"Science has been advancing without interruption during the last three of four hundred years; every new discovery has led to new problems and new methods of solution, and opened up new fields for exploration. Hitherto men of science have not been compelled to halt, they have always found ways to advance further. But what assurance have we that they will not come up against impassable barriers? ...Take biology or astronomy. How can we be sure that some day progress may not come to a dead pause, not because knowledge is exhausted, but because our resources for investigation are exhausted. ... It is an assumption, which cannot be verified, that we shall not reach a point in our knowledge of nature beyond which the human intellect is unqualified to pass."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
J. B. Bury, The Idea of Progress: An Inquiry Into Its Origin and Growth (1921) Introduction
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Progress
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Progress
124 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Progress →
Related Quotes
"The condition of all progress is experience. We go wrong a thousand times before we find the right path. We struggle,…"
"It is not possible to enter into the nature of the Good by standing aloof from it — by merely speculating upon it. Ac…"
"A cultural delusion is widespread in the twentieth century. The extraordinary progress in science and technology that…"
"If a given science accidentally reached its goal, this would by no means stop the workers in the field, who would be …"
"The law of progress holds that everything now must be better than what was there before. Don’t you see if you want so…"
"You have to start with the truth. The truth is the only way that we can get anywhere. Because any decision-making tha…"
"Progress is not towards, but away from the herd. It is no part of the Socialist idea that there should be in every hu…"
"Those who look forward to a period of continuous and, so to speak, inevitable progress, are bound to assign some more…"
"Humanity, in the aggregate, is progressing, and philanthropy looks forward hopefully."
"So long as all the increased wealth which modern progress brings, goes but to build up great fortunes, to increase lu…"