Progress is the stride of God.

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French writer, journalist, human rights activist, politician

(Attributed)

Widely attributed to Hugo, but I cannot find a primary source for it. In a few places it is cited to his William Shakespeare (1864), but not in the two English translations I could find for it, nor could I identify it in the French.

The earliest attribution to Hugo I found was in Day's Collacon (1884), without citation. If this is a loose paraphrase of something in William Shakespeare, I have not tracked it down.

Variants:

• Progress is the stride of God himself.
• Progress is the stride of God, and God never takes a step backward.