Life is not a static thing. The only people who do not change their minds are incompetents in asylums, and those in cemeteries.
Everett DirksenRead
There is no force so powerful as an idea whose time has come.
Interpretation
An idea can create significant impact when the right conditions are present.
This quote expresses the notion that an idea holds immense potential for change and influence when the timing is right. It suggests that even the most powerful concepts can only truly resonate and mobilize transformation when the societal circumstances are conducive to their acceptance and implementation.
In practice
In a speech advocating for innovative policies, one might say this quote to inspire belief in progressive change.
Life is not a static thing. The only people who do not change their minds are incompetents in asylums, and those in cemeteries.
When a member of the House moves over to the Senate, he raises the IQ of both bodies.
During a political campaign everyone is concerned with what a candidate will do on this or that question if he is elected except the candidate; he's too busy wondering what he'll do if he isn't elected.
I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times.
My own life in India, since I came to it in 1893 to make it my home, has been devoted to one purpose, to give back to India her ancient freedom.
There are something like 300 anti-genocide chapters on college campuses around the country. It's bigger than the anti-apartheid movement. There are something like 500 high school chapters devoted to stopping the genocide in Darfur. Evangelicals have joined it. Jewish groups have joined it.
[A] new generation, innocent of the divisions of the Cold War, this coming-of-age. ... If its members do not feel the urgency to escape the nuclear danger that some of its parents felt, neither has it developed the deep attachment to nuclear arms also often found among their parents, including most of the governing class. ... The call for abolition should therefore be, among other things, a call from an older generation to younger one.
I travel all the time, but when I come back to the South, I see such progress. In a real sense, a great deal of the South has been redeemed. People feel freer, more complete, more whole, because of what happened in the movement.
I have been on the road and visited numerous places and met people from all over the globe. I can say that it looks nearly the same everywhere I have been: The climate crisis is ignored by people in charge, despite the science being crystal clear.
A talent for speaking differently, rather than for arguing well is the chief instrument of cultural change.
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