We are not asked to subscribe ...

We are not asked to subscribe to any utopia or to believe in a perfect world just around the corner. We are asked to be patient with necessarily slow and groping advance on the road forward, and to be ready for each step ahead as it become practicable. We are asked to equip ourselves with courage, hope, readiness for hard work, and to cherish large and generous ideals.
 Emily Greene Balch

Quotes from the same author

The role of Italy and of Austria has diminished as has that of France and Britain; Germany and Japan have suffered catastrophically.
 Emily Greene Balch
It is natural to try to understand one's own time and to seek to analyse the forces that move it.
 Emily Greene Balch