Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. Quotes

I love challenging the status quo.

Mental fight means thinking against the current, not with it. It is our business to puncture gas bags and discover the seeds of truth.

Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many.

No great idea in its beginning can ever be within the law.

We need the disruption of categories that lead us to abandon the difficult, the disagreeable, and the least likely to go very far.

Answers are not enough, students should be encouraged to ask questions and explore alternatives to the norm. Entrepreneurship and invention are the backbone of the new economy, yet I doubt they get more than a nod in economics courses.

I've always shied away from conventional wisdom, though I know the power of it.

To me, unconventional thinking is approaching a problem and asking, 'Why not? Why can't something be done?' If someone can't give me a good reason why you can't do something, I find a way to do it.

Anyone who has begun to think, places some portion of the world in jeopardy.

The only possible effect one can have on the world is through unpopular ideas.

Always listen to experts. They will tell you what can't be done and why. Then do it.

I always grew up with, 'Question authority.'

I reject most conventional wisdom.

To be a contrarian, you've got to be a contrarian against your own people.

I went to grad school because I wanted to learn the rules so I would know how to break them. Breaking the rules is saying, 'I'm breaking in, OK? I'm breaking in your very comfortable little house over here, and I'm going to take a room.'

I am interested in work that jumps boundaries, and that makes trouble. Part of me is comfortable with that: with being a bit of a troublemaker.

The world is kept alive only by heretics.

I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste.

Heretics are the only bitter remedy against the entropy of human thought.

If you're trying to do something different, you can't ask someone to help, because they'll want to make it not different.

You know that I'm always a proponent of doing things differently.

Maybe rock 'n' roll isn't music. Maybe people just need to be reminded that the world ain't the way they think it is.

Attempting to get at truth means rejecting stereotypes and cliches.

I like stirring the pot - I think it's part of my duty, to shake people up a bit - make them look at things in a different way.

Many have built their careers buttressing the status quo, reinforcing what they've already accomplished, and resisting the radical thinking that can topple their legacy - not exactly the attitude you want when trying to drive innovation forward.