Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Human progress often coincides with moral or spiritual decline.
In plain terms
As humanity gets better at things, it gets worse in spirit.
What can you take from it?
Progress can hide degradation.

Where it applies

  • Discussing technological growth
  • Critiquing modern society
  • Reflecting on ethics

Putting it to work

  • Evaluate progress holistically
  • Watch for hidden costs

Questions to consider

  • What has improved and what has worsened?
  • Is progress always good?

Another view

It ignores that progress can also solve problems.

More from Gustave Flaubert

  1. Writing history is like drinking an ocean and pissing a cupful.

    Permalink to quote #97
  2. The most glorious moments in your life are not the so-called days of success, but rather those days when out of dejection and despair you feel rise in you a ch…

    Permalink to quote #99
  3. The faster the word sticks to the thought, the more beautiful is the effect.

    Permalink to quote #96

Related quotes

  1. Not even the apparently enlightened principle of the 'greatest good for the greatest number' can excuse indifference to individual suffering. There is no test …

    Aneurin BevanAneurin Bevan quote #11
  2. It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.

    Albert EinsteinAlbert Einstein quote #210
  3. If we have learned anything at all in this century, it is that all new technologies will be put to use, sooner or later, for better or worse, as it is in our n…

    Lewis ThomasLewis Thomas quote #6