Innovation makes enemies of all those who prospered under the old regime, and only lukewarm support is forthcoming from those who would prosper under the new.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Innovation creates enemies among those who benefited from the old system and only lukewarm support from those who would benefit from the new.
- In plain terms
- Change makes enemies out of old winners and only gets weak support from new winners.
- What can you take from it?
- Change is difficult because it creates entrenched opposition.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Why do people resist change?
- How do you manage opposition?
Another view
Some innovation is too beneficial to be rejected entirely.
More from Niccolo Machiavelli
He who blinded by ambition, raises himself to a position whence he cannot mount higher, must thereafter fall with the greatest loss.
Permalink to quote #38 War should be the only study of a prince. He should consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes as ability to e…
Permalink to quote #40 It may be observed, that provinces amid the vicissitudes to which they are subject, pass from order into confusion, and afterward recur to a state of order aga…
Permalink to quote #37
Related quotes
We must realize that today's Establishment is the New George III. Whether it will continue to adhere to his tactics, we do not know. If it does, the redress, h…
William O. DouglasWilliam O. Douglas quote #19 They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom For trying to change the system from within I'm coming now, I'm coming to reward them First we take Manhattan, the…
Leonard CohenLeonard Cohen quote #29 If you are the big tree, we are the small axe, ready to cut you down.
Bob MarleyBob Marley quote #39