Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other. . . . Society acquires new arts, and loses old instincts.
Source: Essays, Self-Reliance (First Series), 1841.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, (May 25 1803-1882), US philosopher, poet, essayist; He was the main spokesman of his time for moral optimism and belief in the individual: Self-Reliance, 1844.