Decline Quotes - Page 13

• An ongoing challenge for Australia is ensuring equity of access to technology. Since the decline in federal funding, many schools are reverting to bring Your Own Device (BYOD) programs and this puts the onus back on families to fund devices.

  Susan Mann

  School, Technology, Australia

  "The Global Search for Education: The Tech Report - From Australia". Interview with C. M. Rubin, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 15, 2015.

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• Writing with a simplified alphabet checked the power of custom of an oral tradition but implied a decline in the power of expression and the creation of grooves which determined the channels of thought of readers and later writers.

  Harold Innis

  Writing, Expression, Oral Tradition

  Harold Innis (1999). “The Bias of Communication”, p.50, University of Toronto Press

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• But herein lies the rub: Christianity has been on a long-term trend of decline in every Western cultural context that we can identify.

  Alan Hirsch

  Lying, Long, Trends

  Michael Frost, Alan Hirsch (2011). “The Faith of Leap (Shapevine): Embracing a Theology of Risk, Adventure & Courage”, p.21, Baker Books

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• Put simply, the church finds itself in a post-Christendom era, and it had better do some serious reflection or face increasing decline and eventual irrelevance.

  Alan Hirsch

  Reflection, Irrelevance, Church

  "The Faith of Leap: Embracing a Theology of Risk, Adventure & Courage (Shapevine)". Book by Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost, 2011.

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• Among the many factors that make a return to halcyon days of the first decades of the postwar era virtually impossible is the decline of clearly defined political leadership.

  Robert Gilpin

  Political, Eras, Firsts

  Robert Gilpin (2016). “The Political Economy of International Relations”, p.406, Princeton University Press

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• As we reach the crest of life and look at the path before us, we apprehend that the path no longer ascends but slopes downward toward decline and diminishment. From that point on, concerns about death are never far from mind.

  Irvin D. Yalom

  Mind, Age, Looks

  Irvin D. Yalom (2010). “Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death”, p.17, John Wiley & Sons

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• It is enough to have been created, to have embodied for a moment the infinite and tumultuously creative spirit. It is infinitely more than enough to have been used, to have been the rough sketch for some perfected creation. Looking into the future, I saw without sorrow, rather with quiet interest, my own decline and fall.

  Olaf Stapledon

  Fall, Creative, Sorrow

  Olaf Stapledon (1931). “Last and First Men, & Star Maker: Two Science-fiction Novels”, Courier Corporation

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• The human species does not necessarily move in stages from progress to progress ... history and civilization do not advance in tandem. From the stagnation of Medieval Europe to the decline and chaos in recent times on the mainland of Asia and to the catastrophes of two world wars in the twentieth century, the methods of killing people became increasingly sophisticated. Scientific and technological progress certainly does not imply that humankind as a result becomes more civilized.

  Gao Xingjian

  War, Moving, Europe

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• There can be no doubt that the young of today have to be protected against certain poisonous effects inherent in present-day civilization. Five social diseases surround them, even in early childhood. There is the decline in fitness due to modern methods of locomotion; the decline in initiative due to the widespread disease of spectatoritis; the decline in care and skill due to the weakened tradition of craftsmanship; the decline in self-discipline due to the ever-present availability of tranquilizers and stimulants, and the decline in compassion, which William Temple called "spiritual death.

  Kurt Hahn

  Spiritual, Compassion, Self

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• On the other hand, heroism is basic to the character of the Nordic peoples. This heroism of the ancient mythic period and this is what is decisive has never been lost, despite times of decline, so long as the Nordic blood was still alive. Heroism, in fact, took many forms, from the warrior nobility of Siegfried or Hercules to the intellectual nobility of Copernicus and Leonardo , the religious nobility of Eckehart and Lagarde, or the political nobility of Frederick the Great and Bismarck , and its substance has remained the same.

  Alfred Rosenberg

  Religious, Character, Warrior

  "The Myth of the Twentieth Century". Book by Alfred Rosenberg, 1930.

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• Silene, who declines The garish noontide's blazing light; But when the evening crescent shines, Gives all her sweetness to the night.

  Charlotte Turner Smith

  Flower, Night, Light

  Charlotte Turner Smith (2014). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Charlotte Smith (Illustrated)”, p.300, Delphi Classics

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• Once, BBC television had echoed BBC radio in being a haven for standard English pronunciation. Then regional accents came in: a democratic plus. Then slipshod usage came in: an egalitarian minus. By now slovenly grammar is even more rife on the BBC channels than on ITV. In this regard a decline can be clearly charted... If the BBC, once the guardian of the English language, has now become its most implacable enemy, let us at least be grateful when the massacre is carried out with style.

  Clive James

  Grateful, Style, Enemy

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• We scornfully decline, because of one whom we love and who will some day be of so little account, to see another who is of no account to-day, with whom we shall be in love to-morrow, with whom we might, perhaps, had we consented to see her now, have fallen in love a little earlier and who would thus have put a term to our present sufferings, bringing others, it is true, in their place.

  Marcel Proust

  Suffering, Littles, Might

  Marcel Proust (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Marcel Proust (Illustrated)”, p.949, Delphi Classics

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• A major cause of the Roman Empire's decline, after six centuries of world dominance was its replacement of stone aqueducts by lead pipes for the transport and supply of drinking water. Roman engineers, the best in the world, turned their fellow citizens into cripples. Today our own "best and brightest," with the best of intentions, achieve the same end through childhood vaccination programmes yielding the modern scourges of hyperactivity, learning disabilities, autism, appetite disorders, and impulsive violence.

  Harris L Coulter

  Drinking, Aqueducts, Autism

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• If you look at any institution in history - look at the Roman Empire - anything in history, and what it looks like when it's peaking. Look at Apple, and how can you say it's not peaking? ... The thing is, it may take another year or two before it starts to decline, but it has to - everything does.

  Trip Hawkins

  Years, Two, Apples

  "Trip Hawkins On Apple". "Edge Online", August 2, 2011.

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• Through exploitation of its influence over global financial affairs, the United States has been able to cover the costs of its hegemonic position, preserve a false domestic prosperity, and mask the consequences of its relative political and economic decline.

  Robert Gilpin

  Political, United States, Cost

  Robert Gilpin (2016). “The Political Economy of International Relations”, p.308, Princeton University Press

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• In 1993, 40 percent of Minnesota restaurateurs reported declines attributed to casinos

  John Warren Kindt

  Gambling, Minnesota, Casinos

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• I'm not running to manage the decline of this great country. I'm running to make real changes in D.C.

  Bobby Jindal

  Running, Country, Real

  "Meet the Press" with Chuck Todd, www.nbcnews.com. June 28, 2015.

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• The Doxology ... that testimonial to the Platonic Trinity, which divided the Roman Empire into at least eighteen quarreling sects, none of whom knew what they were fighting about, and which schisms contributed to the decline and fall of this greatest of states. Rome had thrived for one thousand years with pagan gods at the helm and expired after only one hundred and fifty years under the Christian banner.

  Ruth Hurmence Green

  Christian, Fall, Fighting

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• Perpetuating success or sliding into decline is the result of many intersecting forces that reinforce one another directly and indirectly. They are both cause and effect of winning or losing. Winning generates positive forces, losing generates negative forces.

  Rosabeth Moss Kanter

  Winning, Negative, Causes

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• Christmas was on a Sunday in 2005, which had a greater than expected negative impact on retail and classified advertising during the last weekend of our fiscal year. In addition, our California papers had held up well in automotive advertising, but the industry-wide decline in this category reached them in the fourth quarter as well.

  Gary Pruitt

  Sunday, Weekend, California

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• When there is no feeling of accomplishment, children fail to develop properly and old people rapidly decline.

  Joe Whitney

  Children, People, Accomplishment

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• Our age believed herself pregnant with auspicious progeny, but when her hour came, it turned out to be dropsy.

  Franz Grillparzer

  Age, Hours, Disillusionment

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• I think it is a wise course for laborers to unite to defend their interests.... I think the employer who declines to deal with organized labor and to recognize it as a proper element in the settlement of wage controversies is behind the times.... Of course, when organized labor permits itself to sympathize with violent methods or undue duress, it is not entitled to our sympathy.

  William Howard Taft

  Wise, Thinking, Elements

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• The young knowledge worker whose job is too small to challenge and test his abilities either leaves or declines rapidly into premature middle age, soured, cynical, unproductive.

  Peter Drucker

  Jobs, Cynical, Challenges

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