William O. Douglas Quotes

I've realized that I've pioneered many things and have been a front-runner in a lot of things. I did many things ahead of time.

The job isn't to catch up to the status quo; the job is to invent the status quo.

I have an almost complete disregard of precedent, and a faith in the possibility of something better. It irritates me to be told how things have always been done. I defy the tyranny of precedent. I go for anything new that might improve the past.

The glory of each generation is to make its own precedents.

Almost all new ideas have a certain aspect of foolishness when they are first produced.

An Englishman is a person who does things because they have been done before. An American is a person who does things because they haven't been done before.

The man with a new idea is a crank until his idea succeeds.

Leaders must go ahead even when moving ahead is controversial. You must be ahead of time, because if you want to represent the status quo, what do you need leaders for?

I don't like to follow in the footsteps. I like to learn from the footsteps that came before me, forge a new path.

I just really love being the first to do something and that drives me to think, 'What are people not doing right now, and how can I be the best at it?'

AEW is history-making. When the chance presented itself to be a part of something so groundbreaking, I wasn't going to wait around any longer.

I'm about making history and doing things that haven't been done before.

We need these figures who don't exactly go against the grain but create a new grain.

I always want to do something groundbreaking, something different. I think that's what it's always about. If you have the means to do it, why not?

A lot of these people, these program directors, just like anybody else in the world, even though they're supposed to be leaders in the world, they're followers. They follow what they think someone else is doing, instead of trying to blaze a trail.

I didn't expect such a huge reaction, but I knew I was doing something different to everything else that was happening at the time.

People have laughed at all great inventors and discoverers.

To be successful be ahead of your time, but only a little.

Never forget that what becomes timeless was once truly new.

Don't follow trends, start trends.

I felt like I was trailblazing. And that's what I did.

Since I was in my early twenties, at ABC, I was always only interested in things that were not already being done.

Truth always originates in a minority of one, and every custom begins as a broken precedent.

Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable.

But we also believe in taking risks, because that's how you move things along.