Progress tends to take longer than we’d like. Change is almost always incremental: it happens through a series of steps, because many people are fearful of or resistant to change. However, small steps can gradually lead to larger strides. Individual actions can have a ripple effect. And small changes made by growing numbers of people can add up to a big impact. We shouldn’t let ourselves get paralyzed into inaction because we feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of a problem or we think our actions won’t make a difference.
Doing something constructive to address a problem is better than doing nothing. Wise thinkers throughout history—from Euripides to Lily Tomlin—have come to this conclusion, and they have articulated it in a variety of ways:
“Slight not what’s near, when aiming at what’s far.” — Euripides
“Nobody made a bigger mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.” — Edmund Burke
“The perfect is the enemy of the good.” — Voltaire
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” — Lao Tzu
“Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.” — Jonathan Kozol
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is today.” — Chinese proverb
“We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.” — Marian Wright Edelman
“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” — William James
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” — Margaret Mead
“Big problems are rarely solved with commensurately big solutions. Instead, they are most often solved by a sequence of small solutions.” — Chip Heath and Dan Heath (This statement is excerpted from their book, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard.)
“I always wondered why somebody doesn’t do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody.” — Lily Tomlin
For other words of wisdom, check out the Quotations page, and please feel free to add your own favorites in the Comments section.
