Quotes About Change

Rex, in his early forties, had grown heavy and ruddy; he had lost his Canadian accent and acquired instead the hoarse, loud tone that was common to all his friends, as though their voices were perpetually strained to make themselves heard above a crowd, as though, with youth forsaking them, there was no time to wait the opportunity to speak, no time to listen, no time to reply; time for a laugh — a throaty mirthless laugh, the base currency of goodwill.

How ungenerously in later life we disclaim the virtuous moods of our youth

Well, I do call that a lot of nonsense. I can understand a man wishing he hadn't married and trying to get out of it—though I never felt anything of the kind myself—but to get rid of one wife and take up with another immediately, is beyond all reason.

Under this liberal and progressive regime, the republic may be said, in some ways, to have prospered.

How ungenerously in later life we disclaim the virtuous moods of our youth, living in retrospect long summer days of unreflecting dissipation.

Relative advantage is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as better than the idea it supersedes.

Compatibility is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as being consistent with the existing values, past experiences, and needs of potential adopters.

The five attributes of innovations are (1) relative advantage, (2) compatibility, (3) complexity, (4) trialability, and (5) observability.

Complexity is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as difficult to understand and use.

Trialability is the degree to which an innovation may be experimented with on a limited basis.

Observability is the degree to which the results of an innovation are visible to others.

Innovations that are perceived by individuals as having greater relative advantage, compatibility, trialability, observability, and less complexity will be adopted more rapidly than other innovations.

Thus we see that the diffusion of innovations is a social process, even more than a technical matter.

The more we know about how to do something, the harder it is to learn how to do it differently

Ryan and Gross (1943) found that every one of their Iowa farmer respondents adopted hybrid seed corn by first trying it on a partial basis.

In the 1970s, diffusion scholars began to study the concept of reinvention, defined as the degree to which an innovation is changed or modified by a user in the process of its adoption and implementation.

At its most elementary form, the process involves (1) an innovation, (2) an individual or other unit of adoption that has knowledge of the innovation or experience with using it, (3) another individual or other unit that does not yet have experience with the innovation, and (4) a communication channel connecting the two units. A communication channel is the means by which messages get from one individual to another.

An important factor regarding the adoption rate of an innovation is its compatibility with the values, beliefs, and past experiences of individuals in the social system.

This tendency for more effective communication to occur with those who are more similar to a change agent occurs in most diffusion campaigns. Unfortunately, those individuals who most need the help provided by the change agent are least likely to accept it.

We conceptualize five main steps in the innovation-decision process: (1) knowledge, (2) persuasion, (3) decision, (4) implementation, and (5) confirmation.

In his pursuit of economic modernization, Deng liked to say that he was groping for stones as he crossed the river.

You used to be entertaining before you started to write.

This is not a time for hereos because nobody will let it happen

His desire re-created her until she lost all vestiges of the old Jenny, even the girl who had met him at the train that morning. Silently, as the night hours went by, he molded her over into an image of love - an image that would endure as long as love itself, or even longer - not to perish till he could say, 'I never really loved her.