“Progress is not an illusion; it happens, but it is slow and invariably disappointing.”
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George Orwell 473
English author and journalist 1903–1950Related quotes
"Political Correctness: Robert Bly and Philip Larkin" (1997)
Context: I think enlightenment is incremental, and I see it in my children. I was six-years-old when I met a black person. My father tutored me and said, "We're going to meet two men who have black skin." And on the bus in Swansea on the way there, I accepted this and thought this would be no trouble for me. As it was, I went into the room and burst into tears and pointed at the man and said, "You've got a black face."
This wouldn't happen with my children. They've known, they've mingled with black people all their lives. This certainly is not going to occur. And so it goes on in this incremental way. … I think this is the only way it can be achieved. The trouble with proclaiming yourself to be cleansed of atavism is that it's not the case. It's an illusion. It's an illusion that can only be maintained by ideology and executive policing. It is forced consciousness. It's a lie to say, I have no racial feelings. Honesty and slow progress is a better policy, I think.
You Shall Know Our Velocity! (2002)
“Life is a slow suicide, and it is happening to every intellectual.”
Interview video hosted on Youtube. http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=EgpSHpATAIM,
“Great achievements require gigantic efforts, without which our progress sounds to be slow.”
Message to the Nation of Pakistan, 14 August 1950 [citation needed]
The Princess Zoubaroff, Act I, sc. iv (1920), cited from Steven Moore (ed.) Complete Plays (Normal, Ill.: Dalkey Archive Press, 1994) p. 55.
This "aphorism" was expressed in different forms by Josh Billings and Socrates. note: Often misquoted as, "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge," and often misattributed to Stephen Hawking.
Source: Cleopatra's Nose: Essays on the Unexpected (1995).
“Cinema: An illusion that can only satisfactorily happen in the dark.”
Rosa: The Death of a Composer
“No one should be discouraged, Theaetetus, who can make constant progress, even though it be slow.”
Original Greek, from Sophist 261b http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0172%3Atext%3DSoph.%3Asection%3D261b: θαρρεῖν, ὦ Θεαίτητε, χρὴ τὸν καὶ σμικρόν τι δυνάμενον εἰς τὸ πρόσθεν ἀεὶ προϊέναι.
Also quoted in variant forms such as: Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow
Sophist
“What is happening in our country is a slow-motion coup d'état.”
Speaking of the Orange Revolution
Source: [2004-12-06, Янукович назначил нового руководителя своего штаба и ушел в отпуск, https://www.newsru.com/world/06dec2004/yanuk.html, NewsRU]