Tony Benn Quotes

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

Progress is never accepted by everybody.

Every new theory encounters opposition and rejection at first. The adherents of the old, accepted doctrine object to the new theory, refuse it recognition, and declare it to be mistaken. Years, even decades, must pass before it succeeds in supplanting the old one. A new generation must grow up before its victory is decisive.

Each work has to pass through these stages—ridicule, opposition, and then acceptance. Those who think ahead of their time are sure to be misunderstood.

When you talk about change, you know what makes it really tough for people is on the one hand you've got tradition, and on the other hand you've got change; in many people's mind, change equals modernization. Tradition, however. I'm a big tradition guy.

The more original something is, the more of a threat it seems until the people catch up with it. That happened with Thelonious Monk. It happened with anybody who is really original.

All great truths begin as blasphemies.

Listen, the next revolution is gonna be a revolution of ideas.

Few new truths have ever won their way against the resistance of established ideas save by being overstated.

For any new technology there is always controversy and there always some fear associated with it. I think that's just the price of being first sometimes.

Every revolutionary idea seems to evoke three stages of reaction. They may be summed up by the phrases: 1- It's completely impossible. 2- It's possible, but it's not worth doing. 3- I said it was a good idea all along.

If you want to really change something, do not try to fight the existing reality. create a new reality.

New ideas that fly in the face of conventional wisdom of the day are always greeted with doubt and scorn, even fear.

The way I look at the world is establishment versus change agents. The establishment is those people who want to keep things the way they are. Change agents are people like me.

Any time there's significant change, there's going to be some people who embrace the change and others who are against the change.

In the age of revolution you have to be able to imagine revolutionary alternatives to the status quo. If you can't, you'll be relegated to the swollen ranks of keyboard-pounding automatons.

Change always follows the same pattern. If you come up with something new they try and put you off.If that doesn't work they call you stark raving bonkers.If that doesn't work they lock you up like the suffragettes.Then, after a pause, the change happensand you can't find anyone that doesn't claim to have been fighting for it with you.

Nothing has changed, or will change. So we must change it.

Any time you step forward, someone gets upset.

Every time you go for more competition, some people don't like it, but that's the way it is.

One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.

None of my neighbors believe in what I say. They refuse to wear the rings. They will never accept my invention until the day they die. That's what I call the real antichrists.

I can't let time move on without fighting tooth and nail and hopefully being a part of a revolution that is positive.

A revolutionary idea is usually one with its sleeves rolled up.

Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.