“Humanism, it seems, is almost impossible in America where material progress is part of the national romance whereas in Europe such progress is relished because it feels nice.”
George Santayana, from The Wine of Absurdity (1966).
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Related quotes

1960s, Farewell address (1961)
Context: We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these involved our own country. Despite these holocausts, America is today the strongest, the most influential, and most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America's leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.

2015, Remarks to the People of Africa (July 2015)

1910s, The New Nationalism (1910)

“Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education.”
Special Message to the Congress on Education (20 February 1961) http://www.jfklink.com/speeches/jfk/publicpapers/1961/jfk46_61.html
1961
Context: Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. Our requirements for world leadership, our hopes for economic growth, and the demands of citizenship itself in an era such as this all require the maximum development of every young American's capacity. The human mind is our fundamental resource.

“Progress is impossible without the ability to admit mistakes.”

“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