
Source: The Call of the Carpenter (1914), p. xxi
As quoted in "Seal" profile at Victoria's Secret Fashion Show (CBS) (4 December 2007)
Context: Myself and the people close to me are all part of a social system, and we were being conditioned to accept the status quo. But on this album, I'm saying it's time for us to take charge. We can change it. We can take control of our emotional system and be happy. My point is don't just sit there and allow life to happen to you. Go out and take charge if you want change, but it begins closer to home.
Source: The Call of the Carpenter (1914), p. xxi
“The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.”
Bennis (1989, p. 45), cited in: Terrence Mech, Gerard B. McCabe (1998) Leadership and Academic Librarians. p. 56
1980s
“Their pledge is a pledge to the status quo — and today there can be no status quo.”
Address Accepting the Democratic Party Nomination for the Presidency of the United States — Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles (15 July 1960) http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations.aspx<!-- Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project -->
1960
Context: Their platform, made up of left-over Democratic planks, has the courage of our old convictions. Their pledge is a pledge to the status quo — and today there can be no status quo.
“Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status.”
Source: Peter's Quotations: Ideas for Our Time (1977), p. 83
2010s, 2018, Liberalism, Conservatism, and the End of History (2018)
“Sometimes people think you’re smart if you question the status quo, if nothing else.”
“I blow my load over the status-quo, here we go.”
"Smooth Sailing", ...Like Clockwork (2013)
Lyrics, Queens of the Stone Age
“Question the status quo at all times, especially when things are going well.”
Part III, Chapter 11, Question Success, p. 135
2000s, How Life Imitates Chess (2007)