As long as the vision of heaven is always changing, the vision of earth will be exactly the same.

No ideal will remain long enough to be realised, or even partly realised.

The modern young man will never change his environment; for he will always change his mind.
This, therefore, is our first requirement about the ideal towards which progress is directed; it must be fixed.

Whistler used to make many rapid studies of a sitter; it did not matter if he tore up twenty portraits.
But it would matter if he looked up twenty times, and each time saw a new person sitting placidly for his portrait.

So it does not matter (comparatively speaking) how often humanity fails to imitate its ideal; for then all its old failures are fruitful.