Quotes by Malcolm Gladwell

About Malcolm Gladwell:

Malcolm Timothy Gladwell is a Canadian journalist, bestselling author, and speaker. He has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996. He has written five books, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (2000), Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (2005), Outliers: The Story of Success (2008), What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures (2009), a collection of his journalism, and David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants (2013). All five books were on The New York Times Best Seller list.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

For every remote miss who becomes stronger, there are countless near misses who are crushed by what they have been through. There are times and places, however, when all of us depend on people who have been hardened by their experiences.

Malcolm Gladwell

...legitimacy is based on three things. First of all, the people who are asked to obey authority have to feel like they have a voice--that if they speak up, they will be heard. Second, the law has to be predictable. There has to be a reasonable expec...

Malcolm Gladwell

Much of what we consider valuable in our world arises out of (these) one-sided conflicts. Because the act of facing overwhelming odds, produces greatness and beauty.

Malcolm Gladwell

So why don’t Americans cheat? Because they think that their system is legitimate. People accept authority when they see that it treats everyone equally, when it is possible to speak up and be heard, and when there are rules in place that assure you...

Malcolm Gladwell

We form our impression not globally, by placing ourselves in the broadest possible context, but locally, by comparing ourselves to people in the same boat as ourselves.

Malcolm Gladwell

... forgiveness is a religious imperative: forgive those who trespass against you. But it is also a very practical strategy based on the belief that there are profound limits to what the formal mechanisms of retribution can accomplish.

Malcolm Gladwell

It's challenging, it's not hopeless. You have to come up with something. You have to figure out a way to help them, because people must have hope to live.

Malcolm Gladwell

There is a set of advantages that have to do with material resources, and there is a set that have to do with the absence of material resources- and the reason underdogs win as often as they do is that the latter is sometimes every bit the equal of t...

Malcolm Gladwell

We have become obsessed with what is good about small classrooms and oblivious about what also can be good about large classes. It’s a strange thing isn't it, to have an educational philosophy that thinks of the other students in the classroom with...

Malcolm Gladwell

But this same dilemma comes up again and again in our own lives, and often we don't choose so wisely. The inverted-U curve reminds us that there is a point at which money and resources stop making our lives better and start making them worse.

Malcolm Gladwell

Giants are not what we think they are. The same qualities that appear to give them strength are often the sources of great weakness.

Malcolm Gladwell

[Research] suggests that what we think of as free will is largely an illusion: much of the time, we are simply operating on automatic pilot, and the way we think and act – and how well we think and act on the spur of the moment – are a lot more s...

Malcolm Gladwell

Bad improvisers block action, often with a high degree of skill. Good improvisers develop action."(p.115)

Malcolm Gladwell

People are in one of two states in a relationship,” Gottman went on. “The first is what I call positive sentiment override, where positive emotion overrides irritability. It’s like a buffer. Their spouse will do something bad, and they’ll say...

Malcolm Gladwell

Whenever we have something that we are good at--something we care about--that experience and passion fundamentally change the nature of our first impressions.

Malcolm Gladwell

I've been in auditions without screens, and I can assure you that I was prejudiced. I began to listen with my eyes, and there is no way that your eyes don't affect your judgement. The only true way to listen is with your ears and your heart. (p.251)

Malcolm Gladwell

Some people look like they sound better than they actually sound, because they look confident and have good posture," once musician, a veteran of many auditions, says. "Other people look awful when they play but sound great. Other people have that be...

Malcolm Gladwell

In life, most of us are highly skilled at suppressing action. All the improvisation teacher has to do is to reverse this skill and he creates very ‘gifted’ improvisers. Bad improvisers block action, often with a high degree of skill. Good improvi...

Malcolm Gladwell

Insight is not a lightbulb that goes off inside our heads. It is a flickering candle that can easily be snuffed out.

Malcolm Gladwell

Testers for 7-Up consistently found consumers would report more lemon flavor in their product if they added 15% more yellow coloring TO THE PACKAGE.

Malcolm Gladwell

The entire principle of a blind taste test was ridiculous. They shouldn't have cared so much that they were losing blind taste tests with old Coke, and we shouldn't at all be surprised that Pepsi's dominance in blind taste tests never translated to m...

Malcolm Gladwell

Author Bio

  • NameMalcolm Gladwell
  • Descriptionjournalist and science writer
  • BornSeptember 3, 1963
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionJournalist; Writer; Screenwriter
  • WorksThe Tipping Point; Blink; Outliers; What The Dog Saw: And Other Adventures
  • AwardsMember Of The Order Of Canada