Quotes About Progress

Philosophy hasn't made any progress? - If somebody scratches the spot where he has an itch, do we have to see some progress? Isn't genuine scratching otherwise, or genuine itching itching? And can't this reaction to an irritation continue in the same way for a long time before a cure for the itching is discovered?

Ideas too sometimes fall from the tree before they are ripe.

Resting on your laurels is as dangerous as resting when you are walking in the snow. You doze off and die in your sleep.

Science and industry, and their progress, might turn out to be the most enduring thing in the modern world. Perhaps any speculation about a coming collapse of science and industry is, for the present and for a long time to come, nothing but a dream; perhaps science and industry, having caused infinite misery in the process, will unite the world - I mean condense it into a single unit, though one in which peace is the last thing that will find a home.

What a curious attitude scientists have: "We still don't know that; but it is knowable and it is only a matter of time before we get to know it!"' As if that went without saying.

The revolutionary will be the one who can revolutionize himself.

We have got onto slippery ice where there is no friction and so in a certain sense the conditions are ideal, but also, just because of that, we are unable to walk. We want to walk so we need friction. Back to the rough ground!

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 as a means to this end, not as an end in itself. For me on the contrary clarity, perspicuity are valuable in themselves.

471. It is so difficult to find the beginning. Or, better: it is difficult to being at the beginning. And not to try to go further back.

He must so to speak throw away the ladder, after he has climbed up on it

I should have liked to produce a good book. It has not turned out that way, but the time is past in which I could improve it.

Unsere Zivilisation ist durch das Wort Fortschritt charakterisiert. Der Fortschritt ist ihre Form nicht eine ihrer Eigenschaften daß sie fortschrietet. Sie ist typisch aufbauend. Ihre Tätigkeit ist es ein immer komplizierteres Gebilde zu konstruieren. Und auch die Klarheit dient doch nur wieder diesem Zweck und ist nicht Selbstzweck. Mir dagegen ist die Klarheit, die Durchsichtigkeit, Selbstzweck.

471. It is so difficult to find the beginning. Or, better: it is difficult to begin and the beginning. And not try to go further back.

471. It is so difficult to find the beginning. Or, better: it is difficult to begin at the beginning. And not try to go further back.

A good objection helps one forward, a shallow objection, even if it is valid, is wearisome. ... The objection does not seize the matter by its root, where the life is, but so far outside that nothing can be rectified even if it is wrong. A good objection helps directly towards a solution, a shallow one must first be overcome and can, from then on, be left to one side. Just as a tree bends at a knot in the trunk in order to grow on.

So you think, do you, it is only houses that are built? I am continually building myself and building you, and you are doing the same, inversely.

Ma, perdiana!, la Natura ha faticato migliaja, migliaja e migliaja di secoli per salire questi cinque gradini, dal verme all'uomo; s'è dovuta evolvere, è vero? questa materia per raggiungere come forma e come sostanza questo quinto gradino, per diventare questa bestia che ruba, questa bestia che uccide, questa bestia bugiarda, ma che è pure capace di scrivere la Divina Commedia […].

A música é um caminho, com começo, meio e fim. E o jazz é um atalho secreto.

Você só sabe exatamente até onde pode ir quando já foi.

From every ending comes a new beginning.

philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau claimed, "The more ingenious and accurate our instruments, the more unsusceptible and inexpert become our organs: by assembling a heap of machinery about us, we find afterwards none in ourselves.

Our new ways are disruptive. They will look weird. This is good. Let us not care, but enjoy that glimpse in another's eyes that we will find sometimes—the one that says, "You're not crazy. I feel it, too.

We don't want to be the conquistadors. We want to be Charles Darwin.

I thought: Enh, they'll get used to it. Children grow up. Children leave.