This you may say of man - when theories change and crash, when schools, philosophies, when narrow dark alleys of thought, national, religious, economic, grow and disintegrate, man reaches, stumbles forward, painfully, mistakenly sometimes. Having stepped forward, he may slip back, but only half a step, never the full step back. John Steinbeck
About This Quote

The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. This quote was written by an author who was actually perfecting his writing style by writing the quote first, then building the story around it. Albert Einstein's first words of his first published book were about that very same concept. He had just discovered the Theory of Relativity and he wanted to convey this idea to the world.

He wrote, "This you may say of man - when theories change and crash, when schools, philosophies, when narrow dark alleys of thought, national, religious, economic, grow and disintegrate." He was saying that as theories grow and change so do our lives. We have a theory of where we fit in society or a theory of how we should live our lives. When those theories take a turn for the worse we may slip back a bit but we always rise a little higher than before.

The world is constantly shifting and changing so we must always be willing to change with it or even better try to change it for ourselves or those around us.

Source: The Grapes Of Wrath

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