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
I’m a slow walker, but I never walk back.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
He that is good will infallibly become better, and he that is bad will as certainly become worse; for vice, virtue, and time are three things that never stand still.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
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
Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
The best road to progress is freedom’s road.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) American Head of State, Lawyer
The grandest of all laws is the law of progressive development. Under it, in the wide sweep of things, men grow wiser as they grow older, and societies better.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist
The walking of Man is falling forwards.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
When a blind man carries a lame man both go forward.
—Swedish Proverb
Not to go back is somewhat to advance. And men must walk, at least, before they dance.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
Nothing recedes like progress.
—e. e. cummings (1894–1962) American Poet, Writer, Painter
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
All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every living organism to live beyond its income.
—Samuel Butler
Revolutions never go backwards.
—Wendell Phillips (1811–84) American Abolitionist, Lawyer, Orator
I will go anywhere, provided it is forward.
—David Livingstone (1813–73) Scottish Missionary, Explorer
This world owes all its forward impulses to people ill at ease.
—Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–64) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
The power to question is the basis of all human progress.
—Indira Gandhi (1917–84) Indian Head of State
All of us, who are worth anything, spend our manhood in unlearning the follies, or expiating the mistakes of our youth. – Shelley, Percy Bysshe
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
Let us labor for that larger comprehension of truth, and that more thorough repudiation of error, which shall make the history of mankind a series of ascending developments.
—Horace Mann (1796–1859) American Educator, Politician, Educationalist
The world is full of hopeful analogies and handsome dubious eggs called possibilities.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.
—Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-born American Philosopher, Poet, Painter, Theologian, Sculptor
The releasing of attachment to object and certain beliefs was already indelibly written as a very necessary step in my human progress toward being.
—Marlo Morgan (1937–98) American Novelist, Author
The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
—Eden Phillpotts (1862–1960) English Author, Poet, Dramatist
Become addicted to constant and never-ending self-improvement.
—Anthony J. D’Angelo
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
No man is able to make progress when he is wavering between opposite things.
—Epictetus (55–135) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Some falls are means the happier to rise.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
The reason for the slow progress of the world seems to lie in a single fact. Every man is born under the yoke, and grows up beneath the oppressions of his age. He can only get a vision of the unselfish forces in the world by appealing to them, and every appeal is a call to arms. If he fights he must fight, not one man, but a conspiracy. He is always at war with a civilization. On his side is proverbial philosophy, a galaxy of invisible saints and sages, and the half-developed consciousness and professions of everybody. Against him is the world, and every selfish passion in his own heart.
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933) American Biographer, Poet, Essayist, Writer
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
It’s not about success, it’s about progress.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
Sixty years ago I knew everything; now I know nothing; education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.
—William C. Durant (1861–1947) American Industrialist
All progress is experimental.
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933) American Biographer, Poet, Essayist, Writer
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
New roads; new ruts.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.
—Henry Ford (1863–1947) American Businessperson, Engineer
The prudent, penniless beginner in the world labors for wages for a while, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him. This is the just, and generous and prosperous system which opens the way to all, gives hope to all, and consequently energy, and progress, and improvement of conditions to all.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
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
That past which is so presumptuously brought forward as a precedent for the present, was itself founded on some past that went before it.
—Anne Louise Germaine de Stael (1766–1817) French Woman of Letters
Whoever will cultivate their own mind will find full employment. Every virtue does not only require great care in the planting, but as much daily solicitude in cherishing as exotic fruits and flowers; the vices and passions (which I am afraid are the natural product of the soil) demand perpetual weeding. Add to this the search after knowledge… and the longest life is too short.
—Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762) English Aristocrat, Poet, Novelist, Writer
Every step of progress which the world has made has been from scaffold to scaffold, and from stake to state.
—Wendell Phillips (1811–84) American Abolitionist, Lawyer, Orator
Opportunity makes a thief.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
Things will get better—despite our efforts to improve them.
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
My own experience and development deepen everyday my conviction that our moral progress may be measured by the degree in which we sympathize with individual suffering and individual joy.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
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
The improvement of our way of life is more important than the spreading of it. If we make it satisfactory enough, it will spread automatically. If we do not, no strength of arms can permanently oppose it.
—Charles Lindbergh (1902–74) American Aviator, Inventor, Conservationist
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
The mind naturally makes progress, and the will naturally clings to objects, so that for want of right objects, it will attach itself to wrong ones.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian