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About this quote

What does it mean?
Goldman observes that any bold attempt to transform society or imagine new human possibilities is quickly dismissed as unrealistic.
In plain terms
Big ideas for change are often called Utopian.
What can you take from it?
Expect resistance when proposing radical change.

Where it applies

  • social reform
  • political activism
  • innovation

Putting it to work

  • prepare for criticism
  • persist with visionary goals

Questions to consider

  • How do you handle rejection of your ideas?
  • Is being called Utopian a bad thing?

Another view

Not all visions are realistic; some are genuinely impractical.

More from Emma Goldman

  1. Crime is naught but misdirected energy.

    Permalink to quote #51
  2. Every effort for progress, for enlightenment, for science, for religious, political, and economic liberty, emanates from the minority, and not from the mass.

    Permalink to quote #53
  3. Corruption of politics has nothing to do with the morals, or the laxity of morals, of various political personalities. Its cause is altogether a material one.

    Permalink to quote #50

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