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1 " Le passé et le présent sont deux statues incomplètes: l'une a été retirée toute mutilée du débris des âges, l'autre n'a pas encore reçu sa perfection de l'avenir. "
― François-René de Chateaubriand , René
2 " In order to justify their claim on our attention, the organs of mass culture and information are compelled to offer something " new" on a daily, indeed hourly, basis. Although good novelists don't deliberately seek out trends, many of them feel a responsibility to pay attention to contemporary issues, and they now confront a culture in which almost all of the issues are burned out almost all the time. The writer who wants to tell a story about society that's true not just in 1996 but in 1997 as well can find herself at a loss for solid cultural referents. What's topically relevant while she's planning the novel will almost certainly be passé by the time it's written, rewritten, published, distributed, and read. "
3 " The notion of literature as only one of several avenues to a single typeof propositional knowledge is, of course, hardly the winning ticket in lit-crit today. More typical are sentiments that see such a notion as not even admissible, if at all desirable. The world of these academic refuseniks is, however, a bleak and sterile place. Disarmed by their own epistemic fiat, scholars cannot assert anything since they deny the idea of objective rationality. If they arrive at an insight whose truth they wish to defend – for example that truth and rationality are passé – they can’t do so because truth and rationality are constructed to be constructed. "
4 " Isn't that funny, that deity is passe but the attributes and implications of deity linger-- "
― Gregory Maguire
5 " Is it true, then, Mayor?" Grandmother Miss Lacy Thornton warbled from the end of the counter. " Is Jesse Tatum officially dead?" " Dead is such an unflattering term," he said, sliding onto his stool. " I prefer to think of Jesse as... passe." The Azalea Women gasped." What's passe mean?" Tinks Williams asked the Colonel, his voice low." Dead," the Colonel said, refilling Tink's iced tea. "
6 " Everything passes everything wears out everything breaks.(Tout passe tout lasse tout casse.) "
7 " I believe that history has shape, order, and meaning; that exceptional men, as much as economic forces, produce change; and that passe abstractions like beauty, nobility, and greatness have a shifting but continuing validity. "
