.

Thom Yorke

Now that I have found someone, I'm feeling more alone... than I ever have before.

Ben Folds

One great object of the Constitution was to restrain majorities from oppressing minorities or encroaching upon their just rights.

James K. Polk

To be human is to be beautifully flawed.

Eric Wilson

The Band was always famous for its retirements we'd go and play and get a little petty cash together, and then not see each other till it was time to fill our pockets up again.

Rick Danko