No idea is so antiquitated that it was not once modern. No idea is so modern that it will not some day be antiquitated . . . to seize the flying thought before it escapes us is our only touch with reality.
All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Change doesn't always lead to improvement, just as not all progress is beneficial.
This quote by Ellen Glasgow emphasizes the distinction between mere change and meaningful growth. It suggests that while change is a constant in life, not every change results in progress or positive development; some changes can be regressive or detrimental, just like movement that doesnβt necessarily lead us toward our goals. The quote invites individuals to reflect on the nature of changes in their lives and to evaluate whether those changes serve their interests and aspirations.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used when discussing the importance of evaluating personal growth during a life transition.
More from Ellen Glasgow
All quotes βSpring, which germinated in the earth, moved also with a strange restlessness, in the hearts of... women. As the weeks passed, inextinguishable hope, which mounts with the rising sap, looked from their faces.
In the past few years, I have made a thrilling discovery ... that until one is over sixty, one can never really learn the secret of living. One can then begin to live, not simply with the intense part of oneself, but with one's entire being.
The things I feared were not in the sky, but in the nature and in the touch of humanity. The cruelty of children . . . the blindness of the unpitiful - these were my terrors. But not the crash of thunder overhead, not the bolts of fire from the clouds.
He felt with the force of a revelation that to throw up the clods of earth manfully is as beneficent as to revolutionize the world. It was not the matter of the work, but the mind that went into it, that counted - and the man who was not content to do small things well would leave great things undone.
Women like to sit down with trouble - as if it were knitting.
Similar quotes
I am and always will be a catalyst for change.
My top priority is for people to understand that they have the power to change things themselves.
Everything that was interesting was outside of Poland. Great music, art, film, hippies, Mick Jagger. It was impossible even to dream of escape. I was convinced as a teen-ager that I would have to spend the rest of my life in this trap.
How can we effect change in the world when only half of it is invited or feel welcome to participate in the conversation?
Change isn't made by asking permission. Change is made by asking forgiveness, later.
But why should not the New Englander try new adventures - not lay so much stress on his grain, his potato and grass crop, and his orchards - and raise other crops than these? Why concern ourselves so much about our beans for seed, and not be concerned at all about a new generation of men.