“Contemporary' was in those days [1953] synonymous with 'modern' as it had not been before and is not now [1977].”

“I am not averse to generalizing the notion of "modern" to designate a certain way of life, rather than making it purely a synonym of 'contemporary'. There are moments and places in history to which 'we moderns' could return without too greatly disturbing the harmony of those times, without seeming objects infinitely curious and conspicuous... creatures shocking, dissonant, and unassailable.”

“Long, dark, and lovely she had been, in those days before her mind broke and the parts scattered and she let them go.”

“...The men of those days...were absolutely not the same people that we are now; it was not the same race as now, in our age, really, it seems we are a different species...In those days they were men of one idea, but now we are more nervous, more developed, more sensitive; men capable of two or three ideas at once...Modern men are broader-minded - and I swear that this prevents their being so all-of-a-piece as they were in those days.”

“If Paul Revere had been a modern day citizen, he wouldn't have ridden down Main Street. He would have tweeted.”

“I'm an idealist without illusions.[Ca. 1953, attributed to John F. Kennedy by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. in 'A Thousand Days'”