Full Idea
All that is distinctively human in the life of man springs not from the desire to possess this or that object, and so far to realise a better, but to be something more and better than he is.
Gist of Idea
What is distinctive of human life is the desire for self-improvement
Source
report of T.H. Green (works [1875]) by John H. Muirhead - The Service of the State II
Book Reference
Muirhead,John H.: 'The Service of the State: T.H. Green' [John Murray 2021], p.27
A Reaction
An example of Victorian optimism, I think. I'm guessing that people who are not motivated by this impulse are not behaving in a way that is 'distinctively human'. That said, this is an interesting aspect of human nature.
Related Idea
Idea 22033 Hegel tried to avoid Kant's dualism of neutral intuitions and imposed concepts [Hegel, by Pinkard]