Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Humans have a clear and undeniable capacity to improve over time.
In plain terms
People are naturally able to get better.
What can you take from it?
Believe in human capacity for growth.

Where it applies

  • self improvement
  • policy making

Putting it to work

  • set growth goals
  • invest in education

Questions to consider

  • What limits human improvement?
  • How do we measure progress?

Another view

Not all humans or societies improve at the same rate.

More from William Godwin

  1. The poet:who is the legislator of generations and the moral instructor of the world.

    Permalink to quote #2
  2. If there be such a thing as truth, it must infallibly be struck out by the collision of mind with mind.

    Permalink to quote #4
  3. As the true object of education is not to render the pupil the mere copy of his preceptor, it is rather to be rejoiced in, than lamented, that various reading …

    Permalink to quote #1

Related quotes

  1. 6) It is easier to destroy than create. Bin Laden tore down the World Trade Center? Let's see him build one. If human beings didn't have a strong preference fo…

    Larry NivenLarry Niven quote #44
  2. No greater mistake can be made than to imagine that what has been written latest is always the more correct; that what is written later on is an improvement on…

    Arthur SchopenhauerArthur Schopenhauer quote #95
  3. Nothing is more obviously false than that the remedy for the inequality among men consists in their return to the condition of savages and beasts. Philosophy w…

    Percy Bysshe ShelleyPercy Bysshe Shelley quote #207