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
Those interested in perpetuating present conditions are always in tears about the marvelous past that is about to disappear, without having so much as a smile for the young future.
You can't change your past but you can change you destiny but deciding for Christ.
If you want to change who you are, begin by changing the size of your dream. Even if you are broke, it does not cost you anything to dream of being rich. Many poor people are poor because they have given up on dreaming.
So, tomorrow, Iβm leaving. And Iβm not going to let that happen again with anyone else. Iβm going to do what I want to do. Iβm going to be who I really am. And Iβm going to figure out what that is.
A man who is used to acting in one way never changes; he must come to ruin when the times, in changing, no longer are in harmony with his ways.
One mighty deed can change the course of things; a lonely thought becomes omnipotent.