“When we are working at a difficult task and strive after a good thing, we are fighting a righteous battle, the direct reward of which is that we are kept from much evil. As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed…. and with a cheerful and brace spirit we must battle; we plan and calculate in order to make progress.”
-Vincent Van Gogh

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”
– Henry Ford

“Fundamental progress has to do with the reinterpretation of basic ideas.”
– Alfred North Whitehead 

“The perfecting of one’s self is the fundamental base of all progress and all moral development.”
– Confucius