Challenging Status Quo Quotes - Page 2

• We have Christians against Muslims against Jews, and no matter how liberal your theology, merely identifying yourself as a Christian or a Jew lends tacit validity to this status quo. People have morally identified with a subset of humanity rather than with humanity as a whole.

  Sam Harris

  Christian, People, Humanity

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• The greatest pain is the pain of a new idea.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Pain, Science, Ideas

  Martin Luther King, Jr. (2012). “A Gift of Love: Sermons from Strength to Love and Other Preachings”, p.3, Beacon Press

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• When something really bad is going on in a culture, the average guy doesn't see it. He can't. He's average and is surrounded by and immersed in the cant and discourse of the status quo.

  George Saunders

  Average, Guy, Culture

  "This Week in Fiction: George Saunders" by Deborah Treisman, www.newyorker.com. October 4, 2012.

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• Some say that I should settle down, go slower and not push so hard, so quickly for such transformational change. To them, I say that you misunderstand the size of the problems we face, the strength of the status quo and the urgency of the people's desire for change.

  Eliot Spitzer

  People, Desire, Challenging The Status Quo

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• I love challenging the status quo.

  Sara Ramirez

  Challenges, Challenging The Status Quo, Status Quo

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• We emphasize that we believe in change because we were born of it, we have lived by it, we prospered and grew great by it. So the status quo has never been our god, and we ask no one else to bow down before it.

  Carl T. Rowan

  Life, Change, Believe

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• Most of the press is in league with government, or with the status quo.

  Harold Pinter

  Government, League, Challenging The Status Quo

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• People have long assumed that violence is necessary for political change. Rulers never cede power voluntarily, the argument goes, so progressives have no choice but to contemplate the use of force to bring about a better world, mindful of the trade-off between a small amount of violence now and acceptance of an unjust status quo indefinitely.

  Steven Pinker

  Acceptance, Long, People

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• Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.

  Ray Bradbury

  Inspirational, Life, Dream

  Ray Bradbury (2016). “Fahrenheit 451”, p.76, Hamilton Books

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• This nation was founded by rebels and revolutionaries, and its flags were carried across the battlefields by people who were very, very against the status quo and who questioned and criticized.

  Lupe Fiasco

  People, Rebel, Flags

  "From Pine Ridge to preacher pedophilia, Lupe Fiasco album aims to incite". Interview with Eliott C. McLaughlin, www.cnn.com. August 7, 2012.

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• The status quo is simply unacceptable.

  Brad Henry

  Challenging The Status Quo, Status Quo

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• Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status.

  Laurence J. Peter

  Sarcastic, Time, Sarcasm

  1978 In the San Francisco Chronicle, 29 Jan.

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• Corporations often partner with government after natural disasters, as many companies did in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. As a rule, however, long-term civic/corporate partnerships are still rare .But this need not remain the status quo, as many opportunities are available for such partnerships.

  Simon Mainwaring

  Opportunity, Government, Long

  Simon Mainwaring (2011). “We First: How Brands and Consumers Use Social Media to Build a Better World”, p.126, Macmillan

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• Growing up in New York with artist parents - a very liberal environment, where we were always encouraged to challenge the status quo - I think for a long time I confused jingoism with patriotism. And that is a mistake.

  Claire Danes

  New York, Growing Up, Confused

  Interview with Hermione Hoby, www.theguardian.com. September 29, 2012.

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• I grew up in the southern United States in a city which at that time during the late '40's and early '50's was the most segregated city in the country, and in a sense learning how to oppose the status quo was a question of survival.

  Angela Davis

  Country, Cities, Southern

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• The soft-minded man always fears change. He feels security in the status quo, and he has an almost morbid fear of the new. For him, the greatest pain is the pain of a new idea.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Change, Pain, Fear

  Martin Luther King Jr. (1963). “Strength to Love”

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• Live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds.

  Ray Bradbury

  Life, Travel, Adventure

  Ray Bradbury (2016). “Fahrenheit 451”, p.76, Hamilton Books

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• Tonight was a great opportunity to take on the political status quo that has given us trillion dollar deficits and put millions out of work. Our objective was to inject some common sense into the conversation among Republicans at a time when business-as-usual simply won't work.

  Gary Johnson

  Opportunity, Common Sense, Political

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• Pessimism doesn't grow your business or even maintain the status quo. The pessimists on your staff make the job harder for everyone around them. They make difficulties out of opportunities.

  Harvey Mackay

  Jobs, Opportunity, Maintaining The Status Quo

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• Often motivated by a desire to maintain the existing status quo, sloth almost cost the U.S. its auto industry, as it refused for decades to build fuel-efficient cars to compete with Japanese, Korean and European imports.

  Simon Mainwaring

  Maintaining The Status Quo, Car, Sloth

  "Capitalism’s Seven Debtly Sins" by Simon Mainwaring, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 24, 2011.

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• I didn't run for mayor to be the caretaker of the status quo.

  Michael Nutter

  Running, Challenging The Status Quo, Mayors

  "Philadelphia Is Going Nuts for Mayor Michael Nutter". abcnews.go.com. February 13, 2008.

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• Politics isn't just a game of clashing parties and competing interests.

  Sarah Palin

  Party, Games, Challenging The Status Quo

  Republican Vice Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech, delivered 3 September 2008, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota

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• I would say any behavior that is not the status quo is interpreted as insanity, when, in fact, it might actually be enlightenment. Insanity is sorta in the eye of the beholder.

  Chuck Palahniuk

  Eye, Insanity, Enlightenment

  "A chat about the novel 'Fight Club'". www.cnn.com. October 27, 1999.

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• Politics isn't just a game of clashing parties and competing interests. The right reason is to challenge the status quo, to serve the common good, and to leave this nation better than we found it.

  Sarah Palin

  Party, Games, Challenges

  Republican Vice Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech, delivered 3 September 2008, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota

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• And I have a message for the liberals and the defenders of the status quo: we're just getting started.

  Rick Perry

  Challenging The Status Quo, Messages, Getting Started

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