Like leaves on trees the race of man is found,
Now green in youth, now withering on the ground;
Another race, the following spring supplies;
They fall successive, and successive rise:
So generations in their course decay;
So flourish these, when those have passed away. [ Homer, Pope's Iliad ]

We rise to fortune by successive steps; we descend by only one. [ Stanislaus ]

Every successive generation becomes a living memorial of our public schools, and a living example of their excellence. [ Joseph Story ]

Each successive generation plunges into the abyss of passion, without the slightest regard to the fatal effects which such conduct has produced upon their predecessors; and lament, when too late, the rashness with which they slighted the advice of experience, and stifled the voice of reason. [ Steele ]

It is the close observation of little things which is the secret of success in business, in art. in science, and in every pursuit in life. Human knowledge is but an accumulation of small facts made by successive generations of men - the little bits of knowledge and experience carefully treasured up by them growing at length into a mighty pyramid. [ Samuel Smiles ]