Progress quotes
2.2K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside progress — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"Social reform is not to be secured by noise and shouting; by complaints and denunciation; by the formation of parties, or the making of revolutions; but by the awakening of thought and the progress of ideas. Until there be correct thought, there cannot be right action; and when there is correct thought, right action will follow."
"Had it not been for you, I should have remained what I was when we first met, a prejudiced, narrow-minded being, with contracted sympathies and false knowledge, wasting my life on obsolete trifles, and utterly insensible to the privilege of living in this wondrous age of change and progress."
"A reasonable man adjusts himself to the world. An unreasonable man expects the world to adjust itself to him. Therefore all progress is made by unreasonable people."
"The child’s progress does not depend only on his age, but also on being free to look around him."
"How can there be any progress of the country without the spread of education, the dawning of knowledge?"
"Grain by grain, a loaf. Stone upon stone, a palace."
"Progress is not an illusion, it happens, but it is slow and invariably disappointing."
"There is no progress toward ultimate freedom without transformation, and this is the key issue in all lives."
"Without death there would be very little progress."
"If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions."
"He who makes no mistakes makes no progress."
"No man is able to make progress when he is wavering between opposite things."
"One cannot deny that in former times man's life had been one of toil and hardship. It is correct to say, therefore, that modern civilization and the progress of science have greatly improved man's life and have brought comfort and ease in their trail."
"The keystone of successful business is cooperation. Friction retards progress."
"The progress of any writer is marked by those moments when he manages to outwit his own inner police system."
"Change is automatic, Progress is Not!"
"As nature requires whirlwinds and cyclones to release its excessive force in a violent revolt against its own existence, so the spirit requires a demonic human being from time to time whose excessive strength rebels against the community of thought and the monotony of moralityonly by looking at those beyond its limits does humanity come to know its own utmost limits."
"The main fuel to speed the world's progress is our stock of knowledge, and the brake is our lack of imagination."
"If you don't invest in the woman, empower her, give her the things she needs to lift her family up, you're just not going to make the progress that you want to make. But if you put her at the centre, you can change a lot for that family, and it has ripple effects through the economy."
"When there's no experimenting there's no progress. Stop experimenting and you go backward. If anything goes wrong, experiment until you get to the very bottom of the trouble."
