You don’t make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.
—Shirley Chisholm (1924–2005) American Politician
We have not wings we cannot soar; but, we have feet to scale and climb, by slow degrees, by more and more, the cloudy summits of our time.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
—Eden Phillpotts (1862–1960) English Author, Poet, Dramatist
Where we cannot invent, we may at least improve; we may give somewhat of novelty to that which was old, condensation to that which was diffuse, perspicuity to that which was obscure, and currency to that which was recondite.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Undoubtedly a man is to labor to better his condition, but first to better himself.
—William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) American Unitarian Theologian, Poet
Most of our modern portrait painters are doomed to absolute oblivion. They never paint what they see. They paint what the public sees, and the public never sees anything.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
As used in economics the term “capital” would be defined as follows: Capital refers to resources withheld from immediate consumption in the expectation of greater future returns. However controversial a topic this has been, capital has been the main—if not the only—way of achieving progress, even in violently anticapitalist, socialist countries. A dam, a hospital, a university, a cathedral, or a national park cannot be built without using up resources that would be easier to consume immediately, and none of them would be built at all unless they were believed to provide some greater returns in the future.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
The biggest room in the world, is the room for improvement.
—Unknown
Progress isn’t made by early risers. It’s made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.
—Robert A. Heinlein (1907–88) American Science Fiction Writer
Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
All progress is experimental.
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933) American Biographer, Poet, Essayist, Writer
Without bigots, eccentrics, cranks and heretics the world would not progress.
—Gelett Burgess (1866–1951) American Humorist, Art Critic
To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Nothing in progression can rest on its original plan. We might as well think of rocking a grown man in the cradle of an infant.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions.
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–65) American Diplomat, Politician, Orator
Progress—the onward stride of God.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
At every crossroad on the way that leads to the future, each progressive spirit is opposed by a thousand men appointed to guard the past.
—Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949) Belgian Poet, Playwright, Essayist
The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself in every way he can, never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
All progress means war with society.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Human development is a form of chronological unfairness, since late-comers are able to profit by the labors of their predecessors without paying the same price.
—Alexander Herzen (1812–70) Russian Revolutionary, Writer
When any real progress is made, we unlearn and learn anew what we thought we knew before.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.
—Chinese Proverb
True conservatism is substantial progress; it holds fast what is true and good in order to advance in both.—recast away the old is not of necessity to obtain the new.—To reject anything that is valuable, lessens the power of gaining more. That a thing is new does not of course commend; that it is old does not discredit. The test question is, “Is it true or good?”
—Tryon Edwards American Theologian
Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. In the first stage of life the mind is frivolous and easily distracted; it misses progress by failing in consecutiveness and persistence. This is the condition of children and barbarians.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
There are now no more horizons. And with the dissolution of horizons we have experienced and are experiencing collisions, terrific collisions, not only of peoples but also of their mythologies. It is as when dividing panels are withdrawn from between chambers of very hot and very cold airs: there is a rush of these forces together
—Joseph Campbell (1904–87) American Mythologist, Writer, Lecturer
Much of the wisdom of one age is the folly of the next.
—Charles Simmons (1924–2017) American Editor, Novelist
If I had permitted my failures, or what seemed to me at the time a lack of success, to discourage me I cannot see any way in which I would ever have made progress.
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American Head of State, Lawyer
Yet sometimes glimpses on my sight,
Through present wrong the eternal right;
And, step by step, since time began,
I see the steady gain of man…
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–92) American Quaker Poet, Abolitionist