Joan Robinson Quotes

People like the idea of innovation in the abstract, but when you present them with any specific innovation, they tend to reject it because it doesn't fit with what they already know.

As our case is new, we must think and act anew.

I'm always glad to see somebody rethink something rather than reproduce something I did.

We shouldn't repeat the same for ages on end, but look into the new as well.

The greatest difficulty in the world is not for people to accept new ideas, but to make them forget old ideas.

Anything done for the first time unleashes a demon.

Someone, somewhere has a better idea.

The novelty we want is always close to the familiar.

The future may require not so much having a new idea as stopping having an old idea.

We are not here to do what has already been done.

Science has often resisted new ideas and fought bitterly to prevent them coming on board.

Even truth needs to be clad in new garments if it is to appeal to a new age.

I guess my tendency is to think essentially that the new wrinkles won't do the job if the old major idea didn't, and so you have to try something different. Then maybe they can all be combined in some coherent piece.

Every trick is an old one, but with a change of players, a change of dress, it comes out as new as before.

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.

I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.

A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.

There is no subject so old that something new cannot be said about it.

There is resistance to change. There's a resistance to ideas.

New ideas pass through three periods: 1) It can't be done. 2) It probably can be done, but it's not worth doing. 3) I knew it was a good idea all along!

It's not that we need new ideas, but we need to stop having old ideas.

It doesn't matter how new an idea is: what matters is how new it becomes.

It's a new game now, you know, you have to bring some fresh stuff.

Generally what I produce is new. Of course, they are often variations on the same subject.

When new things come along, some people always want the newest of the new - 'This is what I've been waiting for!' - and some people don't want or need the change - 'I like my old one.'