I walk slowly, but I never walk backward.

I walk slowly, but I never walk backward.

There is no advancement to him who stands trembling because he cannot see the end from the beginning.

There is no advancement to him who stands trembling because he cannot see the end from the beginning.

The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.

The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.

And striving to be Man, the worm
Mounts through all the spires of form.

And striving to be Man, the worm
Mounts through all the spires of form.

All rising to great place is by a winding stair.

All rising to great place is by a winding stair.

Westward the course of empire takes its way;
The four first Acts already past,
A fifth shall read more

Westward the course of empire takes its way;
The four first Acts already past,
A fifth shall close the Drama with the day;
Time's noblest offspring is the last.

Those who work most for the world's advancement are the ones who demand least.

Those who work most for the world's advancement are the ones who demand least.

Progress has not followed a straight ascending line, but a spiral
with rhythms of progress and retrogression, of evolution read more

Progress has not followed a straight ascending line, but a spiral
with rhythms of progress and retrogression, of evolution and
dissolution.

What is art
But life upon the larger scale, the higher,
When, graduating up in a spiral read more

What is art
But life upon the larger scale, the higher,
When, graduating up in a spiral line
Of still expanding and ascending gyres,
It pushed toward the intense significance
Of all things, hungry for the Infinite?
Art's life--and where we live, we suffer and toil.