Marya Mannes Quotes

The first resistance to social change is to say it's not necessary.

The conservative who resists change is as valuable as the radical who proposes it.

The people generally get accustomed to the established order of things and begin to tremble at the very idea of a change. It is this lethargical spirit that needs be replaced by the revolutionary spirit. Otherwise degeneration gains the upper hand and the whole humanity is led stray by the reactionary forces. Such a state of affairs leads to stagnation and paralysis in human progress. The spirit of Revolution should always permeate the soul of humanity, so that the reactionary forces may not accumulate to check its eternal onward march.

Progress is never accepted by everybody.

Certainly none of the advances made in civilization has been due to counterrevolutionaries and advocates of the status quo.

What if I told you that 10 years from now, your life would be exactly the same? I doubt you would be happy. So, why are you so afraid of change?

Conservatism cherishes tradition; innovation fetishizes novelty. They tug in different directions, the one toward the past, the other toward the future.

It will always be a battle a day between those who want maximum change and those who want to maintain the status quo.

Ignorance is always afraid of change.

Come, come, my conservative friend, wipe the dew off your spectacles, and see that the world is moving.

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

Each of us have to decide whether we’re going to be a force for progress or an obstacle to progress.

Man is by nature a conservative animal and government is his instrument for preventing rapid change.

Tradition, by its very nature, includes continuous change.

If we want everything to remain as it is, it will be necessary for everything to change.

Better the devil you know than the devil you don't know.

Beginning reform is beginning revolution.

Youth should not accept the old order if the world is to move on.

The adherents of the old order have a powerful ally in the natural law of inertia inherent in humanity which is … a natural defense against change.

I have always believed in discontent – not grumbling, which is usually selfish and individual – but a disinclination to sit down idly, knowing things are wrong.

When push comes to shove, the status quo is a very powerful force.

It is essential to release humanity from the false fixations of yesterday, which seem now to bind it to a rationale of action leading only to extinction.

All political action aims at either preservation or change.

Every conservative policy, however, is fated from the start to fail; after all, its essence is to stop something unstoppable, to resist a development that cannot be impeded.

Inertia is as powerful a force in society and politics as it is on physics, and effecting change can be demanding and discouraging.