“And a step backward, after making a wrong turn, is a step in the right direction.”
Source: Player Piano (1952), Chapter 32 (p. 295)
“It is better to take many small steps in the right direction than to make a great leap forward only to stumble backward.”
Last update April 4, 2022.
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Louis Sachar 24
American writer of children's books 1954Related quotes
“It is necessary sometimes to take one step backward to take two steps forward.”
Vladimir Lenin
(1870–1924) Russian politician, led the October Revolution
“You will either step forward into growth, or you will step backward into safety.”
Abraham Maslow
(1908–1970) American psychologist
As quoted in How the Best Leaders Lead : Proven Secrets to Getting the Most Out of Yourself and Others (2010) by Brian Tracy, p. 35.
1970s and later
“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
“Great leaps forward in history are often, in fact, giant leaps back.”
Andrew Sullivan
(1963) Journalist, writer, blogger
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.
“Some men a forward motion love,
But I by backward steps would move.”
Henry Vaughan
(1621–1695) Welsh author, physician and metaphysical poet
"The Retreat," l. 29.
Silex Scintillans (1655)
“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.
“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."