A. J. P. Taylor Quotes

… all change in history, all advance, comes from the nonconformists. If there had been no trouble-makers, no Dissenters, we should still be living in caves.

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.

For still the new transcends the old In signs and tokens manifold; Slaves rise up men; the olive waves, With roots deep set in battle graves!

America was born of revolt, flourished in dissent, became great through experimentation.

Every step of progress means a duty repudiated, and a scripture torn up.

If you wish to understand what Revolution is, call it Progress; and if you wish to understand what Progress is, call it Tomorrow.

All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions.

The idealists dream and the dream is told, and the practical men listen and ponder and bring back the truth and apply it to human life, and progress and growth and higher human ideals come into being and so the world moves ever on.

Societies advance through innovation every bit as much as economies do.

Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.

The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress

History pays more attention to reformers than others. We pay more attention to dissenters too.

Progress knows nothing of fixity. It cannot be pressed into a definite mould…. Progress is ever renewing, ever becoming, ever changing--never is it within the law.

Youth should not accept the old order if the world is to move on.

Be skeptical, question authority, be a rebel. Do not conform and don’t be ordinary. Remember, all human progress is the result of far-sighted people challenging orthodoxy, tradition and rich, powerful, vested interests.

… science is the great instrument of social change, all the greater because its object is not change but knowledge, and its silent appropriation of this dominant function, amid the din of political and religious strife, is the most vital of all the revolutions which have marked the development of modern civilization.

Freedom is the right to question, and change the established way of doing things.…It is the understanding that allows us to recognize shortcomings and seek solutions. It is the right to put forth an idea, scoffed at by the experts, and watch it catch fire among the people. It is the right to dream-- to follow your dream, or stick to your conscience, even if you're the only one in a sea of doubters.

In a progressive country change is constant;… change … is inevitable

We think that a powerful and vigorous movement is impossible without differences — "true conformity" is possible only in the cemetery.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

I know that without change there would be no progress, but I am not going to mistake mere change for progress.

Every generation is more open to new things.

We cannot go backward,' Marco says. 'A great deal is not how it used to be.

All progress depends on the unreasonable man.

I'm in favor of progress; it's change I don't like.