Quote

Optimists are usually wrong. But all the great change in history, positive change, was done by optimists.

Thomas Friedman

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Thomas Friedman
Age: 71
Born: 1953
Born: July 20
Columnist
Journalist
Screenwriter
Television Producer
Writer
Saint Louis Park
Minnesota
Thomas Loren Friedman
Thomas L. Friedman
Change
Done
Great
Optimists
Optimist
Positive
Usually
Wrong
History

More quotes by Thomas Friedman

Image
I love America. I think it's the best country in the world. But I also think we're not tending to our sauce.
Thomas Friedman
Image
It created a global platform that allowed more people to plug and play, collaborate and compete, share knowledge and share work, than anything we have ever seen in the history of the world.
Thomas Friedman
Image
I don't know what the average income of Muslim-Americans is, but Muslim-American immigrants of recent vintage, I bet they have a very above-average representation in professional and business occupations.
Thomas Friedman
Image
Never before in the history of the planet have so many people, on their own, had the ability to find so much information about so many things and about so many other people.
Thomas Friedman
Image
We are led by lawyers who do not understand either technology or balance sheets.
Thomas Friedman
Image
American young people have got to understand from an early age that the world pays off on results, not on effort. Not everyone should win a prize no matter where he or she finishes.
Thomas Friedman
Image
Our kids are going to be so angry with us one day. We've charged their future on our Visa cards.
Thomas Friedman
Image
Change your leaders, not your light bulbs.
Thomas Friedman
Image
Tap into people's dignity and they will do anything for you. Ignore it, and they won't lift a finger.
Thomas Friedman
Image
America needs rebooting.
Thomas Friedman
Image
To me the smart thing that governments in the Middle East would be doing right now is taking their oil and gas fountain - and the smartest ones are to some degree - and making sure they're investing in their people to unlock their potential - men and women.
Thomas Friedman
Image
Once people get a taste for whatever you want to call it - economic independence, a better lifestyle, and a better life for their children - they grab on to that and don't want to give it up.
Thomas Friedman
Image
The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist -- McDonald's cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas, the builder of the F-15. And the hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley's technologies is called the United States Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.
Thomas Friedman
Image
No matter what your profession – doctor, lawyer, architect, accountant – if you are an American, you better be good at the touchy-feely service stuff, because anything that can be digitized can be outsourced to either the smartest or the cheapest producer.
Thomas Friedman
Image
What is al Qaeda? It's an open source religious political movement that works off the global supply chain.
Thomas Friedman
Image
I don't think the Arab Spring had much to do with energy. I think it was just the opposite, in fact. I think the Arab Spring happened because particularly young people knew they were living in a context where they could not realize their full potential, that they are being kept down by their own governments.
Thomas Friedman
Image
I would say that in 2000, we understand as much about how today's system of globalization is going to work as we understood about how the Cold War system was going to work in 1946.
Thomas Friedman
Image
If we don't have a more serious energy policy, the difference between a good day and bad day for America from here on will hinge on how the 86-year-old king of Saudi Arabia manages...change.
Thomas Friedman
Image
Guantanamo Bay is the anti-Statue of Liberty.
Thomas Friedman
Image
Iraq may still have a decent outcome...but even if it becomes Switzerland, we overpaid for it.
Thomas Friedman