Cyclical Change Quotes

The revolution eats its own. Capitalism re-creates itself.

All civilizations must go through four stages: The first stage is the emergence of a new civilization and society. The second stage covers a period of growth and prosperity. Stagnation and decadence characterize the third stage where wealth can no longer increase. This brings us to a fourth stage of decline leading to the ultimate collapse. Finally, a new civilization emerges from the ashes of the previous one and another cycle is born. The conditions of the world, and of the nations do not persist in one unchanging state but are transformed with the passage of time and move from one condition to another

I feel that the social revolution of the sixties is like a revolving door that came our way, and then left. It's back again.

The pendulum will swing back.

To tell you the truth, I see any revolution as basically a penmanship exercise. It all loops around and winds up where you started.

History privileges no right side, and the arc [of history] can bend so that it loops back upon us.

Politics is a pendulum whose swings between anarchy and tyranny are fueled by perennially rejuvenated illusions.

Repetition is the only form of permanence that Nature can achieve.

What is down will go up. At the same time, you have to be prepared for what is up to go down.

The mad mob does not ask how it could be better, only that it be different. And when it then becomes worse, it must change again. Thus they get bees for flies, and at last hornets for bees.

The altar cloth of one aeon is the doormat of the next.

Blending hard-bitten realism with long-view optimism, Obama said that every 20 or 30 years brings a new cycle of pessimism in America.

States have their conversions and periods as well as naturall bodies.

Every generation needs regeneration

I still prefer the bebop of the '40s. The very stuff I started out with is still the best to me. I have come full circle.

As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race, I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market-Place. Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

People in power make the path to power. It means that we will always get the same system, and it's one that is not necessarily in the interest of people's lives.

The problem is that people are pulling farther apart, rather than make an effort to get back together. There have been remarkable moments that united this country. It makes everyone feel relieved. Then because of economic stress, political shifts, we get wrenched apart again. I think it's cyclical. I am an optimist by nature. There are moments, the period after 9/11, the way we responded. The election of Barack Obama. There are moments where the country felt good about being American. I'm waiting for that to happen again.

Fate is a wheel that turns without our hand

Dawn comes slowly but dusk is rapid.

The world's great age begins anew, The golden years return, The earth doth like a snake renew Her winter weeds outworn; Heaven smiles, and faiths and empires gleam, Like wrecks of a dissolving dream.

I love studying Ancient History and seeing how empires rise and fall, sowing the seeds of their own destruction.

Tribe follows tribe, and nation follows nation, like the waves of the sea. It is the order of nature, and regret is useless. Your time of decay may be distant, but it will surely come, for even the White Man ... cannot be exempt from the common destiny.

In fact, everywhere in the world there has been a flux between big and small societies. Big political units are constantly being formed, later to fragment. The individual pieces try to pull apart, and then they join together again. One sees that in Europe: There have been unifications and then dissolutions and reunifications. So in the long run, it's 10,000 steps toward amalgamation offsetting 9,999 steps toward falling apart again. In businesses and industries, I would guess that's also true.

The only hope is that our civilization will collapse at a certain point, as always happens in history. Then, out of barbarity, a renaissance.