Social advance depends as much upon the process through which it is secured as upon the result itself.
—Jane Addams (1860–1935) American Social Reformer, Feminist
A fresh mind keeps the body fresh. Take in the ideas of the day, drain off those of yesterday. As to the morrow, time enough to consider it when it becomes today.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every living organism to live beyond its income.
—Samuel Butler
Whatever there be of progress in life comes not through adaptation but through daring, through obeying the blind urge.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
No man is able to make progress when he is wavering between opposite things.
—Epictetus (55–135) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Progress comes from the intelligent use of experience.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
When any real progress is made, we unlearn and learn anew what we thought we knew before.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
People tend to think that life really does progress for everyone eventually, that people progress, but actually only some people progress. The rest of the people don’t.
—Alice Walker (b.1944) American Novelist, Activist
By the disposition of a stupendous wisdom, moulding together the great mysterious incorporation of the human race, the whole, at one time, is never old, or middle-aged, or young, but moves on through the varied tenor of perpetual decay, fall, renovation, and progression.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
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 It is as when dividing panels are withdrawn from between chambers of very hot and very cold airs: there is a rush of these forces together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
If a man is not rising upward to be an angel, depend upon it, he is sinking downward to be a devil. He cannot stop at the beast. The most savage of men are not beasts; they are worse, a great deal worse.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
Your progress depends upon your degree of sustained intensity in a given direction.
—Roger McDonald (b.1941) Australian Novelist, Poet, Screenwriter, Writer
If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven’t done anything today.
—Lou Holtz (1893–1980) American Stage Performer
The best road to progress is freedom’s road.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
All our progress is an unfolding, like the vegetable bud. You have first an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge, as the plant has root, bud, and fruit. Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Without bigots, eccentrics, cranks and heretics the world would not progress.
—Gelett Burgess (1866–1951) American Humorist, Art Critic
There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self. So you have to begin there, not outside, not on other people. That comes afterward, when you’ve worked on your own corner.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
If the human race wants to go to hell in a basket, technology can help it get there by jet.
—Charles L. Allen (1913–2005) American Methodist Minister
Not to go back is somewhat to advance. And men must walk, at least, before they dance.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
Who are they that would have all mankind look backward instead of forward, and regulate their conduct by things that have been done? those who are the most ignorant as to all things that are doing. Bacon said, time is the greatest of innovators; he might also have said the greatest of improvers.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Intercourse is the soul of progress.
—Sir Thomas Buxton, 1st Baronet (1786–1845) English Politician, Social Reformer
He was always smoothing and polishing himself, and in the end he became blunt before he was sharp.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
The characteristic of scientific progress is our knowing that we did not know.
—Gaston Bachelard (1884–1962) French Philosopher, Psychoanalyst, Poet
Our civilization is characterized by the word “progress.” Progress is its form rather than making progress being one of its features. Typically it constructs. It is occupied with building an ever more complicated structure. And even clarity is sought only
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-born British Philosopher
Regrets are idle; yet history is one long regret. Everything might have turned out so differently!
—Charles Dudley Warner (1829–1900) American Essayist, Novelist
Intellectually, as well as politically, the direction of all true progress is toward greater freedom, and along an endless succession of ideas.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist
He who asks of life nothing but the improvement of his own nature is less liable than anyone else to miss and waste life.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (1821–81) Swiss Moral Philosopher, Poet, Critic
I was taught that the way of progress is neither swift nor easy.
—Marie Curie (1867–1934) Polish-born French Physicist, Chemist
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