From the earliest times the old have rubbed it into the young that they are wiser than they, and before the young had discovered what nonsense this was they were old too, and it profited them to carry on the imposture. – W. Somerset Maugham

Some men so dislike the dust kicked up by the generation they belong to, that, being unable to pass, they lag behind it. – Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers

[A]t present my chief work is on the manuscripts of the library—a blessed lot, as nothing could be more interesting, as bringing me into close touch with the ancients, to whom I now belong. – James L. Whitney, “Reminiscences of an Old Librarian,” November 1909 #oldsoul