Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood Quotes

In every society the permanent government is more change averse than the changing government.

The vast majority of human beings dislike and even actually dread all notions with which they are not familiar.... Hence it comes about that at their first appearance innovators have generally been persecuted, and always derided as fools and madmen.

Most governments and people want reform. It’s the prospect of change that makes reform rare.

Progress is never accepted by everybody.

These reforms will not be popular with everybody—especially those who are doing just fine under the present system.

In the absence of a crisis, the status quo in Washington is more or less set in cement, as advocacy groups and turf-conscious government officials are able to thwart change.

Companies, like people, don't much like to change.

We've got a thousand lobbyists in thousand dollar suits giving you a thousand reasons we can't change.

There are people and interests that do not want change. It is not in their interest for this system to change.

The urgent question of our time is whether we can make change our friend and not our enemy.

The danger to the state lies not in the intrusion of new thought but in the effort to stubbornly maintain the old state thought.

To offer change to a Spaniard was like offering a drink to a confirmed alcoholic.

The most conservative man in the world is the British Trade Unionist when you want to change him.

The adherents of the old order have a powerful ally in the natural law of inertia inherent in humanity which is … a natural defense against change.

When push comes to shove, the status quo is a very powerful force.

The great mass of people are incapable of realizing that in economic life nothing is permanent except change. They regard the existing state of affairs as eternal; as it has been so shall it always be.

Senior military officers will not accept defense reform unless it is forced upon them.

Inertia is as powerful a force in society and politics as it is on physics, and effecting change can be demanding and discouraging.

[Independent Federal] agencies, like other bureaucracies don’t like being transformed.. They have cultures and they want to preserve those cultures.

As if governed by Newton's First Law of Motion, an institution will resist any change in its current direction.

The perils of change are so great the promise of the most hopeful theories is so often deceptive, that it is frequently the wiser part to uphold the existing state of things, if it can be done, even though, in point of argument, it should be utterly indefensible.

The swamp doesn’t want to be drained. You have to be careful not to be sucked in.

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

Because we've always done it that way.' During my 12-year tenure as a special agent with the U.S. Secret Service, I heard those words all too often. The agency, in my experience, has an entrenched management culture resistant to change.

Never accept or be too comfortable with the status quo, because the companies that get into trouble are historically the ones that aren't able to adapt to change and respond quickly enough.