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

[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

Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves. – D.H. Lawrence, Classical American Literature, 1922