Quotes about advance
page 3

“What are the outstanding events, then, of these past fourteen years? First in importance, I think, and most striking of all, has been the rise and consolidation of the Soviet Union, the U. S. S. R. or the Union of Socialist and Soviet Republics, as it is called. I have told you already something of the enormous difficulties which Soviet Russia had to face in its fight for existence. That it won in spite of them is one of the wonders of this century. The Soviet system spread all over the Asiatic parts of the former Tsarist Empire, in Siberia right up to the Pacific and in Central Asia to within hail of the Indian frontier. Separate Soviet republics were formed, but they federated together into one Union, and this is now the U. S. S. R. This Union covers an enormous area in Europe and Asia, which is about one-sixth of the total land area of the world. The area is very big, but bigness by itself does not mean much, and Russia, and much more so Siberia and Central Asia, were very backward. The second wonder that the Soviets performed was to transform great parts of this area out of all recognition by prodigious schemes of planning. There is no instance in recorded history of such rapid advance of a people. Even the most backward areas in Central Asia have gone ahead with a rush which we in India might well envy.”

Jawaharlal Nehru book Glimpses of World History

Glimpses of World History (1949)

People, World, History, Thinking

“Russia today is a Soviet country, and its government is run by representatives of the workers and peasants. In some ways it it the most advanced country in the world. Whatever actual conditions may be, the whole structure of government and society is based on the principle of social equality.”

Jawaharlal Nehru book Glimpses of World History

Glimpses of World History (1949)

World, Way, Country

“We realized in our hearts that we could not do much till conditions were radically changed-hence our overwhelming desire for independence-and yet the passion for progress filled us and the wish to emulate other countries which had gone so far ahead in many ways. We thought of the United States of America and even of some eastern countries which were forging ahead. But most of all we had the example of the Soviet Union which in two brief decades, full of war and civil strife and in the face of what appeared to be insurmountable difficulties, had made tremendous progress. Some were attracted to communism, others were not, but all were fascinated by the advance of the Soviet Union in education and culture and medical care and physical fitness and in the solution of the problem of nationalities-by the amazing and prodigious effort to create a new world out of the dregs of the old.”

Jawaharlal Nehru book The Discovery of India

The Discovery of India (1946)

War, World, Education, Way

“A large mirror,—so at first it seemed to me in my confusion—now stood where none had been perceptible before; and, as I stepped up to it in extremity of terror, mine own image, but with features all pale and dabbled in blood, advanced to meet me with a feeble and tottering gait.”

Edgar Allan Poe book William Wilson

William Wilson (1839)

“In order to abolish the idea of private property, the idea of communism is completely sufficient. It takes actual communist action to abolish actual private property. History will com to it; and this movement, which in theory we already know to be a self-transcending movement, will constitute in actual fact a very severe and protracted process. But we must regard it as a real advance to have gained beforehand a consciousness of the limited character a well as of the goal of this historical movement - and a consciousness which reaches out beyond it.”

Karl Marx book Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844

Source: Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, p. 99, The Marx-Engels Reader

History, Communication, Idea, Self-confidence

“However great the progress of mankind has been, and however far we have advanced in overcoming prejudices, I doubt if we have yet got to the point of view where an English constituency would elect a Blackman.”

Dadabhai Naoroji (1825–1917) Indian politician

About Dadabhai, Narrow-majority’ and ‘Bow-and-agree’: Public Attitudes Towards the Elections of the First Asian MPs in Britain, Dadabhai Naoroji and Mancherjee Merwanjee Bhownaggree, 1885-1906

“William inherited very large possessions, part of which consisted of crown debts, due to the vice-admiral for sums he had advanced for the sea-service. No moneys were at that time less secure than those owing from the king. Penn was obliged to go, more than once, and "thee" and "thou" Charles and his ministers, to recover the debt; and at last, instead of specie, the government invested him with the right and sovereignty of a province of America, to the south of Maryland. Thus was a Quaker raised to sovereign power.
He set sail for his new dominions with two ships filled with Quakers, who followed his fortune. The country was then named by them Pennsylvania, from William Penn; and he founded Philadelphia, which is now a very flourishing city. His first care was to make an alliance with his American neighbors; and this is the only treaty between those people and the Christians that was not ratified by an oath, and that was never infringed. The new sovereign also enacted several wise and wholesome laws for his colony, which have remained invariably the same to this day. The chief is, to ill-treat no person on account of religion, and to consider as brethren all those who believe in one God. He had no sooner settled his government than several American merchants came and peopled this colony. The natives of the country, instead of flying into the woods, cultivated by degrees a friendship with the peaceable Quakers. They loved these new strangers as much as they disliked the other Christians, who had conquered and ravaged America. In a little time these savages, as they are called, delighted with their new neighbors, flocked in crowds to Penn, to offer themselves as his vassals. It was an uncommon thing to behold a sovereign "thee'd" and "thou'd" by his subjects, and addressed by them with their hats on; and no less singular for a government to be without one priest in it; a people without arms, either for offence or preservation; a body of citizens without any distinctions but those of public employments; and for neighbors to live together free from envy or jealousy. In a word, William Penn might, with reason, boast of having brought down upon earth the Golden Age, which in all probability, never had any real existence but in his dominions.”

Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher

Variants:
No oaths, no seals, no official mummeries were used; the treaty was ratified on both sides with a yea, yea — the only one, says Voltaire, that the world has known, never sworn to and never broken.
As quoted in William Penn : An Historical Biography (1851) by William Hepworth Dixon
William Penn began by making a league with the Americans, his neighbors. It is the only one between those natives and the Christians which was never sworn to, and the only one that was never broken.
As quoted in American Pioneers (1905), by William Augustus Mowry and Blanche Swett Mowry, p. 80
It was the only treaty made by the settlers with the Indians that was never sworn to, and the only one that was never broken.
As quoted in A History of the American Peace Movement (2008) by Charles F. Howlett, and ‎Robbie Lieberman, p. 33
The History of the Quakers (1762)

Love, Money, God, Friendship

“Hanging on to the anguish, hurt, and pain of the past negates one’s movement into the future. Accept the torment you suffered as a lesson, then advance.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1993

Pain, Suffering, Past, Future

“The heart often turns rogue and makes decisions without informing us or providing advanced notice.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1987

Making love, Decision, Heart

“Maybe if you weren’t busy throwing rocks at each other, you could spend a little time on the other niceties of life, such as cooperation and mutual advancement.”

Alastair Reynolds (1966) British novelist and astronomer

Source: Short fiction, The Iron Tactician (2016), p. 630

Life, Business, Time

“A new kind of society cannot be designed on paper. That is, you cannot plan out a new form of society in advance, then set it up and expect it to function as it was designed to do.”

Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future

"Some Principles of History", paragraph 104
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

“The issue of a battle is the result of an instant, of a thought. There is the advance, with its various combinations, the battle is joined, the struggle goes on a certain time, the decisive moment presents itself, a spark of genius discloses it, and the smallest body of reserves accomplish victory.”

Napoleon I of France (1769–1821) French general, First Consul and later Emperor of the French

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

Decision, Time, Victory

“Peace is a path of hope, a path on which one advances through dialogue, reconciliation and conversion.”

Pope Francis (1936) 266th Pope of the Catholic Church

On New Year, Pope Wishes the Faithful a 2020 of Peace, Voice of America, (1 January 2020)
2020s, 2020

Peace, Hope

“… I took Advanced PowerPoint last semester. You guys are always misunderestimating me. I'm totally ready to handle the big stuff.”

Libba Bray (1964) American teen writer

Source: Beauty Queens

Guy

“There had been certain romantic interludes in the past that had included galloping across the desert at night; but he had never abducted any woman whose enthusiastic support for such a plan had not been secured well in advance.”

Robin McKinley book The Blue Sword

Source: The Blue Sword

Support, Past, Night

“It is much more sensible to be an optimist instead of a pessimist, for if one is doomed to disappointment, why experience it in advance?”

Elizabeth Peters (1927–2013) American author and egyptologist

Source: The Snake, the Crocodile and the Dog

Disappointment

“As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Quote from Vincent's letter to Theo, from Amsterdam, 30 May 1877; Dear Theo: the Autobiography of Vincent Van Gogh;, ed. Irving Stone and Jean Stone (1995), p. 26
1870s
Context: When we are working at a difficult task and strive after a good thing, we are fighting a righteous battle, the direct reward of which is that we are kept from much evil. As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed.

Life, Heart, Fight

“If a man does not make new acquaintance as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, Sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

1755, p. 83
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol I

Life, Friendship

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours..”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

Variant: I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
Source: Walden: Or, Life in the Woods

Life, Dreams, Confidence, Imagination

“I don't like the word 'alcoholic'. I like to think of myself as an advanced drinker.”

Chelsea Handler (1975) American comedian, actress, author and talk show host

Source: My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands

Alcohol, Thinking

“Devotion is diligence without assurance. Faith is a way of saying "Yes, I pre-accept the terms of the universe and I embrace in advance what I am presently incapable of understanding.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Faith, Way, Understanding, Universe

“It is difficult for people of advanced years to start remembering they must die. It is best to form the habit while young.”

Muriel Spark book Memento Mori

Source: Memento Mori

People

“You live in a deranged age - more deranged than usual, because despite great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing.”

Walker Percy (1916–1990) Southern philosophical novelist

Source: Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book

Age, Idea

“We must never forget that we are cosmic revolutionaries, not stooges conscripted to advance a natural order that kills everybody.”

Alan Harrington (1933–2019) Welsh footballer

Nature, Forgetting

“If only we could see in advance all the harm that can come from the good we think we are doing.”

Luigi Pirandello Six Characters in Search of an Author

Source: Six Characters in Search of an Author

Thinking

“Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them.”

Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English mathematician and philosopher

Source: 1910s, An Introduction to Mathematics (1911), ch. 5. 
Context: It is a profoundly erroneous truism, repeated by all copy-books and by eminent people when they are making speeches, that we should cultivate the habit of thinking of what we are doing. The precise opposite is the case. Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them. Operations of thought are like cavalry charges in a battle — they are strictly limited in number, they require fresh horses, and must only be made at decisive moments.

Thinking

“There are no mistakes in life,
only lessons. There is no such thing as a negative experience, only
opportunities to grow, learn and advance along the road of selfmastery.
From struggle comes strength. Even pain can be a wonderful teacher”

Robin S. Sharma (1965) Canadian self help writer

Life, Pain, Learning, Teachers

“India is not, as people keep calling it, an underdeveloped country, but rather, in the context of its history and cultural heritage, a highly developed one in an advanced state of decay.”

Shashi Tharoor (1956) Indian politician, diplomat, author

World Policy Journal, "Reflections", Volume XXI, No 2, Summer 2004 Available Online https://web.archive.org/web/20080616055809/http://www.worldpolicy.org:80/journal/articles/wpj04-2/Tharoor.html <br class="br">2000s

People, History, Country

“Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Gratitude

“Jace was probably the safest boyfriend in the world since he was pretty much banned from (1) getting angry, (2) making sexual advances, and (3) doing anything that would produce an adrenaline rush.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

World

“A person’s destiny is something you look back at afterwards, not something to be known in advance.”

Haruki Murakami book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Source: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Personality

“Nothing can be repaired or advanced but only accepted”

Hanif Kureishi (1954) English playwright, screenwriter, novelist

Source: Love In A Blue Time

“It seems to me, Golan, that the advance of civilization is nothing but an exercise in the limiting of privacy.”

Isaac Asimov book Foundation’s Edge

Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation’s Edge (1982), Chapter 6 “Earth” section 1, p. 100
Source: Foundation's Edge

Exercises

“Surely the Shadowhunter community must honor you and hold you in high esteem as a gentleman who has truly advanced their race. No, Henry said sadly. Mostly they wish that I would stop suggesting new inventions and cease setting fire to things.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: The Infernal Devices: Clockwork Princess

Communication

“All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.”

Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) English historian and Member of Parliament

“But how did you know where we were?" Annabeth asked.

Advanced planning, my dear. I figured you would wash up near Miami if you made it out of the Sea of Monsters alive. Almost everything strange washes up near Miami.”

Rick Riordan book The Sea of Monsters

Source: The Sea of Monsters

Sea

“Seeds have the power to preserve species, to enhance cultural as well as genetic diversity, to counter economic monopoly and to check the advance of conformity on all its many fronts.”

Michael Pollan (1955) American author, journalist, activist, and professor of journalism

Source: Second Nature: A Gardener's Education

“In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

As quoted in Charting the Candidates '72 (1972) by Ronald Van Doren, p. 7
1940s–present
Context: The state — or, to make the matter more concrete, the government — consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can't get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods.

“Age is always advancing and I'm fairly sure it's up to no good.”

Jim Butcher book White Night

Source: White Night

Age

“I am not insane," he said. "A woman of your highly advanced intellect ought to be able to perceive that I am in love. With you. I wish you had told me. It was deuced embarrassing to find it out from your *brother*.”

Loretta Chase (1949) American writer

Source: Mr. Impossible

Love

“A resolution to avoid an evil is seldom framed till the evil is so far advanced as to make avoidance impossible.”

Thomas Hardy book Far from the Madding Crowd

Source: Far from the Madding Crowd

Evil

“One general law, leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely, multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.”

Charles Darwin (1809–1882) British naturalist, author of "On the origin of species, by means of natural selection"

Source: On the Origin of Species (1859), chapter VII: "Instinct", page 244 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=262&itemID=F373&viewtype=image <br class="br">Source: The Origin of Species

Law

“I cannot help fearing that men may reach a point where they look on every new theory as a danger, every innovation as a toilsome trouble, every social advance as a first step toward revolution, and that they may absolutely refuse to move at all.”

Alexis De Tocqueville book Democracy in America

Book Three, Chapter XXI.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840), Book Three

Men, Fear, Help

“Humanity, like armies in the field, advances at the speed of the slowest.”

Gabriel García Márquez book Love in the Time of Cholera

Source: Love in the Time of Cholera

Speed

“If good things are coming, they will be a pleasant surprise," said the seer. "If bad things are, and you know in advance, you will suffer greatly before they even occur.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Source: The Alchemist (1988), p. 102.

Suffering

“Tragedies are all right for a while: you are concerned, you are curious, you feel good. And then it gets repetitive, it doesn't advance, it grows dreadfully boring: it is so very boring, even for me.”

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist

Source: The Woman Destroyed

Feeling

“Advice for a human

86. To like something is to insult it. Love it or hate it. Be passionate. As civilisation advances, so does indifference. It is a disease. Immunize yourself with art. And love.”

Matt Haig (1975) British writer

Source: The Humans

Love, Hate, Disease, Art

“Come with me into the woods where spring is
advancing, as it does, no matter what,
not being singular or particular, but one
of the forever gifts, and certainly visible.”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

Source: Dog Songs

Spring

“Clarke's Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host

Profiles of the Future (revised edition, 1973)
On Clarke's Laws
Source: Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry Into the Limits of the Possible

Law

“Most young women do not welcome promiscuous advances. (Either that, or my luck's terrible.)”

Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian

Source: Memoirs Of A Mangy Lover

Women

“I define anxiety as experiencing failure in advance.”

Seth Godin (1960) American entrepreneur, author and public speaker

Source: Poke the Box

Failure

“I’m a psychic amnesiac. I know in advance what I’ll forget.”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

Forgetting

“Sir Impey Biggs: Time and trouble will tame an advanced young woman, but an advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force.”

Dorothy L. Sayers book Clouds of Witness

Source: Clouds of Witness (1926)

Time

“Yes, the brutalities of progress are called revolutions. When they are over, this is recognised: that the human race has been harshly treated, but that it has advanced.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“If, when you talk to people, they keep backing away from you, it's because you're TOO CLOSE, alright? SO DON'T KEEP ADVANCING ON THEM LIKE A HUMAN GLACIER.”

Dave Barry (1947) American writer

People

“This is my doctrine: Give every other human being every right you claim for yourself. Keep your mind open to the influences of nature. Receive new thoughts with hospitality. Let us advance.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

Source: The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child

Nature

“An idea is a greater monument than a cathedral. And the advance of man's knowledge is a greater miracle than all the sticks turned to snakes or the parting of the waters.”

Jerome Lawrence Inherit the Wind

Source: Inherit the Wind

Idea, Knowledge, Water, Parting

“DNA is like a computer program but far, far more advanced than any software ever created.”

Bill Gates book The Road Ahead

Source: The Road Ahead

“I have often spoken to you about good and evil. This has made some uncomfortable. But good and evil are present in this world, and between the two there can be no compromise. Murdering the innocent to advance an ideology is wrong every time, everywhere. Freeing people from oppression and despair is eternally right. This nation must continue to speak out for justice and truth. We must always be willing to act in their defense and to advance the cause of peace”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

2000s, 2009, Farewell speech to the nation (January 2009)
Context: As we address these challenges – and others we cannot foresee tonight – America must maintain our moral clarity. I have often spoken to you about good and evil. This has made some uncomfortable. But good and evil are present in this world, and between the two there can be no compromise. Murdering the innocent to advance an ideology is wrong every time, everywhere. Freeing people from oppression and despair is eternally right. This nation must continue to speak out for justice and truth. We must always be willing to act in their defense and to advance the cause of peace.

People, Truth, World, Peace

“As civilisation advances, so does indifference.”

Matt Haig (1975) British writer

The Humans

Indifference

“Please, no matter how we advance technologically, please don't abandon the book. There is nothing in our material world more beautiful than the book."

(Acceptance speech,, November 17, 2010)”

Patti Smith (1946) American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist

Books, World, Beauty

“I refer of course to the soaring wonder of the age known as the Eiffel Tower. Never in history has a structure been more technologically advanced, materially obsolescent, and gloriously pointless all at the same time.”

Bill Bryson book At Home: A Short History of Private Life

Source: At Home: A Short History of Private Life

Age, History, Time

“I have learned that faith means trusting in advance what will only make sense in reverse.”

Philip Yancey (1949) American writer

Variant: Faith means believing in advance what will only make sense in reverse.
Source: Disappointment with God: Three Questions No One Asks Aloud

Faith, Sense, Learning

“Ma'am," Magnus said, advancing. "I must counsel you not to exit the carriage while a demon-slaying is in progress.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: Vampires, Scones, and Edmund Herondale

“Life among academics had taught me that a well-expressed opinion is usually better than a badly expressed fact, so far as professional advancement goes.”

Diana Gabaldon book Outlander

Source: Outlander

Life

“No, scratch the word "career." Careers are for people who wish to advance. I only want to survive, draw a paycheck.”

Emily Giffin Something Borrowed

Source: Something Borrowed

People, Drawing

“The future reshapes the memory of the past in the way it recalibrates significance; some episodes are advanced, others lose purchase.”

Gregory Maguire book A Lion Among Men

Source: A Lion Among Men

Way, Memory, Past, Future

“It was my Uncle George who discovered that alcohol was a food well in advance of modern medical thought.”

P.G. Wodehouse book The Inimitable Jeeves

The Inimitable Jeeves (1923)

Alcohol, Food

“Magnus shrugged. "He also made inappropriate amorous advances to a startled grandmotherly sort selling flowers, an Irish wolfhound, and innocent hat stand in a dwelling he broke into, and myself.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: The Midnight Heir

Flowers

“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

V.20
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book V
Context: In a sense, people are our proper occupation. Our job is to do them good and put up with them. But when they obstruct our proper tasks, they become irrelevant to us--like sun, wind, and animals. Our actions may be impeded by them, but there can be no impeding our intentions or our dispositions. Because we can accommodate and adapt. The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting. The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way. (Hays translation)

Way

“Look, don’t get me wrong. I worship the ground this guy walks on. I’m excited to meet him tonight. I’m dying to meet him tonight. If he wanted to carry me off and make me his love slave, I’d do it, so long as I got advance copies of his books.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Source: Succubus Blues

Love, Books, Guy

“Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of imagination.”

John Dewey (1859–1952) American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer

The Quest for Certainty (1929), Ch. XI
Misc. Quotes
Source: The Quest for Certainty: A Study of the Relation of Knowledge and Action

Imagination, Science

“Youthfulness is not determined by age. It is determined by one's life force. One who possesses hope is forever young. One who continually advances is forever beautiful.”

Daisaku Ikeda (1928) Japanese writer

Life, Youth, Age, Beauty

“Love doesn't grow at a steady rate, but advances in surges, bolts, wild leaps, and this was one of those.”

Ian McEwan book Sweet Tooth

Source: Sweet Tooth

Love

“A nation which thinks that it is belief in God and not good law which makes people honest does not seem to me very advanced.”

Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French Enlightenment philosopher and encyclopædist

God, People, Law, Thinking

“The greater the scientific advance, the more primitive the fear.”

Don DeLillo book White Noise

Source: White Noise

Fear

“Masked, I advance.”

René Descartes (1596–1650) French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist

“Advanced life-forms, my seweet patootie. Jerks. Both of them.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: Fang

Life, Jerk

“Beautiful girls should know how to defend themselves against the advances of gentlemen.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Beauty, Girl

“Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature.”

Tom Robbins book Still Life with Woodpecker

Source: Still Life with Woodpecker (1980)

“The idealists and visionaries, foolish enough to throw caution to the winds and express their ardor and faith in some supreme deed, have advanced mankind and have enriched the world.”

Emma Goldman (1868–1940) anarchist known for her political activism, writing, and speeches

World, Faith

“She was struggling, as she always had struggled, not to show what she could do but to hide what she couldn't do. A life made up of advances that were actually frantic retreats and victories that were concealed defeats.”

Bernhard Schlink book The Reader

Source: The Reader

Life, Victory

“Absurdity is one of the most human things about us: a manifestation of our most advanced and interesting characteristics.”

Thomas Nagel (1937) American philosopher

“The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.”

James Madison (1751–1836) 4th president of the United States (1809 to 1817)

Knowledge

“Learning is like rowing upstream; not to advance is to drop back.”

- Chinese proverb”

Alvin Toffler (1928–2016) American writer

Learning

“You can't say civilization don't advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way.”

Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist and entertainer

The Autobiography of Will Rogers (1949)
Variant: You can't say that civilization don't advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way.

War, Way

“Be not the slave of your own past - plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so you shall come back with new self-respect, with new power, and with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Past, Sea, Beauty

“The only obligation to which in advance we may hold a novel without incurring the accusation of being arbitrary, is that it be interesting.”

Henry James (1843–1916) American novelist, short story author, and literary critic

The Art of Fiction http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/artfiction.html (1884)

“Cicero smiled at us. 'The art of life is to deal with problems as they arise, rather than destory one's spirit by worrying about them too far in advance. Especially tonight.”

Robert Harris (1957) novelist

Source: Imperium: A Novel of Ancient Rome

Life, Smile, Art, Problem

“Moreover, I wish to assure you both that I did not make any amorous advances on female monkeys.”

Cassandra Clare The Bane Chronicles

Giulana and Magnus Bane in 1791, p. 13.
Source: The Bane Chronicles, What Really Happened in Peru (2013)
Context: "But of course you should have retreated at once from the dominant male. Are you an idiot? You are extremely lucky he was distracted from ripping out your throat by the fruit. He thought you were trying to steal his females."
"Pardon me, but we did not have the time to exchange that kind of personal information. I could not have known! Moreover, I wish to assure both of you that I did not make any amorous advances on female monkeys. [... ] I didn't actually see any, so I didn't get the chance."

“When we are young… we often experience things in the present with a nostalgia-in-advance, but we seldom guess what we will truly prize years from now.”

Edmund White (1940) American novelist and LGBT essayist

Source: City Boy: My Life in New York in the 1960s and 70s

Nostalgia

“The tide of history only advances when people make themselves fully visible.”

Anderson Cooper (1967) journalist and author

People, History

“Most men and women, by birth or nature, lack the means to advance in wealth and power, but all have the ability to advance in knowledge.”

Pythagoras (-585–-495 BC) ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher

As quoted in The Golden Ratio (2002) by Mario Livio

Women, Men, Birth, Nature

“Let us advance on Chaos and the Dark”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Source: Self-Reliance

“The advance of regret can be so gradual that it is impossible to say "yesterday I was happy, today I am not.”

E.M. Forster book Where Angels Fear to Tread

Source: Where Angels Fear to Tread

Happiness

“One thing that always bothers me is the attention the iPhone camera gets. The latest will have image stabilization, advanced phase focus, 4K video, 60 fps video, 240 fps slo-mo, and all sorts of features. That said — these are still just pinhole cameras on steroids. The only good thing they do is allow citizens to take more and more videos of crimes.”

John C. Dvorak (1952) US journalist and radio broadcaster

Apple's Travesty of a 'Live' Event http://pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2468228,00.asp in PC Magazine (9 September 2014) <br class="br">2010s

“Do not let your zeal for the cause of democracy deceive you as to the fact of the opaque ignorance in which the great bulk of the people of England are wrapt. If you write for the masses politically, and write soundly and honestly, they will not be able at present to appreciate you, and consequently will not support you…There is no remedy for all this but improved education. Such as the tail and the body are, such will be the character of the head. Nature does not produce such monsters as an ignorant or vicious community, and virtuous and wise leaders. In Scotland you are better off because you are better educated. The great body of the English peasants are not a jot advanced in intellect since the days of their Saxon ancestors. I hope you will join us in a cry for schoolmasters as a first step to Radicalism.”

Richard Cobden (1804–1865) English manufacturer and Radical and Liberal statesman

Letter to W. Tait (17 August 1838), quoted in John Morley, The Life of Richard Cobden (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1905), p. 127.
1830s

People, Education, Hope, Democracy

“Insurance companies nowadays apply the principle of so-called 'selection by insurance'; this means that they take into consideration the fact that persons who enter early into insurance contracts are on the average of a different type and have a different distribution of death ages from persons from persons admitted to the insurance at a more advanced age.”

Richard von Mises (1883–1953) Austrian physicist and mathematician

First Lecture, The Definition of Probability, p. 18
Probability, Statistics And Truth - Second Revised English Edition - (1957)

Death, Age, Personality

“We must not think, "Well, we have all the truth, we understand the main pillars of our faith, and we may rest on this knowledge." The truth is an advancing truth, and we must walk in the increasing light.”

Ellen G. White (1827–1915) American author and founder/leader of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church

The Review and Herald (27 March 1890); also in Counsels for Writers and Editors http://books.google.de/books?id=UEM4uBD04asC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Counsels+to+writers+and+editors&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false (1946), p. 33; also in Evangelism http://books.google.de/books?id=gsy20ga71LEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ellen+Gould+Harmon+White+Evangelism&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false (1946), p. 296; also in 1888 - The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials (1987), Ch. 64, p. 547.

Truth, Faith, Understanding, Knowledge

“Mark this well, you proud men of action: You are nothing but the unwitting agents of the men of thought who often, in quiet self-effacement, mark out most exactly all your doings in advance.”

Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) German poet, journalist, essayist, and literary critic

History of Religion and Philosophy in Germany, Vol. III (1834)

Men

Quotes about advance page 3

Quotes about advance
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