Was it the case that colours dimmed as the eye grew elderly? Or was it rather that in youth your excitement about the world transferred itself onto everything you saw and made it brighter?
Julian Barnes[Flaubert] didnโt just hate the railway as such; he hated the way it flattered people with the illusion of progress. What was the point of scientific advance without moral advance? The railway would merely permit more people to move about, meet and be stupid together.
Julian BarnesWhen you are young, you think that the old lament the deterioration of life because this makes it easier for them to die without regret. When you are old, you become impatient with the way in which the young applaud the most insignificant improvements โฆ while remaining heedless of the worldโs barbarism. I donโt say things have got worse; I merely say the young wouldnโt notice if they had. The old times were good because then we were young, and ignorant of how ignorant the young can be.
Julian Barnes