English · Proverb Candidate

he who does not advance goes backwards

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

If you don't make progress, you will lose ground

Literally: one who doesn't move forward moves backward

Examples

He who does not advance goes backwards, so we need to innovate constantly

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed on English Wikiquote “English proverbs” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “he who does not advance goes backwards” mean?

If you don't make progress, you will lose ground Literally: one who doesn't move forward moves backward

Is “he who does not advance goes backwards” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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