Born to a psychotherapist and math professor, Malcolm Gladwell is one of the most influential authors of this century. His books focus on social sciences and his research in the ares of sociology and psychology. Below is a list of some of my absolute favorite Malcolm Gladwell quotes to date!
“77% of Americans think that it makes more sense to use taxpayer money to lower class sizes than to raise teachers’ salaries.”
“A lot of what is most beautiful about the world arises from struggle.”
“A radical and trans formative thought goes nowhere without the willingness to challenge convention.”
“Achievement is talent plus preparation.”
“All my books are optimistic!”
“Any fool can spend money. But to earn it and save it and defer gratification – then you learn to value it differently.”
“As a writer, the best mindset is to be unafraid.”
“Corpses do not run about spreading panic.”
In honor of Usain Bolt's magnificent win today at the world track championships, time for a little national pride. pic.twitter.com/VK8Boar2tN
— Malcolm Gladwell (@Gladwell) August 27, 2015
“Emotion is contagious.”
“Good writing does not succeed or fail on the strength of it’s ability to persuade. It succeeds of fails on the strength of it’s ability to engage.”
“Hard work is only a prison sentence, when it doesn’t have meaning.”
“I don’t want a door bell. I don’t want anyone ringing my door bell…seems intrusive.”
“I wrote my first book when I was in my late thirties.”
“If you can give them a way of organizing their experience, then their minds are wide open.”
“If you think advantage lies in resources, then you think the best educational system is the one that spends the most money.”
“If you work hard enough, assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires.”
“Learning how to deal with the possibility of failure is really good preparation for a career in the business world.”
“No one who can rise before dawn three hundred sixty days a year fails to make his family rich.”
“People are information rich and theory poor.”
“People in great institution are occasionally credulous.”
“Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.”
My greatest moment ever. pic.twitter.com/u0vlydOaao
— Malcolm Gladwell (@Gladwell) January 16, 2014
“Rarely do we stop and consider whether the most prestigious of institutions is always in our best interest.”
“Shallow communities are relatively easy to build.”
“Success is not a random act. It arises out of a predictable and powerful set of circumstances and opportunities.”
“The best example of how impossible it will be for major league baseball to crack down on steroids is the fact that baseball and the media are still talking about the problem as
steroids.”
“The face is not a secondary billboard for our internal feelings. it is an equal partner in the emotional process.”
“The fact of being an underdog changes people in ways that we often fail to appreciate.”
“The injunction to be nice is used to deflect criticism and stifle the legitimate anger of dissent.”
“The most influential thinker, in my life, has been the psychologist Richard Nisbett. He basically gave me my view of the world.”
“The paradox of endurance sports is that an athlete can never work as hard as he wants, because if he pushes himself too far, his hematocrit will fall.”
“The underdog winning is the romantic position.”
“The values of the world we inhabit and the people we surround ourselves with have a profound effect on who we are.”
“The visionary starts with a clean sheet of paper, and re imagines the world.”
“Truly successful decision making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking.”
“We learn by example and by direct experience because there are real limits to the adequacy of verbal instruction.”
“We live in a world that assumes that the quality of a decision is directly related to the time and effort that went into making it.”
“We prematurely write off people as failures. We are too much in awe of those who succeed and far too dismissive of those who fail.”
“What you do everyday matters more than what you do once in a while.”
“When an underdog fought like David, he usually won. But most underdogs don’t fight like David.”
“Who we are cannot be separated from where we’re from.”
“You can learn as much – or more- from one glace at a private space as you can from hours of exposure to a public face.”
In this captivating video, Gladwell tells the tale of David and Goliath and discusses all of the ways that this ancient underdog story shaped and inspired his life.
Thanks for checking out 41 of my favorite Malcolm Gladwell quotes.
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