Quotes about Complacency

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James Baldwin

Nobody is more dangerous than he who imagines himself pure in heart; for his purity, by definition, is unassailable.

C. S. Lewis

One of the most cowardly things ordinary people do is to shut their eyes to facts.

John F. Kennedy

The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crisis maintain their neutrality

Kennedy said that he was quoting Dante. However, he or his speechwriter, got the quote wrong. In the Devine Comedy, Dante had a hot place in hell for the neutral, but the hottest place was reserved for traitors. Many people since then use this quote and attribute incorrectly to Dante because Kennedy’s version is the only one with which they have come in contact.

Frank Peretti

Comfort can be a dangerous thing. You stick around home all the time where it’s safe and nothing ever changes, and before you know it, you get set in your ways and you quit learning, you quit changing, you don’t grow anymore.

Adlai Stevenson I

On the plains of hesitation lie the blackened bones of countless millions who at the dawn of victory lay down to rest, and in resting died.

Friedrich Nietzsche

To the mediocre, mediocrity is a form of happiness.

John Stuart Mill

Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.

See {523533} and {596221} for earlier similar views by Edmund Burke.

Japanese Proverb

After victory, tighten your helmet chord.

The proverb dates from the Samurai era of Japan where the Samurai in battle wore metal and leather protective helmets. These were secured to their heads by a tight helmet chord. Many societies, after a war and desiring peace would reduce the spending for the military, eliminate conscription, and weapons production. The result often was a more attractive target for enemies wanting land or revenge. Thus, the proverb warns that immediately after a victory, prepare for the next battle and do not let your guard down.

Rita Mae Brown

Familiarity breeds consent.

Benjamin Franklin

Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75.

Norman Vincent Peale

The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.

Aaron Judge

Repeating, trying to repeat success - it never gets easier.

Albert Camus

When a war breaks out, people say: "It's too stupid; it can't last long." But though a war may well be "too stupid," that doesn't prevent its lasting. Stupidity has a knack of getting its way; as we should see if we were not always so much wrapped up in ourselves.

Simon Wiesenthal

For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing.

Haile Selassie

Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph.

Nelson Mandela

Fools multiply when wise men are silent.

Vaclav Smil

I'm old fashioned. I'm not one of these young guys who think they are so smart that they can prescribe what humanity ought to do. Humanity never learns any lessons. Prescriptions don't matter. We already know exactly what to do. We just don't do it.

Benjamin Disraeli

Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage.