Quotes Library

January 30, 2025

When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong. The minority are right.

Eugene Debs (1855-1926), founder of the Socialist Party of America, Speeches (1928), Jay p.111

Are you ever part of this minority? Or are you usually—with the majority—on the wrong side of historical change? Or great principles? Recall three times you missed a chance to be with a minority that was right in the end?

Of course, because only a minority can see and appreciate the future at any one time, and never with complete accuracy. For the majority to change course, even when great changes are afoot all around, is as difficult as turning an ocean liner in mid-channel.


More Quotes

January 19, 2025
A sect or party is an elegant incognito devised to save a man from the vexation of thinking.
June 18, 2025
It is no inglorious thing to have fear for the safety of our country, but to be turned from one’s course by men’s opinion
May 6, 2025
Our tradition is one of protest and revolt, and it is stultifying to celebrate the rebels of the past
Page 50 of 63