Quotes / End of an Age

The train used to run in both directions, but these days it's a one-way ride.

— Kamaji, Spirited Away

Our days are over,
times have changed around these parts.
There ain't no more cowboys,
only men with violent hearts.

— Miracle of Sound, "Redemption Blues"

"The whole world is in revolt. Soon there will be only five Kings left – the King of England, the King of Spades, the King of Clubs, the King of Hearts, and the King of Diamonds."

— Farouk I, King of Egypt

"The contrast between what preceded the funeral car and that which followed it was striking indeed. Before it went old Japan: after it came new Japan. New Japan quickly separated to the left and right and seated itself in the pavilions on either side. But old Japan had passed by and disappeared and we could only hear now and again the distant wail of the reed pipes. After that the long rites began."

— The New York Times, "The Funeral Ceremonies of Meiji Tenno"

When I was young,
the smallest trick of light
could catch my eye.
Then life was new
and every new day
I thought that I could fly.
I believed in what I hoped for
and I hoped in things unseen.
I had wings and dreams could soar,
I just don't feel like flying anymore.

— Five Iron Frenzy, "Every New Day"

"It is said that what is called 'the spirit of an age' is something to which one cannot return. That this spirit gradually dissipates is due to the world's coming to an end. In the same way, a single year does not have just spring or summer. A single day, too, is the same. For this reason, although one would like to change today's world back to the spirit of one hundred years or more ago, it cannot be done. Thus it is important to make the best out of every generation."

— Yamamoto Tsunemoto, The Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

"I admitted that it was indeed vain to hope for an eternity for Athens and for Rome which is accorded neither to objects nor men, and which the wisest among us deny even to the gods. These subtle and complex forms of life, these civilizations comfortably installed in their refinements of ease and of art, the very freedom of mind to seek and to judge, all this depended upon countless rare chances, upon conditions almost impossible to bring about, and none of which could be expected to endure. We should manage to destroy Simon; Arrian would be able to protect Armenia from Alani invasions. But other hordes would come, and other false prophets. Our feeble efforts to ameliorate man's lot would be but vaguely continued by our successors; the seeds of error and of ruin contained even in what is good would, on the contrary, increase to monstrous proportions in the course of centuries. A world wearied of us would seek other masters...I could see the return of barbaric codes, of implacable gods, of unquestioned despotism of savage chieftains, a world broken up into enemy states and eternally prey to insecurity ...Our epoch, the faults and limitations of which I knew better than anyone else, would perhaps be considered one day, by contrast, as one of the golden ages of man."

— Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian (translated by Grace Frick)

"Change is coming to the world. Many fear change, and will fight it with every fiber of their being. But sometimes, change is what they need most. Sometimes change is what sets them free."

— Morrigan, Dragon Age: Origins: Witch Hunt

"We stand upon the precipice of change. The world fears the inevitable plummet into the abyss. Watch for that moment - and when it comes, do not hesitate to leap. It is only when you fall that you learn whether you can fly."

— Flemeth, Dragon Age II

"We can't always fight nature, John. We can't fight change. We can't fight gravity. We can't fight nothing. My whole life, John, all I ever did was fight. But I can't give up neither. I can't fight my own nature. That's the paradox, John. You see? When I'm gone they'll just find another monster. They have to. Because they have to justify their wages. Our time is passed, John."

—Dutch van der Linde, Red Dead Redemption

"I don't know if it's the end of something or the beginning of something. It feels like a metamorphosis, from one chapter to another, and I don't know whether to be sad or excited. I don't know if it’s the end of this great period of time or is it the beginning of a career."

— Gareth Edwards on Godzilla after Godzilla (2014)

From the lakes of melted glass
Rise skeletons of cities past
Lanterns light the blackened heavens
Like fireflies suspended
And we’re lost in the valley of the Seven Crowns
Spiders catch the fallen ash
Which lays like leaves upon the masts...

— "Seven Crowns" by Lovely Dark'

Out on the road today
I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac;
A little voice inside my head said,
"Don't look back, you can never look back."
I thought I knew what love was;
What did I know?
Those days are gone forever,
I should just let 'em go, but...

— Don Henley, "The Boys of Summer"

"So ended an era, and so began another."

— Allen Drury, on the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt

"The country is finished. It's all over. But you know, with a new republic like this, if you missed being here at the beginning, the next best thing is to be here at the end."

— Gore Vidal

"Okay, I'm looking through rose-tinted glasses and I know it was far from perfect, but somehow during the 1990s everything changes. That breezy sense of confidence and openness and progress forward... it faded away. I'm buggered if I know who or what to blame exactly. Certainly, our political leaders - if not actually the cause of it - were at least the symptoms. Take the dreary John Howard and his protege, my brother. I ask you - can you imagine either of them (or Tom Laurel, for that matter) getting anywhere near the PM's office back in the wild old days? Whitlam would have roared his disgust. Fraser would have refused to dirty his hands with them. Hawke would have shrieked with laughter at the very idea. And Keating? Ah well, Keating was there to see Howard beat him fair and square, and so learnt the bitter truth: we preferred the bean counters to the visionaries. Lawyers and accountants, that's who we handed the country to."

—Underground, by Andrew McGahan

"And thus marks the last page of the history of the Heisei Riders."

— Woz, Kamen Rider Zi-O

So tl;dr "were there good times you were wistful for?" For the most part, no. I was relieved to be gone from them, and I wish I'd done it sooner. But change is hard and scary, even for a wild libertine such as myself.
Now I promise to never, ever talk about Channel Awesome again.

— Lindsay Ellis final words on her history with Channel Awesome

It's the nature of time that the old ways must give in
It's the nature of time that the new ways comes in sin
When the new meets the old it always ends the ancient ways
And as history told the old ways go out in a blaze
Encircled by a vulture
The end of ancient culture
The dawn of destiny draws near

— Sabaton, "Shiroyama"

The end of the Third Reich draws near
Its time has come to an end
The end of an era is here
It's time to attack!

— Sabaton, "Panzerkampf"

"We can feel it in the wind. Soon our equestrian elite will be nothing more than a dream remembered, as the chivalrous tradition dies out before the onslaught of modernity. The world is changing, but for now, for one last time: Let the Knights of [Name of country] ride!"

— Europa Universalis IV, text of the event "The Last Jousting Tournament"

And then
Up to Olympus from the wide-pathed Earth,
Lovely apparitions wrapped in white veils,
Off to join the Immortals, abandoning humans
There go Shame and Nemesis. And horrible suffering
Will be left for mortal men, and no defense against evil.

— Hesiod, Works and Days

Mistress: Alright, kids. Your father and I have thought about this for a long time. We know that our generation has come to an end. A fact I find unfortunate. It's time we pass our work, our lifes, to the new generation.
Warden: I can take it from here. What we are trying to say is, we're giving you the jails. Ethan, you'll be getting Superjail-
Mistress: And you'll get Ultraprison, Maddie.

— Extended Stay Chapter 15

Rear Admiral "Hammer" Cain: The end is inevitable, Maverick. Your kind is headed for extinction.
Maverick: Maybe so, sir. But not today.

— Top Gun: Maverick

Baroness Elsa von Schraeder: You're far away. Where are you?

Captain Georg von Trapp: In a world that's disappearing, I'm afraid.

— The Sound of Music

"There was peace and the world had an even tenor to its way. Nothing was revealed in the morning the trend of which was not known the night before. It seems to me that the disaster about to occur was the event that not only made the world rub its eyes and awake but woke it with a start keeping it moving at a rapidly accelerating pace ever since with less and less peace, satisfaction and happiness. To my mind the world of today awoke April 15th, 1912".

— Jack Thayer, survivor of the RMS Titanic.

Legends pass and time ticks on, entropy prevails
Into the endless darkness, every ship must sail
Ouroboros uncoiled, the circle ends tonight -
One thousand years of history, banished from all sight!

The sun will set forever! Never to rise again!
And in the coming darkness, we'll fight to the bitter end!
Our legend passed from memory - it's time to turn the page!
The sun has set upon the golden age.

— Sunset on the Golden Age, Alestorm

The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.

— Antonio Gramsci

"Once, I was a witness to a unique wonderment. A span of time when champions of legend routinely risked their lives to battle the forces of evil and tyranny. An era in which the measure of a hero was gauged not by his power... but by his nobility. By the strength in his heart. It was an age unlike any other. And this is the story of its end..."

— Uatu, the Watcher, Onslaught Marvel

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