Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes
The new statement is always hated by the old, and, to those dwelling in the old, comes like an abyss of skepticism.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Circles." Essays: First Series, James Munroe and Company, 1841, p. 250.
Zhou, more than any other Chinese official, was responsible for the dramatic change in the Chinese economic shift from a classical socialist model to a modern market driven competitive economy.
Most major new scientific findings are conceptually different from what the current generation of scientists have learned and been used to. It takes some time for reflection and the death of the most recalcitrant scientists. For the new generation of scientists there is no problem. Today, even college students have little trouble thinking in the framework of Einstein’s Relativity, while that was a huge problem for most when Einstein fist published at the beginning of the 20th century.
He was referring to the institutions in the particular fields. An established institution in education like a university might develop an innovation in astronomy or language translation, but not likely develop significant innovations in education. An established computer programming company might innovate the method of warehousing and shipping merchandise, but they are not likely to develop an innovative way of computer programming. That is typically done by a programming non-established firm or individual. There are a number of exceptions and this is not put forth as a general principle, but as a statistical observation. Established institutions are working harder and smarter to find ways of innovating regularly, and may succeed more frequently than the present.
While this is often true, it is another Mises exaggeration using the word “every” in this quotation. Darwin’s theory of evolution was immediately accepted by most other scientists and intellectuals. The opponents then were the religious fundamentalists. The same is true today. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity was accepted by most other scientist as soon as they read it and worked out the mathematics. That was before there was any physical or experimental evidence, which did not come till 1919.
The impication is that small changes are just as hard often and might be easier than large changes.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States.
