With the introduction of agriculture mankind entered upon a long period of meanness, misery, and madness, from which they are only now being freed by the beneficent operation of the machine.

The progress of India is the destiny of one-sixth of humanity. And it will also mean a world more confident of its prosperity and more secure about its future.

The march of science and technology does not imply growing intellectual complexity in the lives of most people. It often means the opposite.

We’re all of us guinea pigs in the laboratory of God. Humanity is just a work in progress.

I may not be where I want to be, but thank God I am not where I used to be.

It is a quality of revolutions not to go by old lines or old laws, but to break up both and make new ones.

The second office in the government is honorable and easy; the first is but a splendid misery.

It takes a long time to bring the past up to the present.

While some doubted that connecting the world was actually important, we were building. While others doubted that this would be sustainable, you were forming lasting connections. We just cared more about connecting the world than anyone else. And we still do today.

In the history of medicine, it is not always the great scientist or the learned doctor who goes forward to discover new fields, new avenues, new ideas.

I find myself hoping a total end of all the unhappy divisions of mankind by party-spirit, which at best is but the madness of many for the gain of a few.

History has proven that each generation of Howard graduates will forge the way forward for our country and our world.

It’s a question of whether we’re going to go forward into the future, or past to the back.

Circumstances give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing color and discriminating effect. The circumstances are what render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind.

Changes and progress very rarely are gifts from above. They come out of struggles from below.

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.

We have not yet reached the goal but… we shall soon, with the help of God, be in sight of the day when poverty shall be banished from this nation.

I feel very strongly that SpaceX would not have been able to get started, nor would we have made the progress that we have, without the help of NASA.

Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind.

The credit of advancing science has always been due to individuals and never to the age.

There are GMO skeptics more in Europe maybe than in other places, but not exclusively.

The day will come – and it is not far off – when the legacy of Lincoln will finally be fulfilled at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, when a black man or woman will sit in the Oval Office. When that day comes, the most remarkable thing about it will be how naturally it occurs.

Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.

Our brand of democracy is hard. But I can promise that a year from now, when I no longer hold this office, I’ll be right there with you as a citizen – inspired by those voices of fairness and vision, of grit and good humor and kindness that have helped America travel so far.

Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail.

It may be the cock that crows, but it is the hen that lays the eggs.

The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.

I think a simple rule of business is, if you do the things that are easier first, then you can actually make a lot of progress.

If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress.

The slogan of progress is changing from the full dinner pail to the full garage.

Choose your life’s mate carefully. From this one decision will come 90 percent of all your happiness or misery.

The lessons of history would suggest that civilisations move in cycles. You can track that back quite far – the Babylonians, the Sumerians, followed by the Egyptians, the Romans, China. We’re obviously in a very upward cycle right now, and hopefully that remains the case. But it may not.

Humanity is still advancing; and it will probably continue to advance for hundreds of thousands of years more, always on condition that we know how to keep the same line of advance as our ancestors towards ever greater consciousness and complexity.

It behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic is of altogether secondary importance, and that, in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things.

If misery loves company, misery has company enough.

And so our goal on health care is, if we can get, instead of health care costs going up 6 percent a year, it’s going up at the level of inflation, maybe just slightly above inflation, we’ve made huge progress. And by the way, that is the single most important thing we could do in terms of reducing our deficit. That’s why we did it.

And while the law of competition may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department.

No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.

Start wide, expand further, and never look back.

In my case Pilgrim’s Progress consisted in my having to climb down a thousand ladders until I could reach out my hand to the little clod of earth that I am.

Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.

Practice yourself, for heaven’s sake in little things, and then proceed to greater.

The world moves, and ideas that were once good are not always good.

Opposite to godliness is atheism in profession, and idolatry in practice. Atheism is so senseless and odious to mankind, that it never had many professors.

The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not.

High-quality early-childhood programs and health coverage have expanded, and the number of mentoring relationships for at-risk youth has risen dramatically. That progress is encouraging, but it’s not evenly distributed.

Science has not yet taught us if madness is or is not the sublimity of the intelligence.

There is nothing more miserable in the world than to arrive in paradise and look like your passport photo.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

Concede that the new government of Louisiana is only to what it should be, as the egg is to the fowl; we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it.

Most poets are young simply because they have not been caught up. Show me an old poet, and I’ll show you, more often than not, either a madman or a master… it’s when you begin to lie to yourself in a poem in order simply to make a poem that you fail. That is why I do not rework poems.

If selfishness is the key to being miserable, then selflessness must be the key to being happy!

If you’ve spent a long time developing a skill and techniques, and now some 14 year-old upstart can get exactly the same result, you might feel a bit miffed I suppose, but that has happened forever.

Yes, we’ve still got more work to do. More work to do for every American still in need of a good job or a raise, paid leave or a decent retirement; for every child who needs a sturdier ladder out of poverty or a world-class education; for everyone who has not yet felt the progress of these past seven and a half years.

In the literal sense, there has been no relevant evolution since the trek from Africa. But there has been substantial progress towards higher standards of rights, justice and freedom – along with all too many illustrations of how remote is the goal of a decent society.

Self-government does not and should not imply the use of political agencies alone. Progress is born of cooperation in the community – not from governmental restraints.

I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone – and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward.

To innovate is not to reform.

Although personally I am quite content with existing explosives, I feel we must not stand in the path of improvement.

People are going to buy cheap fertilizer so they can grow enough crops to feed themselves, which will be increasingly difficult with climate change.