Status Quo Quotes (5 quotes)
It did not last: the Devil howling “Ho, Let Einstein be,” restored the status quo.
Adding to earlier Epitaph by Alexander Pope for Isaac Newton, 'In Continuation of Pope on Newton', in J.C. Squire, Poems in One Volume (1926), 218.
Many quite nefarious ideologies pass for common sense. For decades of American history, it was common sense in some quarters for white people to own slaves and for women not to vote. … If common sense sometimes preserves the social status quo, and that status quo sometimes treats unjust social hierarchies as natural, it makes good sense on such occasions to find ways of challenging common sense.
In 'A “Bad Writer” Bites Back', The New York Times (20 Mar 1999), A15.
Questioning the status quo can result in banishment, imprisonment, ridicule or being burned at the stake, depending on your era, your locale, and the sacred cows you wish to butcher.
From post 're:The Pursuit of Knowledge, from Genesis to Google' to the 'Interesting People' List (6 Jan 2005) maintained by David J. Farber, now archived at interesting-people.org website.
The balance of nature is not a status quo; it is fluid, ever shifting, in a constant state of adjustment.
In Silent Spring (1962), 246.
The soft minded man always fears change. He feels security in the status quo and he has an almost morbid fear of the new. For him, the greatest pain is the pain of a new idea.
In Strength to Love (1963, 1977), 15. Compare the earlier quote by Walter Bagehot, “One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea,” in 'The Age of Discussion', Physics and Politics (1869, 1916), 163.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
