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The more we progress the more we tend to progress. We advance not in arithmetical but in geometrical progression. We draw compound interest on the whole capital of knowledge and virtue which has been accumulated since the dawning of time. Some eighty thousand years are supposed to have existed between paleolithic and neolithic man. Yet in all that time he only learned to grind his flint stones instead of chipping them. But within our father's lives what changes have there not been? The railway and the telegraph, chloroform and applied electricity. Ten years now go further than a thousand then, not so much on account of our finer intellects as because the light we have shows us the way to more. Primeval man stumbled along with peering eyes, and slow, uncertain footsteps. Now we walk briskly towards our unknown goal.

Arthur Conan Doyle#3

HistoryInnovationKnowledgeProgress

About this quote

What does it mean?
Human progress accelerates because we build on past knowledge and tools.
In plain terms
We improve faster over time because we stand on past advances.
What can you take from it?
Progress builds on itself, so learning from the past speeds growth.

Where it applies

  • education
  • innovation
  • research

Putting it to work

  • building on prior work
  • investing in knowledge

Questions to consider

  • How do we ensure progress continues?
  • What stops progress?

Another view

Progress is not guaranteed and can reverse with poor choices.

More from Arthur Conan Doyle

  1. These pictures are not occult, but they are psychic because everything that emanates from the human spirit or human brain is psychic. It is not supernatural; n…

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  2. When you look closely it is a question whether that which is a wrong to the present community may not prove to have been a right to the interests of posterity.…

    Permalink to quote #4
  3. The highest morality may prove also to be the highest wisdom when the half-told story comes to be finished.

    Permalink to quote #1

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