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GOOD DEEDS
GOOD OLD DAYS --- GOODBYES

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GOOD DEEDS

see: "KINDNESS" for related links


Men resemble the gods in nothing so much
as in doing good to their fellow creatures.
--Marcus Tullius Cicero (106—43 BC)
Roman orator and statesman.
Attributed in "The Spectator" [23 November 1711].

Try to be of some use to others.
--Joseph Hall (1574—1656)
English bishop, moral philosopher, and satirist.
Attributed in Maturin M. Ballou _Edge-Tools of Speech_, p. 41 [1886].

He is good that does good to others. If he suffers for
the good he does, he is better still; and if he suffers
from them, to whom he did good, he is arrived to that
height of goodness that nothing but an increase of his
sufferings can add to it; if it proves his death, his
virtue is at its summit — it is heroism complete.
--Jean de La Bruyθre (1645—1696)
French essayist and moralist.
Attributed in John Timbs
_Laconics: Or, The Best Words of the Best Authors_, p. 112 [1829].

The greatest pleasure I know, is to do a good
action by stealth, and to have it found out by
accident.
--Charles Lamb (1775—1834)
English essayist.
"Table Talk by the late Elia" in _The Athenaeum_ (London) [4 January 1834].

He that does good to another does good also to himself,
not only in the consequence, but in the very act; for the
consciousness of well-doing is in itself ample reward.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC—65 A.D.)
Roman philosopher and poet.
Attributed in Maturin M. Ballou _Treasury of Thought_, p. 51 [1872].

Goodness is the only investment which never fails.
--attributed to Henry David Thoreau (1817—1862)
American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher.

I expect to pass through this world but once; any
good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness
that I can show to any fellow-creature, let me do it
now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not
pass this way again.
--Stephen Grellet (1773—1855)
French missionary.
Attributed; there are many claimants to authorship.



Click picture to ZOOM
GOOD OLD DAYS

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see: "CHANGE"
see: "CHANGING TIMES"
see: "NOSTALGIA"
see: "PAST (THE)"
see: "TIME"
see: "YESTERDAY"
see: "MEMORIES" for other related links


Nothing is more responsible for the
good old days than a bad memory.
--Franklin Pierce Adams (1881—1960)
American columnist and member of
the Algonquin Round Table.
Quoted in Robert E. Drennan (ed.), _The Algonquin Wits_ [1985].

Not a day passes without producing some uneasy
discussion of supposed social decrepitude; — falling
off of the birth rate; — decline of rural population;
— lower of army standards; multiplication of suicides;
— increase of insanity or idiocy, — of cancer, — of
tuberculosis; — signs of nervous exhaustion, — of
enfeebled vitality, — "habits" of alcoholism and drugs,
— failure of eye-sight in the young, — and so on,
without end, coupled with suggestions for correcting
these evils.
--Henry Brooks Adams (1838—1918)
American historian & man of letters.
"A Letter to American Teachers of History" [1910]

-

I see Bonaparte, a mean one if ever I've seen one
And Nero fiddlin' thru that lovely blaze;
Antoinette ... dainty queen ... with her quaint guillotine
Bwahahaha! Those were the good old days!

I see Indians draggin' an empty covered wagon
When scalping the settlers was the latest craze
And that glorious morn Jack the Ripper was born
Bwahahaha! Those were the good old days!

I'd sit ... in my rocking chair,
Peace ... fully rocking there,
Counting my blessings by the score
The rack — was in fashion
The plagues — were my passion
Each day held a new joy in store!

I see cannibals munchin' a missionary luncheon
The years may have flown, but the memory stays
Like the hopes that were dashed when the stock market crashed
Ya-ha-ha-ha! Those were the good old days!

--Richard Adler (b. 1921) & Jerry Ross (1926—1955)
American songwriting team whose successes
include "The Pajama Game" and "Damn Yankees."
"The Good Old Days," (song) from "Damn Yankees" [1955 play].

-

In every age "the good old days" were a myth. No
one ever thought they were good at the time. For
every age has consisted of crises that seemed
intolerable to the people who lived through them.
--Brooks Atkinson (1894—1984)
American journalist and critic.
_Once Around the Sun_ [1951] "February 8"

The husband was prohibited to use any violence to
his wife, aliter quam ad virum, ex causa regiminis et
castigationis uxoris suae, licited et rationabiliter
pertinet [other than what is reasonably necessary to
the discipline and correction of the wife]. The civil
law gave the husband the same, or a larger, authority
over his wife; allowing him, for some misdemeanors,
flagellis et fustibus acriter verbare uxorem [to wound
his wife severely with whips and fists]; for others,
only modicam castigationem adhibere [to apply
modest corrective punishment].
--William Blackstone (1723—1780)
English jurist.
_Commentaries on the Laws of England_ [1765]

-

22nd Dec., 1900. The old century is very nearly out, and leaves the
world in a pretty pass, and the British Empire is playing the devil in
it as never an empire before on so large a scale. We may live to see
its fall. All the nations of Europe are making the same hell upon
earth in China, massacring and pillaging and raping in the captured
cities as outrageously as in the Middle Ages. The Emperor of Germany
gives the word for slaughter and the Pope looks on and approves. In
South Africa our troops are burning farms under Kitchener's command,
and the Queen and the two houses of Parliament, and the bench of
bishops thank God publicly and vote money for the work. The
Americans are spending fifty millions a year on slaughtering the
Filipinos; the King of the Belgians has invested his whole fortune
on the Congo, where he is brutalizing the Negroes to fill his pockets.
The French and Italians for the moment are playing a less prominent
part in the slaughter, but their inactivity grieves them. The whole
white race is reveling openly in violence, as though it had never
pretended to be Christian. God's equal curse be on them all! So
ends the famous nineteenth century into which we were so proud
to have been born. . . .

31st Dec., 1900. I bid good-bye to the old century, may it rest in
peace as it has lived in war. Of the new century I prophesy nothing
except that it will see the decline of the British Empire. Other
worse empires will rise perhaps in its place, but I shall not live
to see the day. It all seems a very little matter here in Egypt, with
the pyramids watching us as they watched Joseph, when, as a
young man four thousand years ago, perhaps in this very garden,
he walked and gazed at the sunset behind them, wondering
about the future just as I did this evening. And so, poor wicked
nineteenth century, farewell!

--Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (1840—1922)
English poet and publicist.
_My Diaries, 1888-1914_ [1921]

-

I have been accustomed for some time past, to
apply leeches to the inflamed testicle, which
practice has always been followed with most
happy effects.
--William Buchan (1729—1805)
English doctor.
_Domestic Medicine, or a Treatise on the Presentation and
Cure of Diseases by Regimen and Simple Medicines_ [1797].

We seem to be going through a period of nostalgia,
and everyone seems to think yesterday was better
than today. I don't think it was, and I would advise
you not to wait ten years before admitting today
was great. If you're hung up on nostalgia, pretend
today is yesterday and just go out and have one
hell of a time.
--Art Buchwald (1925—2007)
American journalist and humorist who won the
1982 Pulitzer Prize for Outstanding Commentary.
Commencement address at Tulane University School of Law [13 May 1979].

He seems
To have seen better days, as who has not
Who has seen yesterday?
--Lord Byron [George Gordon Byron] (1788—1824)
English Romantic poet and satirist.
_Werner_, I, i [1822]

Those were good old times, it may be thought, when baron and
peasant feasted together. But the one could not read, and made
his mark with a sword-pommel, and the other was held as dear
as a favorite dog. Pure and simple times were those of our
grandfathers, it may be. Possibly not so pure as we may think,
however, and with a simplicity ingrained with some bigotry and
a good deal of conceit.
--Edwin Hubbel Chapin (1814—1880)
American clergyman and author.
_Humanity in the City_ [1854] "Man and Machinery"

The man on the news is going over the top
Now he'll say anything so his show don't flop
Wall Street's down, so what
And according to the market analysts
The world's gonna stop
They shout the story to the nation
Pass on the panic to the population
This is end of civilization
It's all over now
--Ray Davies (b. 1944)
English rock musician.
"Drift Away" [1991 song]

I have forgot much, Cynara! Gone with the wind.
--Ernest Dowson (1867—1900)
English poet.
"Non Sum Qualis Eram" (I am not what I was) [1896]

-

Can anybody remember when the times
were not hard and money not scarce?
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.
_Society and Solitude_ [1870], "Work and Days"


These times of ours are serious and full of calamity,
but all times are essentially alike. As soon as there
is life there is danger.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.
In Clarence Gohdes (ed.) _Uncollected lectures.
... American Life and Natural Religion_ [1932].

-

When you finally go back to your old hometown,
you find it wasn't the old home you missed but
your childhood.
--Sam Ewing (1920—2001)
American writer and humorist.
Quoted in "Reader's Digest" [April 1992].

The Golden Age never was the present Age.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.
_Poor Richard's Almanack_ [December 1750]

A good many of us today are content to be fat,
dumb and happy. With a polyunsaturated diet
of the coming 35-hour week, the fly-now-pay-
later vacation, and fringe benefits, many of us
live in a chromium-plated world where the
major enemy we face is crab-grass.
--John H. Glenn, Jr (b. 1921)
American astronaut and Senator [1974-1999].
Address to the Associated Press,
quoted in "New York Times" [23 April 1963].

The illusion that times that were are better than
those that are, has probably pervaded all ages.
--Horace Greeley (1811—1872)
American newspaper editor.
_The American Conflict_, ch. I [1864—1866]

I hear the human race
Is fallin' on its face
And hasn't very far to go;
But every whippoorwill
Is sellin' me a bill,
And tellin' me it just ain't so.
--Oscar Hammerstein II (1895—1960)
American songwriter.
"A Cockeyed Optimist" (song) in the play "South Pacific".

Yesterdays,
Yesterdays,
Days I knew as happy sweet sequester'd days.
Olden days,
Golden days,
Days of mad romance and love.
Then gay youth was mine,
Truth was mine,
Joyous, free and flaming life forsooth was mIne.
Sad am I,
Glad am I,
For today I'm dreaming of
Yesterdays.
--Otto Harbach (1873—1963)
American lyricist.
"Yesterdays" [1933 song], music by Jerome Kern.

By and by we shall have balloons and pass
over to Europe between sun and sun. Oh,
for the good old days of heavy post-coaches
and speed at the rate of six miles an hour!
--Philip Hone (1780—1851)
New York businessman and political leader.
His diary gave a comprehensive description
of New York life during the second quarter
of the nineteenth century.
_Diary_ "28 November 1844"

I empathize with those who yearn for a simpler world,
for some bygone golden age of domestic and
international tranquility. Perhaps for a few people
at some time in history there was such an age. But
for the mass of humanity it is an age that never was.
--Shirley Hufstedler (b. 1925)
American jurist and U.S. secretary of education [1980-1981].
Quoted in Lynn Gilbert & Gaylen Moore
_Particular Passions: Talks with Women Who Have Shaped Our Times_ [1982].

Every old man complains of the growing depravity of
the world, of the petulance and insolence of the rising
generation. He recounts the decency and regularity of
former times, and celebrates the discipline and sobriety
of the age in which his youth was passed; a happy age
which is now no more to be expected, since confusion
has broken in upon the world, and thrown down all
the boundaries of civility and reverence.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
In "The Rambler" (English journal), #50 [8 September 1750].

What charms me [in America] is that all citizens are brethren.
--Marquis de Lafayette (1757—1834)
French aristocrat who fought with the American colonists
against the British in the American Revolution.
Letter to his wife [20 June 1777].

A correspondent from Hamburg, speaking of the invasion of American
trade, says: 'Incidentally, it may be remarked that the typewriting
machine with which this article is written, as well as the thousands
— nay, hundreds of thousands — of others that are in use throughout
the world, were made in America; that it stands on an American table,
in an office furnished with American desks, bookcases, and chairs,
which cannot be made in Europe of equal quality, so practical and
convenient, for a similar price.'
--Jack London [John Griffith Chaney] (1876—1916)
American novelist and short-story writer.
_The War of Classes_ [1905]

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.
--Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800—1859)
English politician and historian.
_History of England_, vol. I, ch. 1 [1849-1861]

Men ever praise the olden time, and find fault with
the present, though often without reason ... Having
grown old, they also laud all they remember to have
seen in their youth. Their opinion is generally
erroneous ... We never know the whole truth about
the past.
--Niccolς Machiavelli (1469—1527)
Florentine statesman and political philosopher.
_The Discourses_ [1517]

Every period of life has its peculiar prejudices; whoever
saw old age, that did not applaud the past, and condemn
the present times?
--Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533—1592)
French moralist and essayist.
Attributed in John Taylor _The Pocket Lacon ..._ [2 vols., 1839].

-

He distains all things above his reach,
and preferreth all countries before his
own.
--Sir Thomas Overbury (1581?—1613)
English poet and essayist.
_An Affectate Traveller_ [1614]

& see:

Then the idiot who praises, with enthusiastic tone,
All centuries but this, and every country but his
own....
--W. S. Gilbert (1836—1911)
English writer of comic and satirical verse.
_The Mikado_ [1885]

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Let others praise ancient times;
I am glad I was born in these.
--attributed to Ovid [Publius Ovidius Naso] (43 B.C.—18 A.D.)
Roman poet.

Any comfortable American who is cynical of progress — or the
competent decency of modern civilization — hasn't pondered
how life was for our ancestors. Any day that cossacks haven't
burned your home should start out a happy one, overflowing
with optimism.
--M.N. Plano, quoted by David Brin, in keynote address
delivered to the Libertarian Party National Convention
in Indianapolis [5 July 2002].

-

The world has gone mad today
And good's bad today
And black's white today
And day's night today...
--Cole Porter (1892—1964)
American songwriter.
_Anything Goes_ [1934 song]


In olden days, a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking,
But now, God knows,
Anything goes.
--Cole Porter (1892—1964)
American songwriter.
_Anything Goes_ [1934 song]

-

-

True is it that we have seen better days.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_As You Like It_, II, vii [1599]

&

Wherever we shall meet, for Timon's sake
Let's yet be fellows; let's shake our heads, and say,
As 'twere a knell unto our master's fortunes,
We have seen better days.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_The Life of Timon of Athens_, IV, ii [1623]

-

The denunciation of the young is a necessary part
of the hygiene of older people, and greatly assists
the circulation of their blood.
--Logan Pearsall Smith (1865—1946)
American-born man of letters.
_Afterthoughts_ [1931] "Age and Death"

People who are always praising the past
And especially the times of faith as best
Ought to go and live in the Middle Ages
And be burnt at the stake as witches and sages.
--Stevie [Florence Margaret] Smith (1902—1971)
English poet and novelist.
"The Past" [1957]

The good of ancient times let others state,
I think it lucky I was born so late.
--Sydney Smith (1771—1845)
English clergyman and essayist,
in 1802 cofounded "The Edinburgh Review."
"Wit and Wisdom"

Old things are always in good repute,
present things in disfavour.
[Latin: Vetera semper in laude, presentia in fastidio.]
--Tacitus [or Publius Cornelius Tacitus or Gaius Cornelius Tacitus]
(c.55—c.117), Roman orator, lawyer, senator, and historian.
"Dialogus de oratoribus", 18

Our ancestors used to wear decent clothes, well-adapted
to the shape of their bodies; they were skilled horsemen
and swift runners, ready for all seemly undertakings. But
in these days the old customs have almost wholly given
way to new fads. Our wanton youth is sunk in effeminacy,
and courtiers, fawning, seek the favors of women with
every kind of lewdness. ... They sweep the dusty ground
with the unnecessary trains of their robes and mantles;
their long, wide sleeves cover their hands whatever they
do; impeded by these frivolities they are almost incapable
of walking quickly or doing any kind of useful work. ...
They curl their hair with hot irons and cover their heads
with a fillet or a cap.
--Orderic Vitalis (1075—c. 1142)
English chronicler and monk.
In M.J. Cohan and John Major (eds.)
_History in Quotations_, p. 219 [2004].

There has never been an age that did not
applaud the past and lament the present.
--Lillian Eichler Watson
_Light From Many Lamps_ [1951]

You can't go back home to your family—
To a young man's dream of fame and glory,
To the country cottage away from strife and conflict,
To the father you have lost,
To the old forms and systems of things,
Which seemed everlasting but are changing all the time.
--Thomas Wolfe (1900—1938)
American novelist.
_You Can't Go Home Again_ [1940]

-

You can read it in the mornin' paper,
Hear it on the radio,
How crime is a'sweepin' the nation,
This world is about to go.

We need a nationwide revival
To put the love of God in our soul:
We need a whole lot more of Jesus,
And a lot less rock 'n' roll.

--Bluegrass Song from the 50s,
sung by the New Lost City Ramblers

-

Nostalgia is like a grammar lesson: you find
the present tense and the past perfect.
--anon.

---

THE GOOD OLD DAYS
(On the difficulty of the old days, from
a "Washington Post" contest, c. 1997.)

In my day, we couldn't afford shoes, so we went barefoot. In the winter
we had to wrap our feet with barbed wire for traction.
(Bill Flavin)

In my day, we didn't have hand-held calculators. We had to do addition
on our fingers. To subtract, we had to have some fingers amputated.
(Jon Patrick Smith)

In my day, we didn't have fancy high numbers. We had "nothing," "one,"
"twain" and "multitudes."
(Elden Carnahan)

In my day, we didn't have virtual reality. If a one-eyed razorback barbarian
warrior was chasing you with an ax, you just had to hope you could outrun
him.
(Sarah M. Wolford)

In my day, we didn't have days. There was only "time for work," "time for
prayer" and "time for sleep." The sheriff would go around and tell everyone
when to change.
(Elden Carnahan)

In my day, we didn't have fancy health-food restaurants. Every day we ate lots
of easily recognizable animal parts, along with potatoes drenched in melted fat
from those animals. And we're all as strong as AAGGKK-GAAK Urrgh. Thud.
(Tom Witte)

In my day, we didn't have no rocks. We had to go down to the creek and
wash our clothes by beating them with our heads.
(Barry Blyveis)

In my day, we didn't get that disembodied, slightly ticked-off voice saying 'Doors
closing.' We got on the train, the doors closed, and if your hand was sticking out
it scraped along the tunnel all the damn way to the Silver Spring station and it
was a bloody stump at the end.
(Russell Beland)

In my day, we didn't have water. We had to smash together our own hydrogen
and oxygen atoms.
(Diana Hugue)

In the old days, nobody asked you to sign petitions. The sheriff just came to your
house and told you you was part of a posse.
(Barry Blyveis)


TOPICAL

"Forget the Nightly News; Life Is Getting Better"
By George Melloan
_The Wall Street Journal_ [17 August 2004]

[. . . ] When you go behind the news and look at a broad array of statistical measures of the state of the world, the clear message is that life is getting better, not worse, for most people.

[. . . ]

Life expectancy at birth has increased for all socioeconomic groups, with black men making the most dramatic gains, to 68.2 years in 2000 from 60 in 1970. Despite the well-documented failures of public education, the U.S. citizenry has become better educated, with more than 25% of those over age 25 now holding a college degree, compared to only 7.7% in 1960. Partly because of rising female employment, the median income of white households rose 19% between 1980 and 2000 and that of black families 39% from a lower base.

Vice-presidential candidate John Edwards' class-warfare rhetoric notwithstanding, only 12.1% of families were below the poverty line in 2002, compared with 22.2% in 1960. And there are signs of a return of the nuclear family after a decline of marriage as an institution in the 1980s and 1990s. Professor McDonald, like Ms. Hymowitz, notes the dramatic decline of crime in America, citing FBI figures that show that the murder rate has dropped to 5.5 per 100,000 from 10.2 in 1980, or 50%.

"Most people are safer, have more money to spend, and can expect to live a lot longer than in the past," he writes. "And the quality of life is improving, even for those on the lower rungs of the socioeconomic ladder."

There is similar good news to be found in global trends. In the developing world, where great masses of people live a primitive existence, the best measure of progress is the availability of food. In a new book, titled, "You Have to Admit It's Getting Better," edited by Hoover Institution fellow Terry L. Anderson, the Danish statistician Bjorn Lomborg cites a decline in starvation. "In 1970, 35% of the people in developing countries were starving. In 1996, the figure was 18% and the United Nations expects that figure will have fallen to 12% by 2010."

Professor Lomborg a few years ago set out to write a book predicting natural- resource scarcity and environmental decline. After exhaustive research, he did just the opposite, much to the dismay of "sky-is-falling" theorists, who promptly attacked him for his heresy. Writes he: "I found we are not running out of energy or natural resources. There will be more and more food per head of the world's population. In 1900, we lived for an average of 30 years; today, we live for 67 years. According to the United Nations, we reduced poverty more in the last 50 years than we did in the previous 500 years, and it has been reduced in almost every country." [. . . ]



GOODBYE(S)

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.

see: "BREAKING UP"
see: "LEAVING"
see: "PARTING"
see: "REJECTION"
see: "LOVE & MARRIAGE (OR NOT)" for other related links


Don't be dismayed at good-byes. A farewell is
necessary before you can meet again. And meeting
again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for
those who are friends.
--Richard Bach (b. 1936)
American writer.
_Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah_, ch. 18 [1977]

Goodbyes breed a sort of distaste for whomever
you say goodbye to; this hurts, you feel; this
must not happen again.
--Elizabeth Bowen (1899—1973)
Irish-born British novelist.
_The House in Paris_ [1936]

Going away, I can generally bear the separation,
but I don't like the leave-taking.
--Samuel Butler (1835—1902)
English novelist, essayist, and critic.
_The Note-Books of Samuel Butler_,
ed. Henry Festing Jones [1907]

-

Fare thee well! and if forever,
Still forever, fare thee well.
--Lord Byron [George Gordon Byron] (1788—1824)
English Romantic poet and satirist.
"Fare Thee Well", st. 1 [1816]


All farewells should be sudden.
--Lord Byron [George Gordon Byron] (1788—1824)
English Romantic poet and satirist.
_Sardanapalus_, act V [1821]

-

I have made it a rule to quit those persons
I loved, when doomed to separate, without
announcing the precise hour of departure.
--attributed to William Hickey (1749—1830)
British lawyer, colonial administrator in India, and memoirist.

You and I will meet again
When we're least expecting it
One day in some far off place
I will recognize your face
I won't say goodbye my friend
For you and I will meet again
--Tom Petty (b. 1950)
American folk/rock musician.
"You And I Will Meet Again" [1991 song]

Never part without loving words to think
of during your absence. It may be that
you will not meet again in life.
--Jean Paul Richter (1763—1825)
German novelist.
Attributed in "The Pulpit Treasury" [New York, March, 1884].

-

Some cause happiness wherever they
go; others, whenever they go.
--anon., in "The Santa Fe Magazine" [1935]

-----

swan song [SWAHN-SONG], noun:
1. A beautiful legendary song said to be sung by a dying swan.
2. A final or farewell appearance, action, or pronouncement.


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