Complacency Quotes

“Those who are easily shocked should be shocked more often.”
― Mae West

“So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.”
― Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild

“You are -- your life, and nothing else.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit

“All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume.”
― Noam Chomsky

“I'm worried that students will take their obedient place in society and look to become successful cogs in the wheel - let the wheel spin them around as it wants without taking a look at what they're doing. I'm concerned that students not become passive acceptors of the official doctrine that's handed down to them from the White House, the media, textbooks, teachers and preachers.”
― Howard Zinn

“That initial anger she had felt turned to sadness, and now it had become something else, almost a dullness of sorts. Even though she was constantly in motion, it seemed as if nothing special ever happened to her anymore. Each day seemed exactly like the last, and she had trouble differentiating among them.”
― Nicholas Sparks, Message in a Bottle

“Whereas it appeareth that however certain forms of government are better calculated than others to protect individuals in the free exercise of their natural rights, and are at the same time themselves better guarded against degeneracy, yet experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large, ....whence it becomes expedient for promoting the publick happiness that those persons, whom nature hath endowed with genius and virtue, should be rendered by liberal education worthy to receive, and able to guard the sacred deposit of the rights and liberties of their fellow citizens, and that they should be called to that charge without regard to wealth, birth or accidental condition of circumstance.”
― Thomas Jefferson, Writings: Autobiography / Notes on the State of Virginia / Public and Private Papers / Addresses / Letters

“There are few things more pathetic than those who have lost their curiosity and sense of adventure, and who no longer care to learn.”
― Gordon B. Hinckley, Way to Be!: 9 Ways To Be Happy And Make Something Of Your Life

“You will never be entirely comfortable. This is the truth behind the champion - he is always fighting something. To do otherwise is to settle.”
― Julien Smith, The Flinch

“Our best enemy is the one who challenges us, and so doing, teaches us to set out to discover our potentials, while our worst friend is the one who is numbing us and lulling us into complacency, always being consenting or acquiescent. ("Being my best friend.")”
― Erik Pevernagie

“You or I might think that at least one would show courage and put up a fight. But neither you nor I have suffered as they, and even we have born witness in silence to lesser ills under less dire threat. Yet, in the face of evil, to sit silent is an even greater evil. Complacency is ever the enabler of darkest deeds;”
― Robert Fanney

“Outlier complacency' is a heuristic that allows a person to enjoy the thrill of danger associated with the possible negative outcome of an activity or event because they take comfort in the reality that the likelihood of an actual negative outcome is statistically low.”
― J.K. Franko

“Human beings, as I know better than most, can get used to anything. Over time, even the unthinkable gradually wears a little niche for itself in your mind and becomes just something that happened.”
― Tana French, In the Woods

“Luck can be the magic star that makes our day. Nonetheless, we slowly throttle the power of our creativity if we are overly dependent on luck. Being only reliant on chance events to achieve the essential steps of our fundamental goals in life might lead us into complacency or amnesia. (“The infinite Wisdom of Meditation“)”
― Erik Pevernagie

“Americans will put up with anything provided it doesn't block traffic.”
― Dan Rather

“To exchange all the goodness and grace of every life in Omelas for that single, small improvement: to throw away the happiness of thousands for the chance of the happiness of one: that would be to let guilt within the walls indeed.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

“Running away was not like it was in stories. People did not try and stop you. They did not give chase. The thing people didn't understand was that you had to decide what you were running away from. Most of the time it wasn't mothers or fathers or monsters or villains; most of the time you were running away from that little voice inside your head, the one telling you to stay where you are, that everything will turn out all right.”
― Robert Dinsdale, The Toymakers

“You all know," said the Guide, "that security is mortals' greatest enemy.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Pilgrim's Regress

“A person is not like a thing that you put down in one place and leave, a person moves, thinks, asks, questions, doubts, investigates, probes, and while it is true that, out of a long habit of resignation, he sooner or later ends up looking as if he has submitted to the objects, don't go thinking that this apparent submission is necessarily permanent.”
― José Saramago, The Cave

“Never be complacent about the current steps; don't agree and follow the status quo. Be determined that you are making an indelible impact with great change. Now, dress up and go to make it happen!”
― Israelmore Ayivor, The Great Hand Book of Quotes

“To think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted”
― George Keller

“The sun's champagne streamed from one body into another. And there was a couple on the green silk of the grass, covered by a raspberry umbrella. Only their feet and a little bit of lace could be seen. In the magnificent universe beneath the raspberry umbrella, with closed eyes, they drank in the sparkling madness.

'Extra! Extra! Zeppelins over the North Sea at 3 o'clock.'

But under the umbrella, in the raspberry universe, they were immortal. What did it matter that in another far-away universe people would be killing each other?”
― Yevgeny Zamyatin, Islanders & The Fisher of Men

“We just wanna be the happy bums that we are. That's all.”
― Mike Patton

“Having leveled my palace, don't erect a hovel and complacently admire your own charity in giving me that for a home.”
― Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

“The latent abundance of your inner most resources matters less. What matter most is the impact you can make with your inner resources and the distinctive footprints you can leave with what is within you. The excuse not to dare is there for everybody. When you see so many people crowded at the entrance, think of the roofing and if the roofing is too high, think of the next door and if the next door is not penetrable, create a door within the wall.”
― Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

“Complacency delivered us into the hands of evil greedy men like Cheney.”
― Sonia Rumzi

“And like blots upon the landscape rose the cupolas above the ways to the Underworld. I understood now what all the beauty of the Upperworld people covered. Very pleasant was their day, as pleasant as the day of the cattle in the eld. Like the cattle, they knew of no enemies and provided against no needs. And their end was the same.”
― H.G. Wells, The Time Machine

“Do not be complacent about your achievements and not to strive for continual improvement when you get to the top. As soon as you let success go to your head, you sink into following familiar patterns and play it safe. In other words, you risk losing your edge.”
― Roy T. Bennett

“The simple rule to abide by and become excellent is that “Don’t see what you have achieved yesterday with the same pleasure eyes you used to see it when it was done by you”. Look forward and do better than you did earlier!”
― Israelmore Ayivor, The Great Hand Book of Quotes

“Refurbished laptops are useless no more, refurbished awareness is awareness no more.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Divine Refugee