Malcolm Gladwell Quotes

“It takes ten thousand hours to truly master anything. Time spent leads to experience; experience leads to proficiency; and the more proficient you are the more valuable you'll be.”

Hours Masters Thousand Ten Valuable Time Spent Proficiency

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“There is this tremendous body of knowledge in the world of academia where extraordinary numbers of incredibly thoughtful people have taken the time to examine on a really profound level the way we live our lives and who we are and where we've been. That brilliant learning sometimes gets trapped in academia and never sees the light of day.”

People World Way Sometimes Body Light Levels Numbers Taken Our Lives Profound Extraordinary Brilliant Thoughtful Who We Are Trapped Academia

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“A fan is always an outsider. Most sportswriters are not, by this definition, fans. They capitalize on access to athletes. They spoke to Kobe last night, and Kobe says his finger is going to be fine. They spent three days fly-fishing with Brett Favre in March, and Brett says he's definitely coming back for another season.”

Lasts Night Three Fans Fine Seasons Fingers Athlete Definitions Access Fishing Spokes March Outsiders Coming Back Last Night Fly Fishing

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Visionaries are limited by their visions.”

Vision Visionaries

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“That was it! The whole Redwood City philosophy was based on a willingness to try harder than anyone else.”

Trying Philosophy Whole Cities Harder Willingness Redwoods

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“The injunction to be nice is used to deflect criticism and stifle the legitimate anger of dissent.”

Used Nice Criticism Being Nice Dissent

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Through embracing the diversity of humans beings, we will find a sure way to true happiness.”

Way Humans Diversity True Happiness

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Television allows the audience to argue with the creator in a way you don't in a movie.”

Way Audience Television Creator Arguing

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“All artists have to do that at a certain point. This shift that has to happen between the initial moment of creation and then the consideration of what has been created.”

Has Beens Moments Happens Artist Certain Creation Consideration Initials

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“As a writer, I know that - you write a first draft and then put it in a drawer. The longer I can put it in a drawer, the better off I am. So I structure my writing so that things can sit.”

Knows Writing Firsts I Can Structure Better Off Drawers

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“My point is that the great challenge of an artist is to balance those two things: to be strong enough to have your own personal vision that you will put on the page or the canvas or the screen, no matter what people say, but it requires a radical sensitivity. You have to be completely open to what the world is telling you, to what your audience tells you. And balancing those two things is nearly impossible.”

“I don't like things that aren't true.”

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“What interests me about fiction is plot. And what interests me about plot is whether someone tells a story that moves me within the constraints of storytelling. And I have narrowly defined storytelling.”

Stories Moving Interest Fiction Storytelling Defined Plot Constraints

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“When writing, you can't break physical rules. You can't have people come back from the dead. That's cheating. I am a kind of narrative fundamentalist in many ways.”

People Way Writing Kind Break Narrative Cheating Fundamentalist

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Now I basically just read spy stories because they're about solving a puzzle within the constraints of history. It's the tick tock, the clockwork that I'm interested in.”

Stories Puzzles Spy Constraints Tick Clockwork Tock Tick Tock

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Science fiction annoyed me because it was like, "Why is the world as it is not enough for you?"”

World Enough Fiction Science Fiction Annoyed

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“The religious paradigm and the science fiction paradigm are different. Apologies to science fiction fans, but the paradigm there is to create a new world and describe it with a kind of specificity that we describe the world we inhabit. Religiosity, on the other hand, does none of that.”

World Kind Doe Different Hands Religious Fiction Fans Science Fiction New World Apology Paradigm Specificity

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“There are lots of issues more important than where billionaires donate their money.”

Important Billionaire Donate

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“I don't want to be like the angry old guy in the corner who is always ranting and raving about the same things - but I don't mind doing that just a little bit!”

Mind Guy

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Since becoming a journalist, each time I engage with subjects I become more radicalized.”

Journalist

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“So the first task of a police force is not to fight crime and enforce the law. It is to establish legitimacy with the law-abiding citizenry and then fight crime and enforce the law.”

Fighting Crime Police Citizenry

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“One of the things I think the police have to do is to stop behaving like armies.”

Thinking Army Police

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Every cop will tell you that their real job is being a social worker. That's what they do all day. The large majority of police officers in this country never even draw their gun, let alone fire it. They do conflict resolution, right? And if that's their job, why do they need to look like they're an occupying force?”

Real Country Conflict Gun Police Resolution Cop Police Officer Social Worker Conflict Resolution

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Trump is an innovator who has shown how out of step the political establishment was. Which I think, probably, in the long term will be healthy. We have to figure out how to reinvigorate our political institutions and he's demonstrating to us the urgency of that task.”

Thinking Long Political Term Healthy Long Term Urgency

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“You may hate Hillary Clinton and you may have good reason for hating Hillary Clinton, but Hillary Clinton is one person who even if she's elected will be gone one day and you still have the task of keeping American democracy going.”

Reason Hate Democracy One Day Clinton

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Do I think that American democracy ends if Trump is president? No! I think, there are plenty of checks and balances in place. I think he would do some damage to the country but we would recover. The office of the presidency and American democratic institutions are a lot stronger than one person. So if he wins, our job is just to keep the office strong, right? And hope he'll be replaced by something better!”

Thinking Country Winning Strong President Democracy Balance Office Stronger Democratic Plenty Replaced

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“I would say first of all, anyone who wants to challenge the status quo always gets that response. Ninety percent of the time, that's just bull. That's just the way in which people choose to prop up their own privilege or their own particular position. So mostly I shrug it off.”

People Challenges Response Status Quo

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“There is nothing more common than critics of journalists accusing them of practicing journalism. It is our function in the world to take things that are complicated and render them in a form that non-experts can follow and make sense of.”

World Common Critics Complicated Journalism Make Sense Journalist Accusing

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“There are some people, who I'll charitably call snobs, who are dismissive of any conversation that doesn't begin with the full level of complexity. That's just not how the world works.”

People World Complexity Snob

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“And my advice for college graduates is don't reflexively give money to your alma mater, something particular to Americans that I find extraordinary. Take Princeton, for example - it has more money on a per capita basis than any educational institution in the history of educational institutions. There is no scenario where it can spend all the money its endowment generates every year. If there is anyone who gives a single dollar to Princeton, they have completely lost their mind. I will say that without reservation.”

Giving Mind Advice College Extraordinary Educational Graduates Endowment College Graduates

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“When people reflexively write checks to institutions that have billions of dollars in the bank, they are essentially committing a moral crime. Your money could do good in this world and you're choosing instead to waste it. People have to do a better job of that. You've got to find places where your money's going to do some good and direct your dollars towards that institution.”

People World Writing Moral Crime Direct

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“We have, as human beings, a storytelling problem. We're a bit too quick to come up with explanations for things we don't really have an explanation for.”

Humans Problem Success Bits Human Beings Come Up Storytelling Explanation Blink Tipping Point Outliers

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding. We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter.”

Success Understanding Decision Keys Former Latter Decision Making Swimming Lacking Blink Good Decision Outliers

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“The answer is that we are not helpless in the face of our first impressions. They may bubble up from the unconscious - from behind a locked door inside of our brain - but just because something is outside of awareness doesn't mean it's outside of control.”

Firsts May Mean Faces Answers Behinds Brain Doors Awareness Impression Unconscious Bubbles Locked Helpless First Impression Locked Doors

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Arousal leaves us mind-blind.”

Mind Blind Arousal

Book:Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Source: Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

“Insight is not a lightbulb that goes off inside our heads. It is a flickering candle that can easily be snuffed out.”

Success Insight Intuition Candle Blink

Book:Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Source: Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

“The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.”

Ideas Moments Success Social Magic Behavior Crosses Spread Trends Threshold Tipping Wildfires Tipping Point Social Behavior Magic Moments

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Truly successful decision-making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking.”

Thinking Inspirational Success Decision Successful Balance Instinct Intuition Rely Decision Making Deliberate Blink Instinct Intuition

Book:Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Source: Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

“Cultural legacies are powerful forces. They have deep roots and long lives. They persist, generation after generation, virtually intact, even as the economic and social and demographic conditions that spawned them have vanished, and they play such a role in directing attitudes and behavior that we cannot make sense of our world without them.”

World Long Play Force Social Powerful Attitude Roles Generations Economic Conditions Behavior Roots Legacy Make Sense Our World Persist Long Life Demographics Outliers Deep Roots

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“When we become expert in something, our tastes grow more esoteric and complex.”

Grows Taste Complexes Experts Esoteric

Book:Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Source: Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

“Who we are cannot be separated from where we're from.”

Success Who We Are Outliers

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“I want to convince you that these kinds of personal explanations of success don't work. People don't rise from nothing....It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn't.”

People Want Kind Success Behinds Succeed Logic Asking Explanation Convince Outliers

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“We overlook just how large a role we all play--and by 'we' I mean society--in determining who makes it and who doesn't.”

Mean Play Roles Outliers

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Our first impressions are generated by our experiences and our environment, which means that we can change our first impressions... by changing the experiences that comprise those impressions.”

Firsts Mean Environment Impression Our Environment First Impression

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Basketball is an intricate, high-speed game filled with split-second, spontaneous decisions. But that spontaneity is possible only when everyone first engages in hours of highly repetitive and structured practice--perfecting their shooting, dribbling, and passing and running plays over and over again--and agrees to play a carefully defined role on the court. This is the critical lesson of improve, too, and it is also a key to understanding a puzzle of Millennium Challenge: spontaneity isn't random.”

“if we can control the environment in which rapid cognition takes place, then we can control rapid cognition”

Ifs Environment Rapids Cognition

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Practice isn't the thing you do once you're good. It's the thing you do that makes you good.”

Inspirational Motivational Practice Morning Positivity Insperational Outliers

Book:Outliers: The Story of Success

Source: Outliers: The Story of Success

“..... it would be interesting to find out what goes on in that moment when someone looks at you and draws all sorts of conclusions.”

Looks Moments Would Be Success Interesting Goes On Draws Conclusion That Moment

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“To build a better world we need to replace the patchwork of lucky breaks and arbitrary advantages today that determine success--the fortunate birth dates and the happy accidents of history--with a society that provides opportunities for all.”

World Needs Today Opportunity Break Birth Lucky Advantage Determine Accidents Fortunate Arbitrary Outliers Happy Accidents Patchwork Lucky Breaks

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Once a musician has enough ability to get into a top music school, the thing that distinguishes one performer from another is how hard he or she works. That's it. And what's more, the people at the very top don't work just harder or even much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder.”

People Hard Enough School Success Ability Music Musician Harder Performers Outliers

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

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