Quotes about growth
page 11

Calvin Coolidge photo

“Other people have marveled at the growth and strength of America. They have wondered how a few weak and discordant colonies were able to win their independence from one of the greatest powers of the world. They have been amazed at our genius for self-government. They have been unable to comprehend how the shock of a great Civil War did not destroy our Union. They do not understand the economic progress of our people. It is true that we have had the advantage of great natural resources, but those have not been exclusively ours. Others have been equally fortunate in that direction. The progress of America has been due to the spirit of the people. It is in no small degree due to that spirit that we have been able to produce such great leaders.”

Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)

If coming generations are to maintain a like spirit, it will be because they continue to support the principles which these men represented. It is for that purpose that we erect memorials. We can not hold our admiration for the historic figures which we shall see here without growing stronger in our determination to perpetuate the institutions which their lives revealed and established.
1920s, Address at the Black Hills (1927)

Tony Benn photo

“More and more communists are coming to realize that socialism without democracy is no socialism at all. … I believe that the next decade will see the growth in democratic socialism against the ideas of monetarism and corporation.”

Tony Benn (1925–2014) British Labour Party politician

Speech to the European Republic Committee at the American Club in London (25 October 1978), quoted in The Times (26 October 1978), p. 5
1970s

Roy Jenkins photo

“We must restore some stability and be prepared, if necessary, to make some sacrifices, both of dogma and materialism, to achieve it. There is no point in pretending that we are not facing an economic crisis without precedent since the growth of post-war prosperity.”

Roy Jenkins (1920–2003) British politician, historian and writer

Speech to the Pembrokeshire Constituency Labour Party in Haverfordwest (26 July 1974), quoted in The Times (27 July 1974), p. 3
1970s

George Monbiot photo

“Economic growth is the aggregate effect of the quest to accumulate capital and extract profit. Capitalism collapses without growth, yet perpetual growth on a finite planet leads inexorably to environmental calamity.”

George Monbiot (1963) English writer and political activist

"Dare to declare capitalism dead – before it takes us all down with it" https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/25/capitalism-economic-system-survival-earth, The Guardian, 25 April 2019.

Mahatma Gandhi photo
Werner Herzog photo
Benjamin Creme photo
James Callaghan photo
Alice A. Bailey photo
Pete Buttigieg photo
Yuval Noah Harari photo
John F. Kennedy photo
Henry Campbell-Bannerman photo
Vasyl Slipak photo
Annie Besant photo

“It is patent to every student of the closing forty years of the last century, that crowds of thoughtful and moral people have slipped away from the churches, because the teachings they received there outraged their intelligence and shocked their moral sense. It is idle to pretend that the widespread agnosticism of this period had its root either in lack of morality or in deliberate crookedness of mind. Everyone who carefully studies the phenomena presented will admit that men of strong intellect have been driven out of Christianity by the crudity of the religious ideas set before them, the contradictions in the authoritative teachings, the views as to God, man, and the universe that no trained intelligence could possibly admit. Nor can it be said that any kind of moral degradation lay at the root of the revolt against the dogmas of the Church. The rebels were not too bad for their religion; on the contrary, it was the religion that was too bad for them. The rebellion against popular Christianity was due to the awakening and the growth of conscience; it was the conscience that revolted, as well as the intelligence, against teachings dishonouring to God and man alike, that represented God as a tyrant, and man as essentially evil, gaining salvation by slavish submission.”

Annie Besant (1847–1933) British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator

Esoteric Christianity (The Lesser Mysteries) (1914)

Annie Besant photo
Wilhelm Reich photo
Edward Bellamy photo
V. V. Giri photo

“The former President of India, has made outstanding contributions towards designing and evolving labor policy in India. He was a champion of labor movement and a person who was largely responsible for ensuring that labor and employment issues figured prominently in all policy discussions relating to growth and development.”

V. V. Giri (1894–1980) Indian politician and 4th president of India

Mallikarjun Kharge in: Shri Mallikarjun Kharge Minister of Labour and Employment conferred the V.V. Giri Memorial Award 2009 on Prof. Ravi Srivastava of the Jawaharlal Nehru University http://www.pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=64546, Press Information Bureau, 10 August 2010

Chandra Shekhar photo
Rajiv Gandhi photo

“We must see that regional imbalances in the growth of various parties of the country are removed and all the states progress evenly. We shall ensure that all citizens of the country get full opportunity to contribute their might towards India’s progress.”

Rajiv Gandhi (1944–1991) sixth Prime Minister of India

Independence Day speech on 15 August 1985, in p. 30
Quote, Memorable Quotes from Rajiv Gandhi and on Rajiv Gandhi

Nicolae Ceaușescu photo

“Our goals are the same, to have a just system of economics and politics, to let the people of the world share in growth, in peace, in personal freedom, and in the benefits to be derived from the proper utilization of natural resources. We believe in enhancing human rights. We believe that we should enhance, as independent nations, the freedom of our own people.”

Nicolae Ceaușescu (1918–1989) General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party

Jimmy Carter welcoming Ceaușescu (April 1978). [Muravchik, Joshua, Our Worst Ex-President, Commentary magazine., February 2007, http://www.commentarymagazine.com/cm/main/viewArticle.aip?id=10824&page=2]
About Ceaușescu

“Change and growth cannot be halted, time must run on. That is the whole moral of the three books.”

Mervyn Peake (1911–1968) English writer, artist, poet and illustrator

Colin Greenland, Beowulf to Kafka: Mervyn Peake’s Titus Alone, reprinted in the omnibus edition The Gormenghast Novels published by The Overlook Press, p. 1141

Woodrow Wilson photo

“I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world: no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.”

Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American politician, 28th president of the United States (in office from 1913 to 1921)

Attributed in Shadow Kings (2005) by Mark Hill, p. 91; This and similar remarks are presented on the internet and elsewhere as an expression of regret for creating the Federal Reserve. The quotation appears to be fabricated from out-of-context remarks Wilson made on separate occasions:

I have ruined my country.

Attributed by Curtis Dall in FDR: My Exploited Father-in-Law, regarding Wilson's break with Edward M. House: "Wilson … evidenced similar remorse as he approached his end. Finally he said, 'I am a most unhappy man. Unwittingly I have ruined my country.'"

A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit.…

"Monopoly, Or Opportunity?" (1912), criticizing the credit situation before the Federal Reserve was created, in The New Freedom (1913), p. 185

We have come to be one of the worst ruled… Governments….

"Benevolence, Or Justice?" (1912), also in The New Freedom (1913), p. 201

The quotation has been analyzed in Andrew Leonard (2007-12-21), " The Unhappiness of Woodrow Wilson https://www.salon.com/2007/12/21/woodrow_wilson_federal_reserve/" Salon:

I can tell you categorically that this is not a statement of regret for having created the Federal Reserve. Wilson never had any regrets for having done that. It was an accomplishment in which he took great pride.

John M. Cooper, professor of history and author of several books on Wilson, as quoted by Andrew Leonard
Misattributed

Will Durant photo

“See him, the newborn, dirty but marvelous, ridiculous in actuality, infinite in possibility, capable of that ultimate miracle, growth.”

Will Durant (1885–1981) American historian, philosopher and writer

Source: Fallen Leaves (2014), Ch. 1 : Our life begins

Steve Jobs photo
Antoinette Brown Blackwell photo

“There is no more antagonism between growth and reproduction than between growth and thought, growth and muscular activity, growth and breathing.”

Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825–1921) American minister

September 1874, Popular Science Monthly Vol. 5, Article: The Alleged Antagonism Between Growth and Reproduction , p. 607
The Alleged Antagonism Between Growth and Reproduction (1874)

Antoinette Brown Blackwell photo

“Growth and eating are antagonistic.”

Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825–1921) American minister

September 1874, Popular Science Monthly Vol. 5, Article: The Alleged Antagonism Between Growth and Reproduction , p. 607
The Alleged Antagonism Between Growth and Reproduction (1874)

Antoinette Brown Blackwell photo

“In women, if there is a greater arrest of individual growth than in men, the difference begins in the fœtal life; their comparative weight and size at birth are the same as at maturity; and, if the former finish their growth earlier, it must be because relatively they grow more rapidly.”

Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825–1921) American minister

September 1874, Popular Science Monthly Vol. 5, Article: The Alleged Antagonism Between Growth and Reproduction , p. 609
The Alleged Antagonism Between Growth and Reproduction (1874)

Antoinette Brown Blackwell photo
Antoinette Brown Blackwell photo

“Every action, physical or psychical, involves either integration or disintegration; every use of faculty belongs to the latter class. There is no more antagonism between growth and reproduction than between growth and thought, growth and muscular activity, growth and breathing.”

Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825–1921) American minister

September 1874, Popular Science Monthly Vol. 5, Article: The Alleged Antagonism Between Growth and Reproduction , p. 607
The Alleged Antagonism Between Growth and Reproduction (1874)

“Beyond our normal twenty-year outlook period, we recently attempted a forecast of the CO2 [carbon dioxide] build-up. We assumed different growth rates at different times, but with an average growth rate in fossil fuel use of about one percent per year starting today, our estimate is that the doubling of atmospheric CO2 levels might occur sometime late in the 21st century. That includes the impact of a synfuels industry. Assuming the greenhouse effect occurs, rising CO2 concentrations may begin to induce climactic changes around the middle of the 21st century.”

Edward E. David Jr. (1925–2017) American engineer

Keynote address at the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory on the Palisades, New York campus of Columbia University (October 26, 1982) ( Inventing the Future: Energy and the CO2 "Greenhouse Effect", October 26, 1982, December 22, 2018, Exxon, w:Edward E. David Jr., Edward E., David Jr. http://www.climatefiles.com/exxonmobil/inventing-future-energy-co2-greenhouse-effect/,)

Marilyn Ferguson photo

“‘Soft’ skills will be 10X more important in a virtual/work-at-home world. Team dynamics, individual growth, team creativity will dominate effectiveness.”

Tom Peters (1942) American writer on business management practices

06 April 2020
Tom Peters Daily, Weekly Quote

William Cobbett photo
Shaun Chamberlin photo

“Put starkly, most of the wild nature that was here fifty years ago is gone. And still we seek to grow the human economy, and cheer when that growth accelerates.”

"The Sequel: Life After Economic Growth", Tikkun (2018) https://www.tikkun.org/the-sequel-life-after-economic-growth

George Monbiot photo
Alice A. Bailey photo
Karl Pearson photo
Plutarch photo
Steven Best photo
John F. Kennedy photo
John F. Kennedy photo
John F. Kennedy photo
John F. Kennedy photo
John F. Kennedy photo

“The new tax bill should improve both the equity and the simplicity of our present tax system. This means the enactment of long-needed tax reforms, a broadening of the tax base and the elimination or modification of many special tax privileges. These steps are not only needed to recover lost revenue and thus make possible a larger cut in present rates; they are also tied directly to our goal of greater growth. For the present patchwork of special provisions and preferences lightens the tax load of some only at the cost of placing a heavier burden on others. It distorts economic judgments and channels an undue amount of energy into efforts to avoid tax liabilities. It makes certain types of less productive activity more profitable than other more valuable undertakings. All this inhibits our growth and efficiency, as well as considerably complicating the work of both the taxpayer and the Internal Revenue Service. These various exclusions and concessions have been justified in part as a means of overcoming oppressively high rates in the upper brackets--and a sharp reduction in those rates, accompanied by base-broadening, loophole-closing measures, would properly make the new rates not only lower but also more widely applicable. Surely this is more equitable on both counts.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Source: 1962, Address and Question and Answer Period at the Economic Club of New York

John F. Kennedy photo
John F. Kennedy photo

“There are a number of ways by which the Federal Government can meet its responsibilities to aid economic growth. We can and must improve American education and technical training. We can and must expand civilian research and technology. One of the great bottlenecks for this country's economic growth in this decade will be the shortage of doctorates in mathematics, engineering, and physics; a serious shortage with a great demand and an under-supply of highly trained manpower. We can and must step up the development of our natural resources. But the most direct and significant kind of Federal action aiding economic growth is to make possible an increase in private consumption and investment demand--to cut the fetters which hold back private spending. In the past, this could be done in part by the increased use of credit and monetary tools, but our balance of payments situation today places limits on our use of those tools for expansion. It could also be done by increasing Federal expenditures more rapidly than necessary, but such a course would soon demoralize both the Government and our economy. If Government is to retain the confidence of the people, it must not spend more than can be justified on grounds of national need or spent with maximum efficiency.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Source: 1962, Address and Question and Answer Period at the Economic Club of New York

John F. Kennedy photo

“There is no need for us to be satisfied with a rate of growth that keeps good men out of work and good capacity out of use.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Source: 1962, Address and Question and Answer Period at the Economic Club of New York

John F. Kennedy photo
Jeremy Jackson (scientist) photo
Annie Besant photo
Annie Besant photo
Isaac Mashman photo
John Heywood photo

“Ill weede growth fast.”

John Heywood (1497–1580) English writer known for plays, poems and a collection of proverbs

Part I, chapter 10.
Proverbs (1546), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Doug Ford photo
Felix Adler photo
Yang Yuanqing photo

“We want to transform ourselves from a PC market-share leader into a PC-plus innovation leader. This will ensure we have sustained growth, profitability, and the strong foundation to build a great global company that can last for generations.”

Yang Yuanqing (1964) Chinese businessman

Thriving in a ‘PC-plus’ world: An interview with Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/thriving-in-a-pc-plus-world# in McKinsey & Company (1 June 2013)

Donald J. Trump photo

“Job growth is biggest in history.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

2020, July 2020

“Earth had always operated on a continuous-growth model that requires a poverty class. Sustainable models require productive work by all members and are quite different.”

Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) American fiction writer

Source: The Margarets (2007), Chapter 32, “I Am Gretamara/On Mars” (p. 272)

David R. Henderson photo

“The history of economic growth is the history of people making more with less and shifting into new jobs that were unheard of in the previous generation.”

David R. Henderson (1950) American economist

“The Case for a Dynamic Economy,” Hoover Daily Report (Sept. 22, 2003)

Roh Moo-hyun photo
Samuel Butler photo
Jack Conte photo

“The growth of the creator economy has accelerated much faster than I ever could have dreamed of when we began this journey eight years ago. We are at a critical inflection point and I’m excited to partner closely with Tiffany to scale our teams to power our next phase of growth.”

Jack Conte (1984) American musician and entrepreneur

Source: Patreon chief: IPO “on the table” but not all creators will benefit https://www.verdict.co.uk/patreon-ipo/ (October 22, 2021)

Charles Fillmore photo
Stephanie Okereke Linus photo

“Growth is a gradual process and you must aspire to it every day. This must be backed with a strong determination to succeed.”

Stephanie Okereke Linus (1982) Nigerian Actress and singer

Source: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/exclusive-interview-with-_37_b_11591236 During an interview (December 6 2017)

“I believe that women in rural India needs right tools on the right time for accelerating the growth of economy.”

[imdb.com, Namita Priya: I am an entertainer, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm12364555/, 1 June, 2020]
[goodreads.com, Namita Priya: goodreads, https://www.goodreads.com/namitapriya, 15 August, 2020]
Famous Quotes

Jay Samit photo
Jose Romeo Lazo photo

“Allow our common home to rest from our throw-away culture, our addiction to consumption, to unlimited economic growth, and to the dirty and deadly fossil fuels. Let us open ourselves to the new normal of interconnectedness and interrelatedness. We are in this together.”

Jose Romeo Lazo (1949) Filipino Roman Catholic archbishop

Source: Philippine Church flags off Season of Creation https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2020-09/philippines-church-society-celebrate-season-creation.html (3 September 2020)

Vera Stanley Alder photo
Winston S. Churchill photo
John Wesley photo
Leopold II of Belgium photo

“Young trees need stakes to support them, but the stakes must be removed once the trees begin to grow, precisely so not to hinder their growth.”

Leopold II of Belgium (1835–1909) King of the Belgians

Source: Leopold II, King of the Belgians in a letter to his minister, Charles Woeste, dated June 9, 1901. https://archive.org/details/TheBelgo-congoleseRoundTable/page/n1/mode/2up

A. C. Grayling photo

“The growth of civilisation is measured by refinements of living and increasing distance from the immediacies of survival.”

A. C. Grayling (1949) English philosopher

Source: Life, Sex, and Ideas: The Good Life Without God (2002), Chapter 13, “Sex” (p. 49)

Joe Biden photo

“[S]ome of last month’s job growth is a result of the December relief package. But without a rescue plan, these gains are going to slow. We can’t afford one step forward and two steps backwards. We need to beat the virus, provide essential relief, and build an inclusive recovery.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

2021, March 2021, Remarks by President Biden Before Economic Briefing with Treasury Secretary Yellen

Bounnhang Vorachit photo

“Cooperation for development has now become the major trend of our contemporary world. We have clearly witnessed that diverse forms and scope of cooperation have taken place within and among the regions thus providing a strong boost to the world economic growth.”

Bounnhang Vorachit (1937) former General Secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (2016-2021)

"Keynote Address by H.E. Mr. Bounnhang Vorachith Prime Minister of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic" https://asean.org/keynote-address-by-h-e-mr-bounnhang-vorachith-prime-minister-of-the-lao-peoples-democratic-republic-2/ (26 July 2005)

Joe Biden photo

“We’re now 40 years into the experiment of letting giant corporations accumulate more and more power. And where- — what have we gotten from it? Less growth, weakened investment, fewer small businesses. Too many Americans who feel left behind. Too many people who are poorer than their parents.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

2021, July 2021, Remarks by President Biden At Signing of An Executive Order Promoting Competition in the American Economy

Zafar Mirzo photo

“The difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset is the difference between stagnation and success.”

Source: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/11654664-the-difference-between-a-fixed-mindset-and-a-growth-mindset