Non sempre ciò che vien dopo è progresso.
"Del romanzo storico" (1850), in Andrea Tagliapietra (ed.) La storia e l'invenzione (Milano: Gallone, 1997) p. 64; Sandra Bermann (trans.) On the Historical Novel (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984) p. 113
Non sempre ciò che vien dopo è progresso.
da Del romanzo storico, parte seconda
Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
“The human mind always makes progress, but it is a progress in spirals.”
Probably a paraphrase of this line from De l’Allemagne, Pt. 3. ch. 10. "Goethe has made a remark upon the perfectability of the human mind, which is full of sagacity: It is always advancing, but in a spiral line." Not known from Goethe's works.
Misattributed
2015, Commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of the 13th Amendment (December 2015)
Source: The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time (1994), Chapter 20, The Metaphysical Crossbeak (p. 289)
On the matrilineal system of inheritance in vogue among the royal family, in "Royal vignettes: Travancore - Simplicity graces this House (30 March 2003)"
Linus Pauling: Scientist and Peacemaker (2001) by Clifford Mead and Thomas Hager.
1990s
Context: When an old and distinguished person speaks to you, listen to him carefully and with respect — but do not believe him. Never put your trust into anything but your own intellect. Your elder, no matter whether he has gray hair or has lost his hair, no matter whether he is a Nobel laureate — may be wrong. The world progresses, year by year, century by century, as the members of the younger generation find out what was wrong among the things that their elders said. So you must always be skeptical — always think for yourself.
“Progress in meditation comes swiftly for those who try their hardest.”
The Mahābhāṣya
