The Art of Insubordination Quotes

“We engage poorly with rebels not simply because their ideas unsettle us or we assume we know everything, but because we resent these individuals for making us painfully aware of our own limitations.”
― Todd Kashdan, The Art of Insubordination: How to Dissent and Defy Effectively

“Asking tough, even dangerous questions rarely feels good in the moment. A preference for cognitive simplicity leads us to fall back on assumptions.”
― Todd Kashdan, The Art of Insubordination: How to Dissent and Defy Effectively

“What could be more American than feeling discontent while plastering on a goofy smile?”
― Todd Kashdan, The Art of Insubordination: How to Dissent and Defy Effectively

“In group settings, stay on the alert for signs of discord and discontents as well as the opposite: pressures on individuals to conform, cohere, cooperate, and put on a cheerful face. You won’t get divergent thinking and unique perspectives unless you modify the culture to allow a wider range of voices to permeate. Support every measure that reduces the tendency of group members to follow the loudest, most popular, most talkative, or most distinguished. Let the best ideas arise from anyone, anywhere.”
― Todd Kashdan, The Art of Insubordination: How to Dissent and Defy Effectively

“We become close minded when we possess either too much or too little knowledge, which often leaves us overconfident in existing knowledge.”
― Todd Kashdan, The Art of Insubordination: How to Dissent and Defy Effectively

“Traditionally, people try to ignore unwanted thoughts. They suppress them, correct them, replace them with a positive affirmation, or seek out distractions.”
― Todd Kashdan, The Art of Insubordination: How to Dissent and Defy Effectively

“We rationalize the existing state of affairs when we feel an undesirable situation is ‘psychologically real.’ Feeling the ‘psychological realness’ and inevitable consequences of the current state of affairs pushes us to swap out resisting for a new trifecta of coping behaviors: conforming, rationalizing, and legitimizing.”
― Todd Kashdan, The Art of Insubordination: How to Dissent and Defy Effectively

“On the drive home, my mom kept her gaze fixed on the road and said to me, ‘Keep questioning the rules until you get good answers.”
― Todd Kashdan, The Art of Insubordination: How to Dissent and Defy Effectively