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.
March 12, 2010
“The trouble with the rat race is that, even if you win, you’re still a rat.”
