If things are ever to move upward, some one must take the first step, and assume the risk of it. No one who is not willing to try charity, to try non-resistance as the saint is always willing, can tell whether these methods will or will not succeed.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Progress requires someone to take the first risky step to test new methods.
- In plain terms
- Someone has to try something new to see if it works.
- What can you take from it?
- Take the first step to enable progress.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What risk are you avoiding?
- Who must take the first step?
Another view
Not everyone has the privilege to take risks safely.
More from William James
We must frankly confess, then, using our empirical common sense and ordinary practical prejudices, that in the world that actually is, the virtues of sympathy,…
Permalink to quote #80 The God whom science recognizes must be a God of universal laws exclusively, a God who does a wholesale, not a retail business. He cannot accommodate his proce…
Permalink to quote #82 There is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it.
Permalink to quote #79
Related quotes
Think of it as evolution in action.
Larry NivenLarry Niven quote #3 Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.
Mother Teresa (Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhi)Mother Teresa (Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhi) quote #4 How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before beginning to improve the world.
Anne FrankAnne Frank quote #6