The power of a bold idea uttered publicly in defiance of dominant opinion cannot be easily measured. Those special people who speak out in such a way as to shake up not only the self-assurance of their enemies, but the complacency of their friends, are precious catalysts for change.

Howard Zinn
About This Quote

Sometimes a bold idea can be so powerful that it can change the world. For instance, the people who came up with the idea of Facebook did not set out to change the world. They just wanted to get together and share photos. However, they did something that had never been done before.

The idea of Facebook changed the way that people think about social media and how friends should interact. By doing this, Mark Zuckerberg and his colleagues have created a huge impact on the world.

Source: You Cant Be Neutral On A Moving Train: A Personal History Of Our Times

Some Similar Quotes
  1. Love can change a person the way a parent can change a baby- awkwardly, and often with a great deal of mess. - Lemony Snicket

  2. Therefore, dear Sir, love your solitude and try to sing out with the pain it causes you. For those who are near you are far away.. and this shows that the space around you is beginning to grow vast.. be happy about your growth, in... - Rainer Maria Rilke

  3. In youth, it was a way I had, To do my best to please. And change, with every passing lad To suit his theories. But now I know the things I know And do the things I do, And if you do not like me... - Dorothy Parker

  4. Even if you cannot change all the people around you, you can change the people you choose to be around. Life is too short to waste your time on people who don’t respect, appreciate, and value you. Spend your life with people who make you... - Roy T. Bennett

  5. Keep your best wishes, close to your heart and watch what happens - Tony Deliso

More Quotes By Howard Zinn
  1. TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine...

  2. But human beings are not machines, and however powerful the pressure to conform, they sometimes are so moved by what they see as injustice that they dare to declare their independence. In that historical possibility lies hope.

  3. The willingness to undertake such action cannot be based on certainties, but on those possibilities glimpsed in a reading of history different from the customary painful recounting of human cruelties. In such a reading we can find not only war but resistance to war, not...

  4. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.

  5. Before God and high heaven, is there a law for one man which is not a law for every other man?

Related Topics