“Great leaps forward in history are often, in fact, giant leaps back.”

The Reactionary Temptation (2017)
Context: Great leaps forward in history are often, in fact, giant leaps back. The Reformation did initiate brutal sectarian warfare. The French Revolution did degenerate into barbarous tyranny. Communist utopias — allegedly the wave of an Elysian future — turned into murderous nightmares. Modern neoliberalism has, for its part, created a global capitalist machine that is seemingly beyond anyone’s control, fast destroying the planet’s climate, wiping out vast tracts of life on Earth while consigning millions of Americans to economic stagnation and cultural despair.
And at an even deeper level, the more we discover about human evolution, the more illusory certain ideas of progress become.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Great leaps forward in history are often, in fact, giant leaps back." by Andrew Sullivan?
Andrew Sullivan photo
Andrew Sullivan 44
Journalist, writer, blogger 1963

Related quotes

“A fact will often show poor and plain in contrast to the leapings of imagination.”

Marion L. Starkey (1901–1991) American historian & writer

Source: The Devil in Massachusetts: A Modern Enquiry into the Salem Witch Trials (1949), Chapter 17, “Eight Firebrands of Hell” (p. 205)

Neil Armstrong photo

“That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) American astronaut; first person to walk on the moon

Words said when Armstrong first stepped onto the Moon (20 July 1969) One Small Step, transcript of Apollo 11 Moon landing https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11.step.html. In the actual sound recordings he apparently fails to say "a" before "man" and says: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." This was generally considered by many to simply be an error of omission on his part. Armstrong long insisted he did say "a man" but that it was inaudible. Prior to new evidence supporting his claim, he stated a preference for the "a" to appear in parentheses when the quote is written. The debate continues on the matter, as "Armstrong's 'poetic' slip on Moon" at BBC News (3 June 2009) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8081817.stm reports that more recent analysis by linguist John Olsson and author Chris Riley with higher quality recordings indicates that he did not say "a".
Variant: That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.

Robert A. Heinlein photo

“One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) American science fiction author

The Pragmatics of Patriotism (1973)
Context: Many short-sighted fools think that going to the Moon was just a stunt. But the astronauts knew the meaning of what they were doing, as is shown by Neil Armstrong's first words in stepping down onto the soil of Luna: "One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

Louis Sachar photo
Timothy Dalton photo

“He's terrific. I think [Casino Royale] is a huge step forward - a leap forward.”

Timothy Dalton (1944) British actor of stage, film and television

On Casino Royale. [Timothy Dalton Reflects On 007, 2007-02-19, http://www.mi6.co.uk/sections/articles/dalton_hot_fuzz.php3?t=&s=, MI6 - The Home of James Bond, 2007-02-21]
Attributed

Thomas Hobbes photo

“A great leap in the dark”

Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) English philosopher, born 1588
John C. Maxwell photo

“Small differences over time create a big difference. Improvement is achieved in inches, not giant leaps.”

John C. Maxwell (1947) American author, speaker and pastor

Book Sometimes you win Sometimes you Learn

Gabriele Münter photo

“After a short period of agony, I took a great leap forward from copying nature, in a more or less impressionist style, to feeling the content of things.”

Gabriele Münter (1877–1962) German painter

as quoted in the text of the exhibition 'Kandinsky and der Blaue Reiter', Gemeentemuseum the Hague, Netherlands; February-June, 2010
Gabriele refers to the big change she made, before the period of her first Murnau landscape paintings (c. 1904 - 1914), when she lived and worked together with Kandinsky].

Alyson Nöel photo
Newton Lee photo

“Each and everyone on Earth can make one small step, which will cumulatively result in a giant leap for mankind towards world peace.”

Newton Lee American computer scientist

Counterterrorism and Cybersecurity: Total Information Awareness (2nd Edition), 2015

Related topics