Quotes about progress

"I'm a slow walker, but I never walk back."

Lincoln, Abraham on progress   

"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."

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth on progress   

"It is curious to note the old sea-margins of human thought! Each subsiding century reveals some new mystery; we build where monsters used to hide themselves."

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth on progress   

"Time advances: facts accumulate; doubts arise. Faint glimpses of truth begin to appear, and shine more and more unto the perfect day. The highest intellects, like the tops of mountains, are the first to catch and to reflect the dawn. They are bright, while the level below is still in darkness. But soon the light, which at first illuminated only the loftiest eminences, descends on the plain, and penetrates to the deepest valley. First come hints, then fragments of systems, then defective systems, then complete and harmonious systems. The sound opinion, held for a time by one bold speculator, becomes the opinion of a small minority, of a strong minority, of a majority of mankind. Thus, the great progress goes on."

Macaulay, Thomas B. on progress   

"Never again clutter your days or nights with so many menial and unimportant things that you have no time to accept a real challenge when it comes along. This applies to play as well as work. A day merely survived is no cause for celebration. You are not here to fritter away your precious hours when you have the ability to accomplish so much by making a slight change in your routine. No more busy work. No more hiding from success. Leave time, leave space, to grow. Now. Now! Not tomorrow!"

Mandino, Og on progress
3 fans of this quote   

"Progress is a tide. If we stand still we will surely be drowned. To stay on the crest, we have to keep moving."

Mayfield, Harold on progress
5 fans of this quote   

"Whatever there be of progress in life comes not through adaptation but through daring, through obeying the blind urge."

Miller, Henry on progress   

"Today, the notion of progress in a single line without goal or limit seems perhaps the most parochial notion of a very parochial century."

Mumford, Lewis on progress   

"Progress might have been alright once, but it has gone on too long."

Nash, Ogden on progress   

"Progress is not an illusion, it happens, but it is slow and invariably disappointing."

Orwell, George on progress
4 fans of this quote   

"Progress is mediation comes swiftly for those who try their hardest."

Pantanjali on progress   

"It takes five years to design a new car in this country. Heck, we won World War II in four years."

Perot, H. Ross on progress   

"To finish a work? To finish a picture? What nonsense! To finish it means to be through with it, to kill it, to rid it of its soul, to give it its final blow the coup de grace for the painter as well as for the picture."

Picasso, Pablo on progress
3 fans of this quote   

"Not to go back is somewhat to advance, and men must walk, at least, before they dance."

Pope, Alexander on progress   

"Every convenience brings its own inconveniences along with it."

Proverb on progress   

"Be not afraid of going slowly, be afraid only of standing still."

Proverb, Chinese on progress
10 fans of this quote   

"When a blind man carries a lame man both go forward."

Proverb, Swedish on progress   

"The simplest school boy is now familiar with truths for which Archimedes would have sacrificed his life."

Renan, Ernest on progress   

"You can't say that civilization don't advance... for in every war they kill you a new way."

Rogers, Will on progress   

"The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress."

Roth, Philip on progress   

"A process which led from the amoebae to man appeared to the philosophers to be obviously a progress -- though whether the amoebae would agree with this opinion is not known."

Russell, Bertrand on progress   

"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."

Santayana, George on progress   

"All progress means war with society."

Shaw, George Bernard on progress   

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"All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions."

Shaw, George Bernard on progress   

"The true law of the race is progress and development. Whenever civilization pauses in the march of conquest, it is overthrown by the barbarian."

Simms, William Gilmore on progress   

"The progress of the world is the history of men who would not permit defeat to speak the final word."

Sizoo, Joseph R. on progress   

"All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions."

Stevenson, Adlai E. on progress   

"When any real progress is made, we unlearn and learn anew what we thought we knew before."

Thoreau, Henry David on progress
3 fans of this quote   

"Why aren't we making any progress towards a crime-free society? We're not making progress because we are too damn busy making excuses."

Unknown, Source on progress   

"Most people are in favor of progress, it's the changes they don't like."

Unknown, Source on progress   

"Today's progress was yesterday's plan."

Unknown, Source on progress
3 fans of this quote   

"Once an organization loses its spirit of pioneering and rests on its early work, its progress stops."

Watson, Thomas J. on progress   

"The art of progress is to preserve order amid change, and to preserve change amid order."

Whitehead, Alfred North on progress
6 fans of this quote   

"Only mediocrities progress. An artist revolves in a cycle of masterpieces, the first of which is no less perfect than the last."

Wilde, Oscar on progress   

"A radical is one of whom people say He goes too far. A conservative, on the other hand, is one who doesn't go far enough. Then there is the reactionary, one who doesn't go at all. All these terms are more or less objectionable, wherefore we have"

Wilson, Woodrow T. on progress   

"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"

Wittgenstein, Ludwig on progress   

"Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something."

Heinlein, Robert on progress   

"Usually, terrible things that are done with the excuse that progress requires them are not really progress at all, but just terrible things."

Baker, Russell (Wayne) on progress   

"We built tall buildings, but we have not become any taller. "

Stojanovic, Dejan on progress   

"“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”"

Douglass, Frederick on progress