Literary notes about Retrogress (AI summary)
Literary usage of "retrogress" often conveys a sense of moving backward or declining in a sequence that initially appeared progressive. It appears in depictions of historical regression and developmental decline, as when the progression of civilization is contrasted with the potential to retrogress collectively [1] or when the evolution of species and even organs is described as having a capacity to retrogress after a period of maturation [2][3]. The term is also used in more abstract, philosophical, or even metaphorical frameworks—suggesting that to halt or look backward is to retrogress, as noted in discussions concerning time and progress [4][5]. In these contexts, retrogression becomes a counterbalance to progress, showing that advancement can be unstable or interspersed with repetitive declines, whether in political or legal histories [6][7] or the natural order of development [8].
- [ 233 ] Unless the world is again to retrogress collectively in its civilization, this polemic will not long avail to obscure historic issues.
— from The Jesus Problem: A Restatement of the Myth Theory by J. M. (John Mackinnon) Robertson - In truth, the crime of these men is that they caused the German people to retrogress more than 12 centuries.
— from Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremburg, 14 November 1945-1 October 1946, Volume 6 by Various - The pituitary, too, begins to retrogress after the period of maturity.
— from The Glands Regulating Personality A Study of the Glands of Internal Secretion in Relation to the Types of Human Nature by Louis Berman - To stand still is to retrogress; to glance backwards 321 is to lose time, and if we pause now we are lost in the future.
— from Tanks in the Great War, 1914-1918 by J. F. C. (John Frederick Charles) Fuller - But, although wine has not led me to the goal of my desires, I will not stray from its path, for when one follows a road he cannot retrogress. 54.
— from The Sufistic Quatrains of Omar Khayyam by Omar Khayyam - Feudalism as progress and retrogress, 224 .
— from Domesday Book and Beyond: Three Essays in the Early History of England by Frederic William Maitland - Progress and retrogress in the history of legal ideas.
— from Domesday Book and Beyond: Three Essays in the Early History of England by Frederic William Maitland - That certain animals degenerate or retrogress in their development is susceptible of ready and familiar illustration.
— from Degeneracy: Its Causes, Signs and Results by Eugene S. (Eugene Solomon) Talbot
