Daily Life

“So, one after another, either as pilots or passengers, will the members of the club ascend; and before the sheds are closed and the aerodrome deserted, each and all will have soared in flight, and tasted that thrill and exultation which comes of a rush in a plane through the cool of the evening air. But today, if we try to grasp such a notion as this, our state of mind is very like that of our grandfathers had some prophet dared tell them the day would dawn when, seated comfortably at dinner in a car on wheels, men would be drawn by an engine at 60 miles an hour: and yet the man or woman who has not, say twenty years hence, made a journey through the air, will be in exactly the same position as one who, at the present time, has never been by train.”

“Dismisssing the Italian or Continental look of the 1950’s (Italy is third in Cardin sales, France first, England second), [Pierre] Cardin had three words for men’s fashions in his own lifetime: 'There were none. When I presented my line, there were only the eccentricities of youth.' And the future of men’s fashions? Cardin: 'I’m creating them now.' In the year 2,000? 'I’ll be dead.'”

“There will be a great deal of synthetics, molded to fit the body, perforated for breathing. Ties will be for formal occasions. Buttons will disappear, zippers can now be invisible and they follow the body more closely. Men will be entirely in color.”

“A 'Great Recession' is here for ocean shipping.”

“[...] we have been expressly evolved by nature — with all our impulses and deepest instincts — for the purpose of solving the economic problem. If the economic problem is solved, mankind will be deprived of its traditional purpose. Will this be a benefit? If one believes at all in the real values of life, the prospect at least opens up the possibility of benefit. Yet I think with dread of the readjustment of the habits and instincts of the ordinary man, bred into him for countless generations, which he may be asked to discard within a few decades.”