Dangerous Ideas Quotes

• The most dangerous ideas in a society are not the ones being argued, but the ones that are assumed.

  C. S. Lewis

  Ideas, Dangerous

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• An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Witty, Writing

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.1001, Wordsworth Editions

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• Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it is the only one you have.

  Emile Chartier

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Wisdom

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• The most dangerous ideas are not those that challenge the status quo. The most dangerous ideas are those so embedded in the status quo, so wrapped in a cloud of inevitability, that we forget they are ideas at all.

  Jacob M. Appel

  Clouds, Challenges, Forget

  Jacob M. Appel (2014). “Phoning Home: Essays”, p.76, Univ of South Carolina Press

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• The notion that the species can be improved in some way, that everyone could live in harmony, is a really dangerous idea. Those who are afflicted with this notion are the first ones to give up their souls, their freedom. Your desire that it be that way will enslave you and make your life vacuous.

  Cormac McCarthy

  Giving Up, Ideas, Soul

  "Cormac McCarthy's Venomous Fiction" by Richard B. Woodward, archive.nytimes.com. April 19, 1992.

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• New ideas pass through three periods: 1) It can't be done. 2) It probably can be done, but it's not worth doing. 3) I knew it was a good idea all along!

  Arthur C. Clarke

  Three, Done, Original Ideas

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• As a society, we pick words that are offensive based on what we're most afraid of. We associate sounds with some dangerous idea, and right now the most dangerous thing to us are the differences between us.

  Richard Dooling

  Differences, Sound, Offensive

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• As a rule, the most dangerous ideas are not the ones that divide people but those on which they agree.

  Stephen Vizinczey

  Work, People, Agree

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

  Richard Dawkins

  Yesterday, Today, Orthodoxy

  Source: bobmorris.biz

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• The Gospel is a very dangerous idea. We have to see how much of that dangerous idea we can perform in our own lives. There is nothing innocuous or safe about the Gospel. Jesus did not get crucified because he was a nice man.

  Walter Brueggemann

  Jesus, Nice, Men

  Interview with Micky Jones, medium.com.

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• Let me lay my cards on the table. If I were to give an award for the single best idea anyone ever had, I'd give it to Darwin, ahead of even Newton or Einstein and everyone else. In a single stroke, the idea of evolution by natural selection unifies the realm of life, meaning, and purpose with the realm of space and time, cause and effect, mechanism and physical law. It is not just a wonderful idea. It is a dangerous idea.

  Daniel Dennett

  Ideas, Space, Awards

  "Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life". Book by Daniel Dennett, 1995.

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• Literature was intended to be dangerous. Art was meant to be dangerous. Ideas were nothing if they were not dangerous.

  Timothy Findley

  Art, Literature, Were Meant To Be

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• You have to have a temperamental attraction to dangerous ideas.

  Jim Holt

  Ideas, Danger, Attraction

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• Donald Trump doesn't have a plan. He said, I have a secret plan, and then he said, um, I know more than all the generals about ISIS. And then he said, I'm going to call the generals to help me figure out a plan. And finally he said, I'm going to fire all the generals. He doesn't have a plan. But he does have dangerous ideas.

  Tim Kaine

  Fire, Isis, Secret

  Source: www.politico.com

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• I have grown to believe that there is no dangerous idea, which does not become less dangerous when written out in sincere and careful English.

  William Butler Yeats

  Believe, Ideas, Doe

  William Butler Yeats (2001). “The Major Works”, p.443

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• Mothering has been the richest experience of my life, but I am still opposed to Mother's Day. It perpetuates the dangerous idea that all parents are somehow superior to non-parents.

  Anne Lamott

  Mother, Parent, Stills

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• [Donald Trump] suggestions that the United States should leave the Pacific and let Japan, South Korea, or whoever else wants to develop nuclear weapons. These are incredibly dangerous ideas that need to be confronted.

  Hillary Clinton

  Japan, Korea, Ideas

  Source: www.businessinsider.com

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• Donald Trump doesn't have a plan. But he does have dangerous ideas.

  Tim Kaine

  Doe, Trump, Plans

  Source: www.politico.com

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• For me, the key question is what's behind the dangerous idea. If it's simply to stir things up and appear radical, I'm not interested. But if it's done with a quest to learn, evolve, and improve the quality of life for people everywhere, I'm on board.

  David Livermore

  Keys, People, Quality

  Source: bobmorris.biz

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• Religious reasons, which is no reason. I notice Skeptic had a review of Dennett's book, Darwin's Dangerous Idea. Religious reasons amount to what Dennett terms "skyhooks." Do you believe in skyhooks? I don't.

  Garrett Hardin

  Religious, Believe, Book

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• The only antidote to dangerous ideas is strong alternatives vigorously advocated.

  Lawrence Summers

  Strong, Evil, Alternatives

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