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Progress is born of doubt and inquiry. The Church never doubts, never inquires. To doubt is heresy, to inquire is to admit that you do not know – the Church does neither. Robert G Ingersoll
We can judge our progress by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers, our willingness to embrace what is true rather than what feels good. Carl Sagan
The principle which regulates the existing social relations between the two sexes – the legal subordination of one sex to the other – is wrong in itself, and now one of the chief hindrances to human improvement. John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women
The history of science, like the history of all human ideas, is a history of irresponsible dreams, of obstinacy, and of error. But science is one of the very few human activities – perhaps the only one – in which errors are systematically criticized and fairly often, in time, corrected. This is why we can say that, in science, we often learn from our mistakes, and why we can speak clearly and sensibly about making progress there. Karl Popper, Conjectures and Refutations
The scientist has a lot of experience with ignorance and doubt and uncertainty, and this experience is of very great importance, I think. When a scientist doesn’t know the answer to a problem, he is ignorant. When he has a hunch as to what the result is, he is uncertain. And when he is pretty damn sure of what the result is going to be, he is still in some doubt. We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress, we must recognize our ignorance and leave room for doubt. Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty – some most unsure, some nearly sure, but none absolutely certain. Richard Feynman, The Value of Science 1955
We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress. Richard P Feynman
Nothing is so fatal to the progress of the human mind as to suppose that our views of science are ultimate; that there are no mysteries in nature, that our triumphs are complete, and that there are no new worlds to conquer. Humphry Davy, cited David Knight, ‘Humphry Davy: Science and Power’ 1998
We cannot point to a single definitive solution of any one of the problems that confront us – political, economic, social or moral, that is, having to do with the conduct of life. We are still beginners, and for that reason may hope to improve. To deride the hope of progress is the ultimate fatuity, the last word in poverty of spirit and meanness of mind. There is no need to be dismayed by the fact that we cannot yet envisage a definitive solution of our problems, a resting-place beyond which we need not try to go. Peter Medawar, presidential address BAAS 3rd September 1969
With every passing hour our solar system comes 43,000 miles closer to globular cluster 13 in the constellation Hercules, and still there are some misfits who continue to insist that there is no such thing as progress. Kurt Vonnegut
Without risk there is no progress. Dr Kevin Fong, Space Shuttle: The Final Frontier, BBC 2011
Man becomes what he is meant to be. At least he ought to get there. But most get stuck by unfavourable external conditions, by all sorts of hindrances or pathological destructions. Carl Jung
Changes and progress very rarely are gifts from above. They come out of struggles from below. Noam Chomsky
Labour Unions are the leading force for democratization and progress. Noam Chomsky
The greatest progress is in the sciences that study the simplest systems. So take, say, physics – greatest progress there. But one of the reasons is that the physicists have an advantage that no other branch of sciences has. If something gets too complicated, they hand it to someone else. Noam Chomsky
The progress of the world can certainly never come at all save by the modified action of the individual beings who compose the world. George Eliot
The forces holding back progress were fiercely religious. Waldemar Januszczak, Baroque! From St Peter’s to St Paul’s III, BBC 2013
A black businessman like you? You represent progress. American Gangster 2007 ***** starring Denzel Washington & Russell Crowe & Chiwetel Ejiofor & Cuba Gooding jr & Josh Brolin & Ted Levine & Armand Assante & Yul Vazqez & Ruby Dee et al, director Ridley Scott, Crowe to Washington
And our liberty, too, is endangered if we pause for the passing moment, if we rest on our achievements, if we resist the pace of progress. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past are certain to miss the future. John F Kennedy, June 1963
Slow but sure. Late 17th century proverb
One step at a time. Mid-19th century proverb
All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance. Edward Gibbon, 1737-94, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ch71
I should doubt whether so many people have ever been as well fed, as well read, as bright minded, as curious and as critical as the young are today. Kenneth Clark, Civilisation 13/13: Heroic Materialism, BBC 1969
The European talks of progress because by the aid of a few scientific discoveries he has established a society which has mistaken comfort for civilisation. Benjamin Disraeli
The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one. Mark Twain
Hypocrisy is a detriment to progress. There’s always a hidden agenda. Larry Flynt
A process which led from the amoeba to man appeared to the philosophers to be obviously a progress – though whether the amoeba would agree with this opinion is not known. Bertrand Russell
Change is one thing, progress is another. ‘Change’ is scientific, ‘progress is ethical’; ‘change’ is indubitable, whereas progress is a matter of controversy. Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays
Progress is measured by richness and intensity of experience – by a wider and deeper apprehension of the significance and scope of human existence. Herbert Read
He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery. Harold Wilson
Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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
Hey, progress not perfection. The Equalizer 2014 starring Denzel Washington & Chloe Grace Moretz Marton Csokas & Melissa Leo & Bill Pullman & John Skourtis & Haley Bennett & David Harbur & Vladimir Kulich & David Meunier & Alex Veadov & James Wilcox et al, director Antoine Fuqua
It’s the same each time with progress. First they ignore you, then they say you’re mad, then dangerous, then there’s a pause and then you can’t find anyone who disagrees with you. Tony Benn
Progress will not come easy, will not come quick. Barack Obama
Nothing in progression can rest on its original plan. We may as well think of rocking a grown man in the cradle of an infant. Edmund Burke
All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income. Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh
Is it progress if a cannibal uses knife and fork? Stanislaw Lec, Unkempt Thoughts, 1962