Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Progress

"Discontent is the first necessity of progress." - Thomas Edison, fully Thomas Alva Edison

"It has been women who have breathed gentleness and care into the harsh progress of mankind." - Elizabeth II, born Elizabeth Alexandra May NULL

"The real religious problem of our society is to secure the general acceptance of a religion adapted to the requirements of continuous progress towards an ideal, consisting of all humanity." - Charles A. Ellwood

"Change is not always progress… A fever of newness has been everywhere confused with the spirit of progress." - Henry Ford

"It is always the minorities that hold the key of progress; it is always through those who are unafraid to be different that advance comes to the human race." - Raymond B. Fosdick, fully Raymond Blaine Fosdick

"Spiritual progress must be slow as long as we are worried, frightened, resentful, sick, or discouraged – and those things can be overcome only through prayer. It is a duty and a joy to help others, wisely, and to leave the world a better place than we found it – and we can do that only through prayer. The more we pray for ourselves the more power will our prayers have for any other purpose whatsoever; so we see that praying for ourselves is the reverse of selfishness – it is truly glorifying God." - Emmet Fox

"If we believe that mankind has steadily progressed towards ahimsa (i.e., love), it follows that it has to progress towards it still further. Nothing in this world is static, everything is kinetic. If there is not progression, then there is inevitable retrogression. No one can remain without the eternal cycle, unless it be God Himself." - Mahatma Gandhi, fully Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, aka Bapu

"Individuality… lies at the root of all progress." - Mahatma Gandhi, fully Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, aka Bapu

"So long as all the increased wealth which modern progress brings goes but to build up great fortunes, to increase luxury and make sharper the contrast between the House of Have and the House of Want, progress is not real and cannot be permanent. The reaction must come. The tower leans from its foundation, and every new story but hastens the final catastrophe." - Henry George

"Progress has not followed a straight ascending line, but a spiral with rhythms of progress and regression, of evolution and dissolution." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"The spiritual history of man, as seen by God, is not one of progress but of recover, or redemption." - Aelred Graham

"The evolution of consciousness requires a wide range of opportunities and a playing field that affords almost unlimited options for development. If human life represents a learning process, then society is the ideal school that affords an extremely wide range of options for numerous levels of consciousness to develop, progress, define, identify, and grasp endless subtleties as well as learn more gross lessons. The ego is extremely tenacious and therefore often seems to require extreme conditions before it lets go of a positionality. It often takes the collective experience of millions of people over many centuries to learn even what appears upon examination to be a simple and obvious truth, namely, that peace is better than war or love is better than hate." - David R. Hawkins, fully David Ramon Hawkins

"The future arrives of its own accord, progress does not." - Poul Henningsen, aka PH

"Biology… has thus revealed man’s place in nature. Hs is the highest form of life produced by the evolutionary process on this planet, the latest dominant type, and the only organism capable of further advance or progress. Whether he knows it or not, whether he wishes it or not, he is now the main agency for the further evolution of the earth and its inhabitants. In other words, his destiny is to realize new possibilities for the whole terrestrial sector of the cosmic process, to be the instrument of further evolutionary progress on this planet." - Julian Huxley, fully Sir Julian Sorell Huxley

"Not only is natural selection not the instrument of a god’s sublime purpose, it is not even the best mechanism for achieving evolutionary progress." - Julian Huxley, fully Sir Julian Sorell Huxley

"The belief in progress, not as an ideal but as an indisputable fact, not as a task for humanity but as a law of Nature, has been the working faith of the West for about a hundred and fifty years." - William Ralph Inge

"The law of duty demands moral perfection or holiness. But this is impossible in our present life, therefore it can only be attained by an indefinite progress, and this progress is only possible under the hypothesis of an existence and a personality that re indefinitely prolonged." - P. A. R. Janet and G. Sèailles

"Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment… I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had better be borne with; because, when once known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But I know also that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors." - Thomas Jefferson

"The dogma that “mental diseases are diseases of the brain” is a hangover from the materialism of the 1870s. It has become a prejudice which hinders all progress, with nothing to justify it." - Carl Jung, fully Carl Gustav Jung

"Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be coworkers with God, and without this hard work, time itself become an ally of the forces of social stagnation." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Persuasion that property and freedom are inseparably connected, and that economic leveling is not economic progress. Separate property from private possession, and liberty is erased." - Russell Kirk

"Moral thought seems to behave like all other kinds of thought. Progress through the moral levels and stages is characterized by increasing differentiation and increasing integration, and hence is the same kind of progress that scientific theory presents." - Lawrence Kohlberg

"The wake of Moses, of Buddha, of Confucius, of Lao Tse, of Christ, probably exert a greater influence over humanity today than when these men were pondering over its fate and happiness. No man ever disappears completely if he strives to do good and expects no reward outside of the joy of having contributed to the progress of mankind." - Pierre Lecomte du Noüy

"He who is firmly seated in authority soon learns to think security, and not progress, the highest lesson of statecraft." - James Russell Lowell

"Let each one remember that he will make progress in all spiritual things only insofar as he rids himself of self-love, self-will and self-interest." - Ignatius Loyola, aka Saint Ignatius of Loyola

"In frontless war where there are no clear lines on the map to show victory and defeat, the only true measure of progress must be political and nonquantifiable: the impact on the enemy’s will to continue the fight." - Edward Luttwak, fully Edward Nicolae Luttwak

"Practically in all the progress that man has made is due to the fact that he is mortal… If there were no death, life would become a thing stagnant, monotonous, and unspeakably burdensome." - Robert William Mackenna

"Communities, like individuals, love and cherish their individuality… When unity is evolved out of diversity, then there is a real and abiding national progress." - Manhar-ul-Haque NULL

"We consider progress as legitimate only when it reinforces, rather than undermines, freedom and democracy." - Eduardo Frei Montalva

"Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress." - Alfred A. Montapert, fully Alfred Armand Montapert

"There is no such thing as a single scheme of salvation. Salvation is not the monopoly of any church. All paths lead to the hilltop of one and the same God-consciousness. The different religions are suited to the different aspirants in their various stages of progress." - Nikhilananda, fully Swami Nikhilananda, born Dinesh Chandra Das Gupta NULL

"All men cannot be poets or philanthropists; but all men can join in that gigantic and god-like work the progress of creation. Whoever improves their own nature improves the universe of which they are a part." - Winwood Reade, fully William Winwood Reade

"The meaning and purpose of the world remain to a large extent inexplicable. But one thing is clear: the purpose of all events is spiritual. The purpose of existence is that we human beings, all nations and the whole of humanity, should constantly progress toward perfection. If we do this, our finite spirit will be in harmony with the infinite." - Albert Schweitzer

"To indoctrinate the child with the prevailing world-view of the society and class in which he has been born, to enforce conformity in later life by the thunders of the priest and by the sword of the magistrate has been “the wisdom of our ancestor” at every stage in their progress from savagery to civilization." - Preserved Smith

"We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered." - Tom Stoppard, fully Sir Tom Stoppard, born Tomáš Straüssler

"I believe the single most significant decision I can make on a day-to-day basis is my choice of attitude. Attitude keeps me going or cripples my progress...It alone fuels my fire or assaults my hope. When my attitude is right, there’s no barrier too high, no valley too deep, no dream too extreme, no challenge too great for me." - Charles Swindoll

"Progress towards the welfare of mankind is made not by the persecutors but by the persecuted… Only goodness, meeting evil and not infected by it, conquers evil." - Leo Tolstoy, aka Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy or Tolstoi

"Progress requires that the subject be enlarged in itself, alteration, that it be transformed into something else." - Vincent of Lérins, fully Saint Vincent of Lérins NULL

"If a man has lived in a tradition which tells him that nothing can be done about his human condition, to believe that progress is possible may be the greatest revolution of all." - Susan Cullen-Ward, born Susan Barbara Zogu, formerly Williams, née Susan Cullen-Ward

"A historian without any theological bias whatever… cannot portray the progress of humanity honestly without giving a foremost place to a penniless teacher from Nazareth." -

"The greatest obstacle in consilience by synthesis, the approach often loosely called holism, is the exponential increase in complexity encountered during the upward progress through levels of organization." -

"A thousand things advance; nine hundred and ninety-nine retreat; that is progress." -

"The established religious institutions are bastions of ignorance in a world where knowledge has become the most valuable commodity. Well-entrenched, these institutions hold back social progress, dividing people who otherwise have no reason to oppose one another, fanning the flames of militarism and nationalism. Most of all, however, they are promoting ignorance and falsehoods at the expense of truth. How can society advance under such erroneous belief systems?" - David B Anthony

"Imagine your life is a painting in progress and you are the artist. Each new moment, a blank space on your canvas. The ones painted are your past. Each new moment, another brush stroke, created from your hand, moved by spirit, mind, heart and soul. Strive to make your painting a "masterpiece," and alas - when it is finished, Life will proclaim, "Ahh yes ... well done!"" - Nick Catalina

"All progress is experimental." - John Jay Chapman

"Envisioned future is what we aspire to become, to achieve, to create-something that will require significant change and progress to attain." - James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras

"Vision provides guidance about what core to preserve and what future to stimulate progress toward." - James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras

"Progress has never been a bargain; you've got to pay for it. You can have a telephone, but you'll have to give up privacy and the charm of distance. You may conquer the air, but the birds will lose their wonder, and the clouds will smell of gasoline." -

"Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure. I believe that restlessness is discontent, and discontent is merely the first necessity of progress." - Thomas Edison, fully Thomas Alva Edison