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.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that people tend to romanticize the past, believing it was better than the present, even though they did not appreciate it at the time.
Brooks Atkinson's quote reflects on the human tendency to look back at previous eras with nostalgia, often overlooking the difficulties and challenges faced during those times. He argues that each generation experiences crises that feel unbearable in the moment, yet in retrospect, those same periods are often viewed as 'the good old days.' This highlights the paradox of how time can reshape our perceptions of the past and make us value what we once took for granted.
In practice
During a speech about changes in society, one might quote this to illustrate how perceptions of past eras can be misleading.
This nation was built by men who took risks-pioneers who were not afraid of the wilderness, businessmen who were not afraid of failure, scientists who were not afraid of the truth, thinkers who were not afraid of progress, dreamers who were not afraid of action.
People everywhere enjoy believing things that they know are not true. It spares them the ordeal of thinking for themselves and taking responsibility for what they know.
I'm not religious, but I'm very spiritual.
I am often mad, but I would hate to be nothing but mad: and I think I would lose what little value I may have as a writer if I were to refuse, as a matter of principle, to accept the warming rays of the sun, and to report them, whenever, and if ever, they
One thin's sure and nothing's surer The rich get richer and the poor get - children. In the meantime, In between time...
How can finite man commune with an infinite God? To both Christians and Jews, God himself has made that possible by irrupting into the temporal world. To Christians, God became man in the Incarnation; to Jews, the God that spoke out of the fire on Mount Sinai gave his Torah.
There has never been a truly selfless rebel, just hypocrites—conscious hypocrites or unconscious hypocrites, it’s all the same.
What has happened here [aftermath of 9/11] is not war in its traditional sense. This is clearly a crime against humanity. War crimes are crimes which happen in war time. There is a confusion there. This is a crime against humanity because it is deliberate and intentional killing of large numbers of civilians for political or other purposes. That is not tolerable under the international systems. And it should be prosecuted pursuant to the existing laws.
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