Destructive Quote by John Crowe Ransom

Most universities are no longer temples of knowledge, but of power, and true moderns worship there.

— Dean Koontz

From what the moderns want, we must learn what poetry should become; from what the ancients did, what poetry must be.

— Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

The moderns cannot reach their beauties, but can avoid their imperfections.

— Joseph Addison

Speak of the moderns without contempt and of the ancients without idolatry; judge them all by their merits, but not by their age

— Lord Chesterfield

“The moderns, carrying little baggage of the kind that Shelly called "merely cultural," not even living in the traditional air, but breathing into their…

— Wallace Stegner

Not that the moderns are born with more wit than their predecessors, but, finding the world better furnished at their coming into it, they…

— Jeremy Collier

In the ancients, one sees the accomplished letter of entire poetry: in the moderns, one has the presentiment of the spirit in becoming.

— Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

The volumes of antiquity, like medals, may very well serve to amuse the curious, but the works of the moderns, like the current coin…

— Oliver Goldsmith

“I am not averse to generalizing the notion of "modern" to designate a certain way of life, rather than making it purely a synonym…

— Paul Valéry

The ancients tell us what is best; but we must learn of the moderns what is fittest.

— Benjamin Franklin

“That's why moderns have to have hobbies. They can't find satisfaction in their money-earning work, so many seek creative satisfaction in model planes and…

— Douglas Wilson

To many moderns, [love] is something that is only a part of us rather than something of which we are a part.

— Peter Kreeft