Michel Faber via Marcel Theroux:

The phrase in the Old Testament that is variously rendered as "of old" or "long ago" in different versions means, in Hebrew, something closer to "from afar." It is as though the moral precepts that govern much of the world's behavior are derived from far-off and alien civilizations.

L.P. Hartley:

The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.

Nicholas Carr:

The real sentimental fallacy is the assumption that the new thing is always better ... than the old thing. That's the view of a child, naive and pliable.

Andrew O'Hagan:

People become addicted to the weights and measures of their own experience: We value our own story and what it entails. But we can't become hostages to the romantic notion that the past is always a better country.

Bob Lefsetz:

Things change. Something is lost in every march forward. To cry about the loss of the past is to marginalize yourself. People who put brakes on the future end up screwing themselves.

Carl Sagan:

Don't judge everyone else by your limited experience.

Dannie Abse:

Ask the moon.
The mystery named
is not the mystery caged.

Cooper:

We've always defined ourselves by the ability to overcome the impossible. And we count these moments. These moments when we dare to aim higher, to break barriers, to reach for the stars, to make the unknown known. We count these moments as our proudest achievements. But we lost all that. Or perhaps we've just forgotten that we are still pioneers. And we've barely begun.