Thomas Jefferson Quotes

No great advance has ever been made in science, politics or religion, without controversy.

It is not so difficult a task as to plant new truths, as to root out old errors

Fear of the unknown... They are afraid of new ideas... They are loaded with prejudices, not based upon anything in reality, but based on... "If something is new, I reject it immediately because it's frightening to me." What they do instead is just stay with the familiar. You know, to me, the most beautiful things in all the universe, are the most mysterious.

To all new truths, or renovation of old truths, it must be as in the ark between the destroyed and the about-to-be renovated world. The raven must be sent out before the dove, and ominous controversy must precede peace and the olive wreath.

Kings fear change. Leaders crave it.

Yesterday's fairy tale is today's fact. The magician is only one step ahead of his audience.

There is an enormous inertia that prevents people from change. You must always remember that it is impossible to make something better if you don't make it different - the converse is not true, of course. You cannot make something better unless it is different. And different scares the life out of so many people.

Men invent new ideals because they dare not attempt old ideals. They look forward with enthusiasm, because they are afraid to look back.

Technology still freaks me out a bit.

Just because something is traditional is no reason to do it, of course.

And if things always stayed the same, Scarlett, what would be the reason for bothering to draw breath?

People who feared IBM were wrong, ... Technology is ever-changing.

If we ought not to fear mortal truth, still less should we dread scientific truth. In the first place it can not conflict with ethics? But if science is feared, it is above all because it can give no happiness? Man, then, can not be happy through science but today he can much less be happy without it.

When you do something that people respond to, and then you start altering the blueprint for what worked, it's pretty fear-inducing. But sometimes, you have to do that, in order to push the boundaries.

I think we've been an agent for change, everywhere, and I think change frightens people. They're going nicely in what seems like a settled industry, and someone comes in and says "I can do this better. It doesn't matter how nice that other one is." That's one of the distinguishing points of our acquisitions.

I fear there will be no future for those who do not change.

Do not fear the digital world, it will not kill us all.

All reformations seem formidable before they are attempted.

The idea of a group of elders is that, in past civilizations, they have linked worlds; the other world was also present in this one. There is also the argument that elders have "experience." The problem is that experience teaches fear of change. Experience kills imagination. Experience makes people conservative. What we are facing tomorrow requires the force of imagination, not wisdom from yesterday.

I do not believe that every person, in every walk of life, can succeed in spite of any handicap. That would be perfection. But I do believe that what I was able to attain came to be because we put behind us (no matter how slowly) the dogmas of the past: to discover the truth of today; and perhaps the greatness of tomorrow.

Science is not about status quo. It's about revolution.

It is never too late to give up our prejudices. No way of thinking or doing, however, ancient, can be trusted without proof. ... Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.

Sir, we must beware of needless innovation, especially when guided by logic.

Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand-in-hand. It is because fear is at the basis of those two things. In this world we can now begin a little to understand things, and a little to master them by the help of science, which has forced its way step by step against the Christian religion, against the churches, and against the opposition of all the old precepts.

It is the fate of every truth to be an object of ridicule when it is first acclaimed.