Hugo von Hofmannsthal Quotes

Piety and virtue lie in obedience and conformity, while nothing is more repugnant than change and innovation.

A conservative is a man who will not look at the new moon out of respect for that ancient institution, the old one.

A conservative is someone who does not think he is morally superior to his grandfather.

I think a lot of people study the rules too much and then don't know how to be creative.

I'm an optimist - that's why I try to invent different systems; otherwise, I may as well stop right now. Sometimes I get the feeling the French cinema holds on tightly to what exists already.

As beautiful as simplicity is, it can become a tradition that stands in the way of exploration.

A 'new thinker', when studied closely, is merely a man who does not know what other people have thought.

…the burden of proof rests always upon the advocates of change.

The great value of the two party system is that after the progressive party has taken a step forward in the face of agonized yells, the conservatives come in and—true to their platform—change nothing at all. Such is the way dangerous innovations turn into glorious traditions.

Those interested in perpetuating present conditions are always in tears about the marvelous past that is about to disappear.

I never dared be radical when young for fear it would make me conservative when old.

To be a Conservative is to prefer the tried to the untried, the fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the super-abundant, the convenient to the perfect present, laughter to utopian bliss.

America is a conservative country with a small “c” - they want change, but they don’t want too much change too fast.

What was good enough for my father is good enough for me" is a treasured English axiom which, if strictly carried out, would have kept us to wooden ploughs and water clocks. In these days we need to be inoculated with some of the nervous energy of the Americans.

Every conservative policy, however, is fated from the start to fail; after all, its essence is to stop something unstoppable, to resist a development that cannot be impeded.

Conservatives want to keep things as they are, while revolutionists turn things upside down.

For every person who can imagine a possibility there are tens of thousands who are stuck in the greased grooves of history.

The most conservative persons I ever met are college undergraduates.

When you talk about change, you know what makes it really tough for people is on the one hand you've got tradition, and on the other hand you've got change; in many people's mind, change equals modernization. Tradition, however. I'm a big tradition guy.

To me, very much of what is artistic is people's very creative and inventive ways out of impossible situations.

Pure innovation is more gross than error.

The visionary starts with a clean sheet of paper, and re-imagines the world.

You hear again and again that audiences want to see movies that are different, and critics say we make the same thing again and again in Hollywood, then you go and make something different, and you get kicked in the gut for it.

Let me just say this - sometimes being a trailblazer is highly overrated.

Imagination rules the world.