Quotes About Progress

To advance, however far, is profitless unless the ground gained can be consolidated, or the momentum sustained.

Available energy is the main object at stake in the struggle for existence and the evolution of the world.

The course of religious development … consists … in … that man abstracts more and more from God, and attributes more and more to himself. … That which to a later age or a cultured people is given by nature or reason, is to an earlier age, or to a yet uncultured people, given by God.

I do not regard the limits of the past and present as the limits of humanity of the future

Architecture is the will of an epoch translated into space.

The barriers are not erected which can say to [aspiring] talents and industry, "Thus far and no farther.

Only art and science can raise men to the level of gods.

Modern society, based as it is on the division of labor, can be preserved only under conditions of lasting peace.

The essential characteristic of Western civilization that distinguishes it from the arrested and petrified civilizations of the East was and is its concern for freedom from the state.

economics is a living thing—and to live implies both imperfection and change.

The elimination of profit, whatever methods may be resorted to for its execution, must transform society into a senseless jumble.

Capitalism has succeeded in raising the material well-being of the masses in an unprecedented way. In the capitalist countries population figures are now several times higher than they were at the eve of the "industrial revolution," and every citizen of these nations enjoys a standard of living much higher than that of the well-to-do of earlier ages.

Those fighting for free enterprise and free competition do not defend the interests of those rich today. They want a free hand left to unknown men who will be the entrepreneurs of tomorrow and whose ingenuity will make the life of coming generations more agreeable. They want the way left open to further economic improvements. They are the spokesmen of progress.

This civilization was able to spring into existence because the peoples were dominated by ideas which were the application of the teachings of economics to the problems of economic policy. It will and must perish if the nations continue to pursue the course which they entered upon under the spell of doctrines rejecting economic thinking.

Most actions do not aim at anybody's defeat or loss. They aim at an improvement in conditions.

Man's most characteristic mark is that he never ceases in endeavors to advance his well-being by purposive activity.

I set out to be a reformer, but only became the historian of decline.

If Capitalism improves the economic position all round, it is of secondary importance that it does not raise all to the same level. A social order is not bad simply because it helps one more than the other.

Coloro che combattono per la libera concorrenza non difendono gli interessi di quelli che sono ricchi. Vogliono che sia lasciata mano libera a uomini sconosciuti, che saranno gli imprenditori di domani e la cui ingegnosità renderà più piacevole la vita delle generazioni future.

Nunca e em lugar algum do universo existe estabilidade e imobilidade. Mudança e transformação são características essenciais da vida. Cada estado de coisas é passageiro; cada época é uma época de transição. Na vida humana nunca há calma e repouso. A vida é um processo e não a permanência no status quo.

If history could teach us anything, it would be that private property is inextricably linked with civilization

Under capitalism the common man enjoys amenities which in ages gone by were unknown and therefore inaccessible even to the richest people. But, of course, these motorcars, television sets and refrigerators do not make a man happy. In the instant in which he acquires them, he may feel happier than he did before. But as soon as some of his wishes are satisfied, new wishes spring up. Such is human nature.

If people never did silly things, then nothing intelligent would ever get done.

With my full philosophical rucksack I can only climb slowly up the mountain of mathematics.