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

Alfred North Whitehead

 

We should so live and labor in our time that what came to us as seed may go to the next generation as blossom, and what came to us as blossom, may go to them as fruit.  This is what we mean by progress.

Henry Ward Beecher

     
The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
   

Progress means getting nearer to the place you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer.
If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the person who turns back soonest is the most progressive person.

C.S. Lewis
Mere Christianity

   
Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful.  Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path.  You know you will never get to the end of the journey.  But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.

Winston Churchill

  

Action and reaction, ebb and flow, trial and error, change--
this is the rhythm of our living.  Out of our over-confidence,
fear; out of our fear, clearer vision, fresh hope.
And out of hope, progress.

Bruce Barton

   

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Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. . . . Every step
toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle;
the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.

Martin Luther King Jr.

   

All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging
current conceptions and existing institutions.  All progress
is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed
by supplanting existing institutions.  Consequently, the first
condition of progress is the removal of censorship.

George Bernard Shaw
Mrs. Warren's Profession

    

Honest differences are often a healthy sign of progress.

Mohandas Gandhi

    
Discontent is the first necessity of progress.

Thomas A. Edison
   

Flaubert didn’t just hate the railway as such; he hated the way
it flattered people with the illusion of progress. What was the
point of scientific advance without moral advance? The railway
would merely permit more people to move about,
meet and be stupid together.

Julian Barnes
Flaubert's Parrot

   

   
It would be advisable to think of progress in the crudest, most basic
terms:  that no one should go hungry anymore, that there should be
no more torture, no more Auschwitz.  Only then will
the idea of progress be free from lies.

Theodor W. Adorno
   

Progress imposes not only new possibilities for the future but new restrictions.

Norbert Wiener

    

Does progress mean that we dissolve our ancient myths? If we forget our
legends, I fear that we shall close an important door to the imagination.

James Christensen

   

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Do you realize it’s been only a century that we’ve been able to go
from house to car to office to car to wherever, with the heater on,
and the defroster on, protected from the rain and the cold? It hasn’t
been much longer than that we’ve had lighting for streets. Think of
all that darkness, all that world out there, all that mystery that we’ve
turned into well-lighted concrete bunkers, safe and warm and dull.

Sheri S. Tepper
The Family Tree
  

The ugliest thing in America is greed, the lust for power and domination,
the lunatic ideology of perpetual Growth - with a capital G. 'Progress'
in our nation has for too long been confused with 'Growth'; I see the two
as different, almost incompatible, since progress means, or should mean,
change for the better - toward social justice, a livable and open world,
equal opportunity and affirmative action for all forms of life. And I mean
all forms, not merely the human. The grizzly, the wolf, the rattlesnake,
the condor, the coyote, the crocodile, whatever, each and every
species has as much right to be here as we do.

Edward Abbey
Postcards from Ed

   
   

Progress is discovering what you can do without.

Marty Rubin

  
People who make no mistakes lack boldness and the spirit of
adventure. They are the brakes on the wheels of progress.

Norman Vincent Peale
 

Progress is made by the improvement of people,
not the improvement of machines.

Adrian Tchaikovsky
Blood of the Mantis

   

   

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Yes, life can be mysterious and confusing--but there's much of life that's actually rather dependable and reliable.  Some principles apply to life in so many different contexts that they can truly be called universal--and learning what they are and how to approach them and use them can teach us some of the most important lessons that we've ever learned.
My doctorate is in Teaching and Learning.  I use it a lot when I teach at school, but I also do my best to apply what I've learned to the life I'm living, and to observe how others live their lives.  What makes them happy or unhappy, stressed or peaceful, selfish or generous, compassionate or arrogant?  In this book, I've done my best to pass on to you what I've learned from people in my life, writers whose works I've read, and stories that I've heard.  Perhaps these principles can be a positive part of your life, too!
Universal Principles of Living Life Fully.  Awareness of these principles can explain a lot and take much of the frustration out of the lives we lead.