Stagnation Quotes

“My mind," he said, "rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation. That is why I have chosen my own particular profession, or rather created it, for I am the only one in the world.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four

“Many times, the thought of fear itself is greater than what it is we fear.”
― Idowu Koyenikan, Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability

“When you stay too long in the same place, things and people go to pot on you, they rot and start stinking for your special benefit.”
― Louis-Ferdinand Celine, Journey to the End of the Night

“What is the difference between a living thing and a dead thing? In the medical world, a clinical definition of death is a body that does not change. Change is life. Stagnation is death. If you don't change, you die. It's that simple. It's that scary.”
― Leonard Sweet

“Every man finds his limitations, Mr. Holmes, but at least it cures us of the weakness of self-satisfaction.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

“Stagnation is self-abdication.”
― Ryan Talbot

“The poor man retains the prejudices of his forefathers without their faith, and their ignorance without their virtues; he has adopted the doctrine of self-interest as the rule of his actions, without understanding the science which puts it to use; and his selfishness is no less blind than was formerly his devotedness to others. If society is tranquil, it is not because it is conscious of its strength and its well-being, but because it fears its weakness and its infirmities; a single effort may cost it its life. Everybody feels the evil, but no one has courage or energy enough to seek the cure. The desires, the repinings, the sorrows, and the joys of the present time lead to no visible or permanent result, like the passions of old men, which terminate in impotence.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

“This malignant persistence since September 11th is the biggest surprise of all. In previous decades, sneak attacks, stock-market crashes, and other great crises became hinges on which American history swung in dramatically new directions. But events on the same scale, or nearly so, no longer seem to have that power; moneyed interests may have become too entrenched, elites too self-seeking, institutions too feeble, and the public too polarized and passive for the country to be shocked into fundamental change.”
― George Packer

“Stagnated mind is the root of all hate, war and disorder. Mind, never rigid, is the source of senility and sapience.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Honor He Wrote: 100 Sonnets For Humans Not Vegetables

“The most pious thing like water starts to stink once it stagnates.”
― Sandeep Sahajpal, The Twelfth Preamble: To all the authors to be!

“Making excuses only leads to continued stagnation.”
― Robin S. Baker

“All utopias are depressing because they leave no room for chance, for difference, for the 'miscellaneous'.”
― Georges Perec, Brief Notes on the Art and Manner of Arranging One's Books

“The distorted concept of 'loving thyself' in our times is the root of all evil. It leads to egotistical and narcissistic behaviour, and loss of touch with reality. 'Loving' yourself more than anything and anyone else leaves you disabled. Half-human. You sacrifice your empathy, tact, communication skills and dare I say, intelligence. You willingly cease your own spiritual growth and development of character (because you keep repeating to yourself that you're perfect just the way you are). The consequences are stagnation and later on, decay.”
― R.P. Heaven, Awakening Ignited

“The absurdity is that it doesn’t look like an absurdity. The absurdity is that you go out in the morning and find a bottle of milk on the doorstep and you are at peace because the same thing happened to you yesterday and will happen again tomorrow.”
― Julio Cortázar, Hopscotch

“I would soon be twenty-four and in the last few years my life had stood still, I hadn't developed in any direction, hadn't done anything new, I had only continued the pattern that had formed during the first few months in Bergen. When I looked around me now, I saw no openings anywhere, just more of the same everywhere. National service came heaven sent. It gave me sixteen months to defer decisions. Everything would be decided for me for more than a year, I wouldn't have any responsibility for my life, at least not that part to do with studies, work and career.”
― Karl Ove Knausgård, Min kamp 5

“It seems that life is interesting only when there is a struggle, a goal to be reached through an evolutionary process. Once the goal is attained, all progress ceases.

- The Miracle of the Lily”
― Clare Winger Harris, Crawling Horror: Creeping Tales of the Insect Weird

“Negativity has more power than positivity, yet no one notices. So while trying to be positive, do your best to expunge any negativity from your life completely. Letting the two coexist is tantamount to stagnation, and letting negativity win is equivalent to death.”
― Emmanuel Apetsi

“Still, the melancholy of this dying culture was all around us. Great as the desire to westernize and modernize may have been, the more desperate wish was probably to be rid of all the bitter memories of the fallen empire, rather as a spurned lover throws away his lost beloved's clothes, possessions, and photographs. But as nothing, western or local, came to fill the void, the great drive to westernize amounted mostly to the erasure of the past; the effect on culture was reductive and stunting, leading families like mine, otherwise glad of republican progress, to furnish their houses like museums.”
― Orhan Pamuk, Istanbul: Memories and the City

“Geriatric or other life extension for the powerful poses a similar threat to a sentient species as that found historically in the dominance of a self-perpetuating bureaucracy. Both assume prerogatives of immortality, collecting more and more power with each passing moment. This is power which draws a theological aura about itself: the unassailable Law, the God-given mandate of the leader, manifest destiny. Power held too long within a narrow framework moves farther and farther away from the adaptive demands of changed conditions. The leadership grows ever more paranoid, suspicious of inventive adaptations to change, fearfully protective of personal power and, in the terrified avoidance of what it sees as risk, blindly leads its people into destruction.
―BuSab Manual”
― Frank Herbert, The Dosadi Experiment

“The distorted concept of 'loving thyself' in our times is the root of all evil. It leads to egotistical and narcissistic behaviour, and loss of touch with reality. 'Loving' yourself more than anything and anyone else leaves you disabled. Half-human. You sacrifice your empathy, tact, communication skills and dare I say, intelligence. You willingly cease your own spiritual growth and development of character (because you keep repeating to yourself that you're perfect just the way you are). The consequences are stagnation and later on, decay. Ultimately, you lose your soul.”
― R.P. Heaven, Awakening Ignited

“Writing your thoughts down can bring clarity amid confusion and stagnancy.”
― Robin S. Baker

“Your comfort zone isn't nourishing you anymore. What are you going to do about this?”
― Robin S. Baker

“Making excuses for yourself only leads to continued stagnation.”
― Robin S. Baker

“Yes, a mid-career crisis can be a hellish time. But it can also be a chance to introspect and reevaluate your values, behaviors, preferences, strengths, and weaknesses. It’s quite exciting when seen from that perspective. It’s like a second chance.”
― Binod Shankar, Let's Get Real: 42 Tips for the Stuck Manager

“The fact is that Planet Earth is overloaded with highly qualified and uber experienced folk who are rubbish in the triple wisdom- have a dim idea of who they are, can’t manage themselves well and are middling at managing others. They rose up the ranks powered by mostly technical skills but now that’s far less important. They have entered their comfort zones but what got them here most certainly won’t get them there and what will take them further are some tough behavioral changes.”
― Binod Shankar, Let's Get Real: 42 Tips for the Stuck Manager

“I am in love with change, growth, and making vast transformations. Even when it feels daunting at first. I'd take that over stagnancy any day.”
― Robin S. Baker

“Hope: not a beacon,
no spark in the darkness,
nothing so bright to give it away.
It waits in deep shadow,
dissolving in moonlight, watching,
patient, counting your days.”
― Rebecca Cuthbert, In Memory of Exoskeletons

“Free speech is the bedrock of any democratic society, an indispensable force that propels us forward by fostering an environment where ideas, no matter how controversial, can be expressed without fear of reprisal. It is not merely a right but a sacred duty to uphold the principles of open dialogue, ensuring that diverse voices contribute to the rich tapestry of human thought. In its absence, we risk descending into intellectual stagnation, where conformity replaces innovation, and progress becomes a casualty of silence.”
― James William Steven Parker

“The hesitant mind risks stagnation. Sometimes, the bravest step is the first one.”
― Monika Ajay Kaul

“But now that day had broken, nothing had changed, no one had rescued them, and the possibility that that was how it would be the whole day, whole night, and all the other days, and all the other nights, had started to eat away at him right there, in his chest, at that blue place where tears are born and hope dies.”
― Grégoire Courtois, The Laws of the Skies