Geoffrey West Quotes

20 centuries of progress have brought the average citizen a vote, a national anthem, a Ford, a bank account and a high opinion of himself but not the capacity to live in high density without befouling and denuding his environment.

Instead of the scream of a fish hawk scaring the fishes, is heard the whistle of the steam-engine, arousing a country to its progress.

Modernization is found in markets.

In our State the locomotive has waked up the sleeping energies of a great people, and is transforming wasted fields into blooming gardens, and arousing men and women from the dull and heavy sleep that dwells with satisfaction upon the past, into the bright intelligence that looks to a glorious future ….

We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or they will crush us.

Typically, market-driven growth spawns urbanisation and leads to migration. Urban centres expand into humongous entities that thrive on an unending supply of energy.

Traffic is only one of the side effects of growth.

As the population of Georgia increased dramatically, so did development.

The civilized world is far ahead of us. We have no choice but to catch up.

Industrial forces set in motion by steam and electricity have materially changed the structure of our civilization.

Give us 20 years, and you'll not recognize this country!

Industrialization, by drawing people from the countryside to the cities brings with it the weakening of traditional political and social support systems.

India, China, and Latin America have a tremendous stake in the people's century. As their masses learn to read and write, and as they become productive mechanics, their standard of living will double and treble.

We have no longer States that are necessarily only planting States. None are excluded from achieving that diversification of pursuits among the people which brings wealth and contentment.

America…could within twenty years bring us to a degree of development which Turks, left to themselves, would not be able to achieve in a century. It would make Turkey prosperous, rich and happy and turn Turks into a strong and civilized nation.

My final aim is to bring Iran, within twenty years, to the same level of civilization and progress as will be enjoyed by the most highly developed countries. During the last ten years the degree of our backwardness has been halved, but it is this remaining backwardness which will be the most difficult to combat.

Since the war [WWII], the world has been rushing forward at an unprecedented and exhilarating speed … Yet Britain lags behind, lacking the will or the plan which can bring this future within the reach of us all.

New schools, hospitals, clinics, factories, bridges, dams, and airports tell the story of a South Africa that has indeed moved forward.

There's much more activity in England than in Greece. Or at least there's a lot more development, which obviously brings another set of problems.

Without competition we would be clinging to the clumsy antiquated processes of farming and manufacture and the methods of business of long ago, and the twentieth would be no further advanced than the eighteenth century.

I have a vision of a Modern India. I have embarked on a huge mission to convert that vision into reality. My mantra is Development.

The '80s was the time for the great so-called modernization in Spain. It was a moment when it seemed that everything was breaking up and moving fast into modernity.

Denver is a city that will be far more defined by its future than its past.

Haiti has changed a lot.

China has lunged into the 21st century, while India is still lurching toward it.