Fiction
Dwight: Most people think Marv is crazy. He just had the rotten luck of being born in the wrong century. He'd be right at home on some ancient battlefield swinging an axe into somebody's face. Or in a Roman arena, taking his sword to other gladiators like him. They woulda tossed him girls like Nancy back then.
—Sin City, both the comic and movie versions''
"Then the idiot who praises, with enthusiastic tone,
"All centuries but this, and every country but his own..."
"All centuries but this, and every country but his own..."
— The Mikado, The Mikado, "As Someday It May Happen" (aka "I've Got a Little List")
A warrior at heart, she’d said. He’d thought, sometimes, that he was born at the wrong time. Had he been born in Rome’s heyday, the Crusades or any of the great wars, in eras where martial pride and strength were valued, he thought he might have been a great person, a soldier feared on the battlefield. He would have relished that life. Here, now? Even with powers, he wasn’t so notable. People with a tendency for violence and a thirst for blood just didn’t thrive.
—Hookwolf, Worm
Hobbes: Of course, your dad thinks transportation should've stopped with the bicycle.
Calvin: I'm a 21st century kid trapped in a 19th century family.
Calvin: Yesterday Dad went to buy a hardcover novel. He said he wanted to read something long, rich and thought-provoking for a change, and he wanted a cloth binding so his book could be carried around and reread later. Then he said he was going to buy the book with cash, so nobody could trace the purchase to him and exploit his interest for commercial purposes.
Hobbes: Your dad's going into the future kicking and screaming, isn't he?
"I guess I just wasn't made for these times."
— The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds, "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times"
"Me and him, we're from different ancient tribes. And now, we're both almost extinct. Sometimes... you gotta stick with the ancient ways. The old-school ways."
Ghost Dog, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
Michelle: You were a loser in the year 2000 and you're a loser in the year 4000.
Fry: Yeah, but in the year 3000, I had it all!
—Futurama, The Cryonic Woman
Eddie Riggs: Ever feel like you've been born in the wrong time, like you should have been born earlier? When the music was... Real?
Roadie: ...Like, the seventies?
Eddie: Earlier. Like, the early seventies.
Roadie: ...Like, the seventies?
Eddie: Earlier. Like, the early seventies.
Zero Moustafa: There are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity... He was one of them.
Zero Moustafa: To be frank, I think his world had vanished long before he ever entered it. But I will say, he certainly sustained the illusion with a marvelous grace.
—Zero speaks on his mentor M Gustav, The Grand Budapest Hotel
"I monitored your disheartening and distressing comments to the warden this morning. Do you really long for chaos and disharmony? Your fascination with the vulgar 20th century seems to be affecting your better judgement."
—Chief George Earle to Lenina Huxley, Demolition Man
"I was born in the wrong generati— Shut the fuck up."
—Filthy Frank, "BORN IN THE WRONG GENERATION"
Princess Ashesa: [about a portrait of Prince Daras] It's beautiful, but why the old armour?
Seb: That's the armour of the time of the Lyrsan wars. When the folk of the Western Deserts pushed east against the Seven Kingdoms. That's when Daras should have lived. That was a time for heroes.
—A Time For Heroes, by Richard Parks
They'd have been all right, I suppose, born in another age when it was everyone's hand for himself, everyone fighting to keep life in their veins. Hazards at every turn, danger all round them, and they themselves perforce dangerous to others. That world would have suited them; they'd have been at home in it. This one doesn't.
My friends used to play a game where
We would pick a decade
We wished we could live in instead of this
Everyone would look down 'cause it wasn't fun now
It was freezing in the palace
— Taylor Swift, "I Hate It Here"
Real Life
"Yes, Vince McMahon, self-made billionaire (ignoring the fact that his dad started the WWF and that he doesn’t have anywhere near a billion dollars), chairman of a publicly-traded company, and 62-year-old adult living in 21st century America, could not tell the difference between his image on a screen and his actual self. With Vince’s poor understanding of how visual representations work, it’s a wonder that he let himself be turned into an action figure, knowing how many stunners he would have to endure from Stone Cold’s action figure."
"It just wasn't Newt (Gingrich)'s year. His year was 1954."
— Jimmy Kimmel, 2012 White House Correspondents' Dinner
"I always felt like I was born in the wrong time period. I felt like I should've been born in the mid-to-late '40's."
