Humankind is moving imperceptibly but constantly towards realizing the kingdom of God, which is attained through loving unity.
Every individual and humanity as a whole must both be transformed, going from a lower to a higher state, taking no pause in their growth, the limit of which is in God himself. Every state is a consequence of a past state. Growth occurs constantly and imperceptibly, akin to the growth of an embryo—it happens in such a way that nothing interrupts the chain of successive states of this continuous development. But if the human being and the whole of the human race is destined to be transformed, then this transformation must take place in the work and suffering of both the human being and the human race.
Before one can become great, before one can enter the light, it is necessary to move in the darkness, to endure persecution, to surrender one’s body to save one’s soul; it is necessary to die—to die on the cross, in order to be reborn into a life that is more powerful and perfect. This is what Jesus teaches us with his word and his example. And after eighteen centuries, having completed one of the circles of its development, humankind is again striving to be transformed. Old systems, old societies, everything that constituted the old world is being destroyed or has already been destroyed—and nations now live among the ruins in horror and suffering. At the sight of these ruins, these deaths, which have happened or are about to happen—take heart. That which is going away is a worn out vesture of an Everlasting Being; that which is falling is an autumn leaf. When the sun goes down, winter approaches, but after winter comes spring and the life-giving breath. And this time is coming.
— Lamennais
No, the word of the Almighty God has not yet been fully expressed, and his thought has not yet been wholly revealed. He creates and will continue to create for aeons, a span of time the human mind cannot fathom. Past centuries have merely revealed to us fragments of his creation. Our work will never be finished. We hardly know its source and are completely unaware of its final goal: the age of knowledge and discoveries only expands its boundaries. From one century to the next it ascends to fates unknown to us, searching for its law, the few lines of which we are able to make out.
— Giuseppe Mazzini
Always augment, always keep moving; never stand still and never go back or deviate. The one who stands still is not moving; the one who does not carry on is moving backwards; the one who complains is deviating.
Never be satisfied with what you are if you want to become something else, for wherever you stop, there you will remain. If you say: “I’ve had enough”—you are finished.
— Augustine
Love what you do, but do not love what you have done.
— S. Makovsky
I came to throw fire on the earth. I wish it were already kindled. Do you think that I have come to give peace in the earth? I tell you, no, but rather division.
— Luke 12:49, 51
Life, both of individuals and of the whole of humankind, is a never-ending battle between flesh and spirit. In this battle the spirit always remains victorious, but its victory is never final and the battle never ends, and it is this that constitutes the essence of life.
The purpose of life is for all of its phenomena to become permeated with love; the slow, gradual transformation of evil life into good; the creation of true life (because only loving life is true life); the birth of true, i.e. loving, life.
An internecine war between reason and passion is being waged within the human being. The human being could have some measure of peace if only he had reason without passion, or passion without reason. But, as there is both this and the other in him, he cannot avoid the battle, he cannot make peace with one without battling the other. He is always in division and contradiction with himself.
— Pascal
The human world is constantly being perfected, and the consciousness of this improvement constitutes one of the best joys of a human being, which grows still further for everyone by their being able to participate in this improvement.
