This sentence was said by Liang Qichao, a modern Chinese thinker.
1. Source
From Liang Qichao's "Welcome Meeting for Ticket Dealers in Shanxi": "If you are old and can keep it, that's enough! However, I think that people are in the world. Also, like sailing against the current, if you don't advance, you will retreat."
2. Translation
The old things from the past can be retained, and this is considered completed! But I feel that living in this society is like sailing against the direction of the current. If you don't move forward, you will retreat.
3. Author
Liang Qichao (February 23, 1873 - January 19, 1929), also known as Zhuoru, Renfu, Rengong, and Drinking The owner of the ice room, the ice drinker, the guest of mourning, the new people of China, the owner of the free restaurant. During the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, he was a thinker, politician, educator, historian and writer in modern China. One of the leaders of the Reform Movement of 1898 (Hundred Days Reform), a representative figure of modern Chinese reformists and neo-Legalists.
Extended information:
An example of sailing against the current and retreating if you do not advance:
In the Song Dynasty, there was a peasant boy named Fang Zhongyong who could write poems at the age of five. . His father showed the poem to the scholars, and everyone was surprised. From then on, his father kept coming to visit him, asking for Zhongyong's poems. His father was greedy for small profits and took Zhongyong around every day to prevent him from continuing to study. The poems he wrote when he grew up cannot be compared with those at the beginning. Without diligent study, even good talent will be in vain.
In stark contrast to Fang Zhongyong is Zuo Si. Zuo Si was a writer in the Jin Dynasty. He was not smart when he was young. He studied calligraphy and military art, but had no achievements. When his father told a friend that his child was not as good as he was when he was young, Zuo Si was sad to hear that, and made up his mind to study hard and practice writing.
When he was preparing to write Sandu Fu, he was ridiculed by the then writer Lu Ji. But Zuo Si was not discouraged. He hung paper and pens indoors, in front of the door, on the walls and in the toilet, and jotted down a good sentence whenever he thought of it. After ten years of hard work, he finally wrote a poem that even Lu Ji was amazed by. "Sandu Fu". People in Luoyang rushed to buy paper to copy and read, which made the supply of paper in the capital at that time exceed the demand, which was called "Luoyang paper is expensive".
Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia-Sail against the current, if you don’t advance, you will retreat