Conventional Wisdom Quotes

• Mainstream media tend to just mouth the conventional wisdom, to see everything through the filter of right and left.

  Arianna Huffington

  Wisdom, Media, Filters

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• Conventional wisdom is no wisdom at all. Conventional wisdom is taking somebody else's word for the way things are It's the followers of this world who rely on assumption. Not the leaders.

  Richard Marcinko

  Leader, Followers, World

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• Doubt the conventional wisdom unless you can verify it with reason and experiment

  Steve Albini

  Doubt, Reason, Verify

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• Progress is not a straight line; the future is not a mere projection of trends in the present. Rather, it is revolutionary. It overturns the conventional wisdom of the present, which often conceals or ignores the clues to the future.

  Dr. An Wang

  Progress, Lines, Trends

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• There are no shortcuts to knowledge, especially knowledge gained from personal experience. Following conventional wisdom and relying on shortcuts can be worse than knowing nothing at all.

  Ben Horowitz

  Knowing Nothing, Shortcuts, Knowledge Gained

  Ben Horowitz (2014). “The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers”, p.9, Harper Collins

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• Science is based on experiment, on a willingness to challenge old dogma, on an openness to see the universe as it really is. Accordingly, science sometimes requires courage - at the very least the courage to question the conventional wisdom.

  Carl Sagan

  Challenges, Dogma, Sometimes

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science”, p.16, Ballantine Books

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• Never accept ultimatums, conventional wisdom, or absolutes.

  Christopher Reeve

  Accepting, Ultimatum, Absolutes

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• People always blame the girl; she should have said no. A monosyllable, but conventional wisdom has always been that boys can't manage it.

  Anna Quindlen

  Girl, Wisdom, Boys

  "The Good Guys". The New York Times Opinion Page, www.nytimes.com. April 11, 1993.

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• The most important aspect of my personality as far as determining my success goes; has been my questioning conventional wisdom, doubting experts and questioning authority. While that can be painful in your relationships with your parents and teachers, it's enormously useful in life.

  Larry Ellison

  Inspirational, Teacher, Personality

  "Prophet of Software". The Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. May 22, 1997.

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• All new ideas begin in a non-conforming mind that questions some tenet of the conventional wisdom.

  Hyman Rickover

  Creativity, Ideas, Mind

  United States. Congress. Joint Economic Committee, Hyman George Rickover (1982). “Economics of Defense Policy: Adm. H.G. Rickover : Hearing Before the Joint Economic Committee, Congress of the United States, Ninety-seventh Congress, Second Session”

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• One of the useful things about age is realizing conventional wisdom is often simply inertia with a candy coating of conformity.

  Anna Quindlen

  Age, Conformity, Realizing

  Anna Quindlen (2012). “Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake: A Memoir of a Woman's Life”, p.42, Random House

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• The only way to get ahead is to find errors in conventional wisdom.

  Larry Ellison

  Inspirational, Errors, Way

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• Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.

  Norman Cousins

  Motivational, Wisdom, Entrepreneur

  Norman Cousins (1974). “The celebration of life: a dialogue on immortality and infinity”, Harper San Francisco

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• When you're used to being prepared to reject conventional wisdom, it leaves you open to learn more.

  Mayim Bialik

  Used, Rejects, Prepared

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• Highly successful leaders ignore conventional wisdom and take chances. Their stories inevitably include a defining moment or key decision when they
  took a significant risk and thereby experienced a breakthrough.

  Larry Osborne

  Successful, Keys, Decision

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• Swim upstream. Go the other way. Ignore the conventional wisdom. If everybody else is doing it one way, there's a good chance you can find your niche by going in exactly the opposite direction. But be prepared for a lot of folks to wave you down and tell you you're headed the wrong way. I guess in all my years, what I heard more often than anything was: a town of less than 50,000 population cannot support a discount store for very long.

  Sam Walton

  Years, Opposites, Long

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• Create a vision and never let the environment, other people's beliefs, or the limits of what has been done in the past shape your decisions. Ignore conventional wisdom.

  Lionel Robbins, Baron Robbins

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

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• Conventional wisdom is invariably out of date. Because in the time it has taken to become conventional - to become what everyone believes - the world has moved on. Conventional wisdom is a remnant of the past.

  Michael Crichton

  Taken, Believe, Past

  Michael Crichton (2007). “Next”, HarperCollins UK

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• Challenge conventional wisdom. There is almost always a better way.

  Ziad K. Abdelnour

  Challenges, Way, Conventional

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• The enemy of the conventional wisdom is not ideas but the march of events.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Ideas, Enemy, Events

  John Kenneth Galbraith (1998). “The Affluent Society”, p.11, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Many people have their reputations as reporters and analysts because they are on television, batting around conventional wisdom. A lot of these people have never reported a story.

  Bob Woodward

  Wisdom, People, Stories

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• In the beginning, Adam — not Eve— was instructed to earn the bread by the sweat of his brow. Contrary to conventional wisdom, a mother's calling is in the home, not in the marketplace.

  Ezra Taft Benson

  Mother, Home, Sweat

  "The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson".

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• I reject most conventional wisdom.

  Rush Limbaugh

  Rejects, Conventional

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• Conventional wisdom on government's role in inequality often has it backwards. Tax reforms have resulted in a more progressive federal income tax; government transfer payments have become less progressive.

  Paul Ryan

  Government, Reform, Income

  7 Copy quote

• To build a great company, which is a CEO's job, sometimes you have to stand up against conventional wisdom.

  Carly Fiorina

  Jobs, Sometimes, Ceo

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