Decay Quotes

He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery. (Harold Wilson)
When childhood dies, its corpses are called adults and they enter society, one of the politer names of Hell. That is why we dread children, even if we love them. They show us the state of our decay. View quote
Brian Aldiss
Those who compare the age in which their lot has fallen with a golden age which exists only in imagination, may talk of degeneracy and decay; but no man who is correctly informed as to the past, will be disposed to take a morose or desponding view of the present. View quote
Thomas Babington Macaulay
Writers may be disreputable, incorrigible, early to decay or late to bloom but they dare to go it alone. View quote
John Updike
The interval between the decay of the old and the formation and establishment of the new constitutes a period of transition which must always necessarily be one of uncertainty, confusion, error, and wild and fierce fanaticism. View quote
John C. Calhoun
All things are subject to decay and when fate summons, monarchs must obey. View quote
John Dryden
Autumn wins you best by this its mute appeal to sympathy for its decay. View quote
Robert Browning
When one tears away the veils and shows them naked, people's souls give off such a pungent smell of decay. View quote
Octave Mirbeau
Age is not all decay; it is the ripening, the swelling, of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts the husk. View quote
George MacDonald
Writing a novel is a terrible experience, during which the hair often falls out and the teeth decay. View quote
Flannery O’Connor
In a decaying society, art, if it is truthful, must also reflect decay. And unless it wants to break faith with its social function, art must show the world as changeable. And help to change it. (Ernst Fischer)
Then with no fiery throbbing pain, No cold gradations of decay, Death broke at once the vital chain, And freed his soul the nearest way. View quote
Samuel Johnson
An age that melts with unperceived decay, And glides in modest innocence away. View quote
Samuel Johnson
I have always looked upon decay as being just as wonderful and rich an expression of life as growth. View quote
Henry Miller
There is no greater sign of a general decay of virtue in a nation, than a want of zeal in its inhabitants for the good of their country. View quote
Joseph Addison
Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay; Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade; A breath can make them, as a breath has made; But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, When once destroyed, can never be supplied. View quote
Oliver Goldsmith
Can a society in which thought and technique are scientific persist for a long period, as, for example, ancient Egypt persisted, or does it necessarily contain within itself forces which must bring either decay or explosion. View quote
Bertrand Russell
Expansion means complexity and complexity decay. View quote
C. Northcote Parkinson
I am against nature. I don't dig nature at all. I think nature is very unnatural. I think the truly natural things are dreams, which nature can't touch with decay. View quote
Bob Dylan
Land of Heart's Desire Where beauty has no ebb, decay no flood, But joy is wisdom, time an endless song. View quote
William Butler Yeats
Fir: it contains a great deal of air and fire with very little moisture and the earthy, so that, as its natural properties are of the lighter class, it is not heavy. Hence, its consistence being naturally stiff, it does not easily bend under the load, and keeps its straightness when used in the framework. But it contains so much heat that it generates and encourages decay, which spoils it; and it also kindles fire quickly because of the air in its body, which is so open that it takes in fire and so gives out a great flame. (Vitruvius)
Of course the French are making very credible movies and it is still one of the greatest nations in terms of world cinema but the real problem is the decay in film criticism. View quote
Wim Wenders
As the blessings of health and fortune have a beginning, so they must also find an end. Everything rises but to fall, and increases but to decay. View quote
Sallust
There comes not seldom a crisis in the life of men, of nations, and of worlds, when the old forms seem ready to decay, and the old rules of action have lost their binding force. The evils of existing systems obscure the blessings that attend them, and, where reform is needed, the cry is raised for subversion. View quote
Benjamin N. Cardozo
Without publicity there can be no public support, and without public support every nation must decay. View quote
Benjamin Disraeli