Progressive societies outgrow institutions as children outgrow clothes.

Meaning of the quote

Progressive societies, just like children, grow and change over time. As children outgrow their clothes, societies outgrow the institutions, or organizations, that were once useful to them. This means that as a society develops and advances, the structures and systems it once relied on may no longer be the best fit. Just like how children need new, larger clothes as they grow, societies need to update and evolve their institutions to keep up with their progress.

About Henry George

Henry George was an American political economist and journalist whose writings inspired the economic philosophy known as Georgism. His most famous work, ‘Progress and Poverty’, explored the paradox of increasing inequality and poverty despite economic progress, and he advocated for a single tax on land values as a remedy for social problems.

More about the author

More quotes from Henry George

Capital is a result of labor, and is used by labor to assist it in further production. Labor is the active and initial force, and labor is therefore the employer of capital.

Henry George

American political economist and journalist (1839-1897)

He who sees the truth, let him proclaim it, without asking who is for it or who is against it.

Henry George

American political economist and journalist (1839-1897)

How can a man be said to have a country when he has not right of a square inch of it.

Henry George

American political economist and journalist (1839-1897)

Let no man imagine that he has no influence. Whoever he may be, and wherever he may be placed, the man who thinks becomes a light and a power.

Henry George

American political economist and journalist (1839-1897)

How many men are there who fairly earn a million dollars?

Henry George

American political economist and journalist (1839-1897)

Poorly paid labor is inefficient labor, the world over.

Henry George

American political economist and journalist (1839-1897)

There is danger in reckless change, but greater danger in blind conservatism.

Henry George

American political economist and journalist (1839-1897)

Man is the only animal whose desires increase as they are fed; the only animal that is never satisfied.

Henry George

American political economist and journalist (1839-1897)

What has destroyed every previous civilization has been the tendency to the unequal distribution of wealth and power.

Henry George

American political economist and journalist (1839-1897)

The man who gives me employment, which I must have or suffer, that man is my master, let me call him what I will.

Henry George

American political economist and journalist (1839-1897)

That which is unjust can really profit no one; that which is just can really harm no one.

Henry George

American political economist and journalist (1839-1897)

Progressive societies outgrow institutions as children outgrow clothes.

Henry George

American political economist and journalist (1839-1897)

The march of invention has clothed mankind with powers of which a century ago the boldest imagination could not have dreamt.

Henry George

American political economist and journalist (1839-1897)

The methods by which a trade union can alone act, are necessarily destructive; its organization is necessarily tyrannical.

Henry George

American political economist and journalist (1839-1897)