Is it progress if a cannibal uses a knife and fork?

Is it progress if a cannibal uses a knife and fork?

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.

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.

Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.

Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.

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.

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.

Finds progress, man's distinctive mark alone,
Not God's, and not the beast's;
God is, they are,
read more

Finds progress, man's distinctive mark alone,
Not God's, and not the beast's;
God is, they are,
Man partly is, and wholly hopes to be.

He that is good, will infallibly become better, and he that is bad, will as certainly become worse; for vice, read more

He that is good, will infallibly become better, and he that is bad, will as certainly become worse; for vice, virtue and time are three things that never stand still.

From lower to the higher next,
Not to the top, is Nature's text;
And embryo good, to read more

From lower to the higher next,
Not to the top, is Nature's text;
And embryo good, to reach full stature,
Absorbs the evil in its nature.