Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

If the world does improve on the whole, yet youth must always begin anew, and go through the stages of culture from the beginning.

If we are to have faith that mankind will survive and thrive on the face of the earth, we must believe that each succeeding generation will be wiser than its progenitors.

The supreme purpose of history is a better world.

The century is advanced, but every individual begins afresh.

People are the common denominator of progress; no improvement is possible with unimproved people.

With highly civilised nations continued progress depends in a subordinate degree on natural selection; for such nations do not supplant and exterminate one another as do savage tribes.

Civilization begins with distillation

It is inherent in human consciousness to improve. So there is nothing unique about a people searching for and creating ways to make their life better - all civilizations throughout history have done this. What is unique about us in America is the accelerated rate at which we continually search for novelty and progress.

The progress of the world through all its evils making it fit for the ideals, slowly but surely.

In the modern world the intelligence of public opinion is the one indispensable condition for social progress.

I've learned that asking ourselves not just what we want to be, but who we want to be is important at every stage of our lives, not just when we're starting out in the world. That's because in a way, we're starting out fresh in the world every single day.

History is the record of human progress, a record of the struggle of the advancement of the human mind, of the human spirit, towards some known or unknown objective.

We are all blind until we see That in the human plan Nothing is worth the making If it does not make the man. Why build these cities glorious If man unbuilded goes? We build the world in vain Unless the builders also grow.

Liberty is the condition of progress. Without Liberty, there remains only barbarism. Without Liberty, there can be no civilization.

The progress of the world means more enjoyment and more misery too.

Every great finish was once a simple beginning. Start now.

The style of life is a unity because it has grown out of the difficulties of early life and out of the striving for a goal.

That which lies before the human race is a constant struggle to maintain and improve, in opposition to State of Nature, the State of Art of an organized polity; in which, and by which, man may develop a worthy civilization

Talent is nurtured in solitude; character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

To be sure, we have inherited abilities, but our development we owe to thousands of influences coming from the world around us from which we appropriate what we can and what is suitable to us.

With a tear for the dark past, turn we then to the dazzling future, and, veiling our eyes, press forward. The long and weary winter of the race is ended. Its summer has begun. Humanity has burst the chrysalis. The heavens are before it.

We've had to overcome a lot in America to become a nation of progress. We still have a lot of progress to be made.

During the times we think we’re being “unproductive,” the seeds of new worlds are germinating within us, and they need peace to grow.

Were man to devote as much time and energy to himself as he has devoted to that which man has produced, what astounding and unbelievable progress would be made; a progress eclipsing all he has so far successfully accomplished.

Human progress having reached a high level through respect for the liberty and dignity of men, it has become desirable to re-affirm these evident truths