Quotes About Stagnation

I'm sort of like a lame, single guy in a red sports car.

I have heard talk and talk, but nothing is done.

If you stop taking chances, you'll stay where you sit. You won't live any longer, but it'll feel like it.

Myron was playing Mr. Bureaucrat to the hilt; nothing made a person feel more impotent. There is no darker pit than the blank stare of a bureaucrat.

Story after story has marched the same old WASP engineer paperdoll through the same old story lines, most of which were very good when they were used by H. G. Wells, but which are now showing signs of wear.

Consequently, the town remained the same size for over 150 years. Its primary reason for existence was government. What saved it from becoming another grubby little Alabama community was that Maycomb's proportion of professional people ran high: one went to Maycomb to have his teeth pulled, his wagon fixed, his heart listened to, his money deposited, his mules vetted, his soul saved, his mortgage extended.

Conservative resistance to change, that's all

We no longer attempt to guide cultures towards what we consider a beneficial goal. There are too many goals, and from our limited vantage point it is hard to tell the good ones from the bad ones. All we do now is try to protect the growing cultures, give a little jolt to the stagnating ones—and bury the dead ones.

But like a boat with a twisted rudder, I kept coming back to the same place. I wasn't going anywhere. I was myself, waiting on the shore for me to return. Was that so depressing? Who knows? Maybe that was 'despair.' What Turgenev called 'disillusionment.' Or Dostoyevsky, 'hell.' Or Somerset Maugham, 'reality.' Whatever the label, I figured it was me.

I couldn't be sure if I had moved forward or fallen behind, or if I was just circling over the same spot.

A certain kind of shittiness, a certain kind of stagnation, a certain kind of darkness, goes on propagating itself by its own power in its own self-contained cycle. And once it passes a certain point, no one can stop it-even if the person himself wants to stop it.

It wasn't like there was some obvious change. Actually, the problem was more a lack of change. Nothing about her had changed - the way she spoke, her clothes, the topics she chose to talk about, her opinions - they were all the same as before. Their relationship was like a pendulum gradually grinding to a halt, and he felt out of synch.

I could do just about anything if somebody made me. But I don't have an image of the one thing I really want to do. That's my problem now. I can't find the image... I'm standing still, and I can't find the image. - Toru

I can't find the image, I said to myself. I'm thirty, I'm standing still, and I can't find the image.

After a certain length of time has passed, things harden up. Like cement hardening in a bucket. And we can't go back anymore.

My life used to be like that game of freeze tag we played as kids. Once tagged, you had to freeze in the position you were in. Whenever something happened, I'd freeze like a statue, too afraid of moving the wrong way, of making the wrong decision. The problem is, if you stand still too long, that's your decision.

Vince and WWE, they're not fresh. Yes, Vince does big business. They have the best talent in the world, but they have no fresh ideas. They should be selling out every arena.

We humans can get used to anything. It really is remarkable. The problem is that we often use this glorious ability of ours to stay stuck in mediocrity. Oh, the years we waste adapting to lousy marriages, soul-sucking jobs, being friends with people who are rude to waitresses.

The most useless are those who never change through the years.

Tradition becomes our security, and when the mind is secure it is in decay.

I've never asked for a transfer anywhere, but I've been constantly moving around. It's frustrating.

People transform in some ways, and they remain exactly the same in others. Often, the thing you'd like to change the most about yourself is where you will forever remain stuck.

I was really interested in the way in which poverty and economic stagnation were transforming and corrupting the American narrative.

The 90s was a difficult decade, with recessions in many transition countries and in emerging economies provoked by financial crises; and with continuing stagnation in Africa.