Laudator Temporis Acti

Barack Obama on change:

When millions of voices join together and insist on change, change happens and that's what we have to do in this election.

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People are hungry for change. They're hungry for a new direction.

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I've got a track record of actually bringing about change that I believe nobody else has.

Michel de Montaigne on presumption (tr. E.J. Trechmann):

According to my way of thinking, in public matters no course of proceeding is so bad, provided it have age and continuity to recommend it, but that it is better than change and uncertainty.

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Many of our laws and customs are barbarous and monstrous; yet, by reason of the difficulty of improving our condition, and the danger of the whole State toppling to pieces, if I could put a spoke into our wheel and stop it at this point, I would do it with a light heart.

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It is very easy to condemn a government for its imperfection, for all mortal things are full of it. It is very easy to generate in a people a contempt for their ancient observances; no man ever attempted it without succeeding. But many have come to grief in their attempt to establish a better state of things in place of what they have destroyed.