Future Imperative

Famous quotes containing the words future and/or imperative:

    If ever the search for a tranquil belief should end,
    The future might stop emerging out of the past,
    Out of what is full of us; yet the search
    And the future emerging out of us seem to be one.
    Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)

    Because humans are not alone in exhibiting such behavior—bees stockpile royal jelly, birds feather their nests, mice shred paper—it’s possible that a pregnant woman who scrubs her house from floor to ceiling [just before her baby is born] is responding to a biological imperative . . . . Of course there are those who believe that . . . the burst of energy that propels a pregnant woman to clean her house is a perfectly natural response to their mother’s impending visit.
    Mary Arrigo (20th century)