Malcolm Gladwell

The tallest oak in the forest is the tallest not just because it grew from the hardiest acorn; it is the tallest also because no other trees blocked its sunlight, the soil around it was deep and rich, no rabbit chewed through its bark as a sapling, and no lumberjack cut it down before it matured.

Malcolm Gladwell

The typical accident involves seven consecutive human errors.

Malcolm Gladwell

There are lots of issues more important than where billionaires donate their money.

Malcolm Gladwell

There are some people, who I’ll charitably call snobs, who are dismissive of any conversation that doesn’t begin with the full level of complexity. That’s just not how the world works.

Malcolm Gladwell

There can be as much value in the blink of an eye as in months of rational analysis.

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 the former.

Malcolm Gladwell

There is an important idea in psychology: The ‘just world theory,’ which says that it is very important for us to convince ourselves that the world is just and things happen for a reason. That there is some elemental fairness in everything, which creates the illusion of justice.

Malcolm Gladwell

There is more courage and heroism in defying the human impulse, in taking the purposeful and painful steps to prepare for the unimaginable.

Malcolm Gladwell

There is more going on beneath the surface than we think, and more going on in little, finite moments of time than we would guess.

Malcolm Gladwell

There is nothing more common than critics of journalists accusing them of practicing journalism. It is our function in the world to take things that are complicated and render them in a form that non-experts can follow and make sense of.

Malcolm Gladwell