Emma Goldman Quotes

A lot of these people, these program directors, just like anybody else in the world, even though they're supposed to be leaders in the world, they're followers. They follow what they think someone else is doing, instead of trying to blaze a trail.

Conservatism, I believe, is mainly due to want of imagination.

France has chosen to ignore the great transformation of the 21st century and cultivate a [culture of] status quo and rigidity.

Nothing is more difficult, in general, than to make a nation perceive anything as true, or seek its own interest, in any manner but as its forefathers have opined and acted.

Generally, a writer of force is anywhere from 20 years to 200 years ahead of his generation.

I think some people are just very passionate that things remain the way they were when they were kids.

The overwhelming pressure of mediocrity, sluggish and indomitable as a glacier, will mitigate the most violent, and depress the most exalted revolution.

These are the days when men of all social disciplines and all political faiths seek the comfortable and the accepted; when the man of controversy is looked upon as a disturbing influence; when originality is taken to be a mark of instability; and when, in minor modification of the original parable, the bland lead the bland.

Any great change must expect opposition, because it shakes the very foundation of privilege.

There is very little point in trying to urge the world to mend its ways as long as that world is still convinced that its ways are perfectly adequate.

We have ordered things so long in a certain way, we are numb. Nobody dares question it. This is what is wrong, symbolically, with America.

People who talk incessantly about "change" are often dogmatically set in their ways. They want to change other people.

Every original idea is first ridiculed, then vigorously attacked, and finally taken for granted.

We want a few mad people now. See where the sane ones have landed us!

The contemporary church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch supporter of the status quo.

Inertia! Our ruling class knows one law; no change. Despotism! They know one rule; force. Maldistribution! They know one desire; to hold what is theirs.

We always know which is the best road to follow, but we follow only the road that we have become accustomed to.

Yesterday's dangerous idea is today's orthodoxy and tomorrow's cliché.

It requires a certain kind of bravery, I suppose, to choose the status quo. There's a certain boldness to inaction.

One of the basics of a good system of innovation is diversity. In some ways, the stronger the culture (national, institutional, generational, or other), the less likely it is to harbor innovative thinking. Common and deep-seated beliefs, widespread norms, and behavior and performance standards are enemies of new ideas. Any society that prides itself on being harmonious and homogeneous is very unlikely to catalyze idiosyncratic thinking. Suppression of innovation need not be overt. It can be simply a matter of peoples walking around in tacit agreement and full comfort with the status quo.

All evolution in thought and conduct must at first appear as heresy and misconduct.

The most damaging phrase in the language is: 'It's always been done that way.'

Don’t accept the habitual as a natural thing. In times of disorder, of organized confusion, of de-humanized humanity, nothing should seem natural. Nothing should seem impossible to change.

Organizations, by their very nature are designed to promote order and routine. They are inhospitable environments for innovation.

stoicism and silence does not serve us nor our communities, only the forces of things as they are.