The study of social progress is today not less needed in literature than is the analysis of the human heart.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Literature is at once the cause and the effect of social progress.
The study of history reveals that human progress has not been continuous and regular, but intermittent and spasmodic, often depending upon apparently accidental causes. It is difficult to get a cross-section view of society at any given stage.
Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.
It has often struck me that the relation of two important members of the social body to one another has never been sufficiently considered, or treated of, so far as I know, either by the philosopher or the poet.
Any conversation which does not include the context of the journey of the heart is by definition untrue to who we are as human beings.
Non-violence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain.
There is no persuasiveness more effectual than the transparency of a single heart, of a sincere life.
Progress, of the best kind, is comparatively slow. Great results cannot be achieved at once; and we must be satisfied to advance in life as we walk, step by step.
Every heart that has beat strongly and cheerfully has left a hopeful impulse behind it in the world, and bettered the tradition of mankind.
Life develops, changes, is in motion. The forms of literature are not.