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The Arab Awakening Was Like Watching Elephants Fly: Something You Didn't Expect, Something You Haven't Seen Before, "wow, Elephants Fly."
-Thomas Friedman
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The Arab Awakening Was

Thomas Friedman
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The Arab Awakening Was Like Watching Elephants Fly: Something You Didn't Expect, Something You Haven't Seen Before, "wow, Elephants Fly."

Understanding the Quote: "the arab awakening was like watching elephants fly: something you didn't expect,..."

This quote by Thomas Friedman reflects deeply on the theme of elephants. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Elephants, Awakening, Wow, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Thomas Friedman interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Thomas Friedman

Thomas Friedman is celebrated for insightful thoughts on elephants and awakening. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Elephants
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A Generation Ago [the Democratic Party] Stood For Progressive Change. Now They Defend Every Federal Program As If Each Were Sacred. They Have Become The Most Conservative Force In American Politics.
Party
Sacred
Generations
Every Sport Needs Its Temple, Its Cathedral.
Sports
Needs
Temples
The Arab World Had A Big Problem Of Frankly Venal Elites. That Is Why These Revolutions Happen, Because People Didn't Think The Opportunities Were Being Shared Fairly.
Opportunity
Thinking
People
Syria Is On The Back End Of Basically A Decade-long Drought. Over The Last Decade, Farmers And Herders Have Been Ravaged In Syria Forcing Them To Give Up And Move To Urban Areas. This Has Put A Huge Strain On Urban Resources, And It's Surely One Of The Reasons For The Uprising There.
Giving Up
Moving
Uprising
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.
Winning
People
Effort
In The Hyperconnected World, There Is Only “good” “better” And “best.
World
I Said That More People In More Places Can Now Compete, Connect And Collaborate With Equal Power And Equal Tools Than Ever Before.
People
Tools
Bangalore
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.
Average
Vintage
Income
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.
Spring
Thinking
Government
Remember, The Difference Between The World Frozen Over, In An Ice Ball, And The Warming Period We're In Now Is Just 6 Degrees Centigrade. A Change Of Just 1 Degree Can Have A Huge Effect.
World
Remember
Water Is Our Next Great Environmental Challenge. It Is The New Oil. How Are We Going To Preserve This Sport Unless We Are Designing And Maintaining Golf Courses That Are Energy Net Zero, Carbon Net Zero And Water Net Zero? Or Ideally, Energy Positive, Carbon Positive And Water Positive, Where They Are Taking Out More Than They Are Using.
Sports
Golf
Water
If E-mail Had Been Around Before The Telephone Was Invented, People Would Have Said, 'hey, Forget E-mail! With This New Telephone Invention I Can Actually Talk To People!'.
Service Culture
People
Hey
Everyone Needs To Get Together And Say: "our Objective Is To Preserve And Enhance The Game And The Planet On Which It's Played. To Make Golf A Leader In Greening The World."
Golf
Leader
Together
What I Want Is Natural Gas To Be A Bridge To A Cleaner Energy Future, Not A Dam Against A Cleaner Energy Future, Not A Dead End. To Get This Right, To Get The Most Out Of It, We Not Only Have To Make Sure We Exploit Natural Gas In A Clean Way - It's A Challenge - But We Also Have To Make Sure That We Are Instilling And Implementing All The Incentives To Win Solar, Nuclear Energy Efficiency That Will Make Them Continually Competitive With Natural Gas In The Future.
Winning
Bridges
Challenges
I Think We Have Lost Our Groove As A Country. One Of The Reasons Was The Attack On 9/11. We Got Knocked Off Our Game. From A Country That Always Exported Hope We Went Into The Business Of Exporting Fear.
Country
Thinking
Games
The Arab Awakening Has Been, Up To Now, A Lot About Freedom From Dictatorial Regimes - Syria, Yemen, Libya, Tunisia, Bahrain And Egypt. But Once You Got Freedom From, Then You Need Freedom To. Freedom From Is About Destroying Things. Freedom To Is About Constructing Things, Constructing The Rule Of Law.
Egypt
Law
Needs
I Don't Think That Stability And The Status Quo Go Together At All, Not In A Flat World Where People Are Integrated, Where Women Are Assuming New Roles, Where Young People Want To Be Consulted And Participate. I Think The Trick Is To Open Up, Move Down The Path Of Reform, Do It In A Way That Is Consistent With Your Own Society's Stability And Culture, And Just Don't Think You Can Do Nothing.
Moving
Thinking
People
Pessimists Are Usually Right And Optimists Are Usually Wrong But All The Great Changes Have Been Accomplished By Optimists.
Change
Optimistic
Optimism And Pessimism
The Thing You Have To Remember Is, Oil And Gas Are Commodities, And The More We Use Them The More The Price Goes Up, Like Any Commodity. Solar, Wind - They Are Technologies, So The More You Use Them, The More The Price Goes Down.
Technology
Remember
Commodity
So What Am I? I Guess I Would Call Myself A Sober Optimist...if You Are Not Sober About The Scale Of The Challenge, Then You Are Not Paying Attention. But If You Are Not An Optimist, You Have No Chance Of Generating The Kind Of Mass Movement Needed To Achieve The Needed Scale.
Challenges
Attention
Movement
If You Are Self-motivated, Wow, This World Is Tailored For You. The Boundaries Are All Gone. But If You're Not Self-motivated, This World Will Be A Challenge Because The Walls, Ceilings And Floors That Protected People Are Also Disappearing. That Is What I Mean When I Say "it Is A 401(k) World." Government Will Do Less For You. Companies Will Do Less For You. Unions Can Do Less For You. There Will Be Fewer Limits, But Also Fewer Guarantees. Your Specific Contribution Will Define Your Specific Benefits Much More. Just Showing Up Will Not Cut It.
Wall
Mean
Cutting
We're Going In The Wrong Direction And I Think The Only Way To Counter That Is To Bring The Story Home In Really Concrete Ways To People - In Ways That Kids Can Understand And Non-scientists Can Understand.
Home
Kids
Thinking
The Great Thing About Cheap Natural Gas, Again It's Cheap, And It Provides A Cleaner Alternative To Coal. But It's Still A Fossil Fuel, And Because It's Still A Fossil Fuel, It Still Emits Carbon.
Alternatives
Coal
Fuel
A Golf Course Should Aspire To Generate As Much Energy As It Consumes - Golf Should Be Leading The Way Toward Energy Net Zero.
Zero
Golf
Energy
I Could See America Playing A Slightly Smaller Role In The Middle East But I Would Not See Us Abandoning The Region And Just Say "oh," Like I Said, "china, Russia, It's Yours Now. Global Focus Is Just On Our Hemisphere." I Don't See That Happening.
Russia
America
Focus
Desktop Freelancers And Innovative Startups All Over The World
Interesting
World
Desktop
Almost All The Students Who Make It To Caltech, One Of The Best Scientific Universities In The World, Come From Public Schools. So It Can Be Done.
School
World
Done
Iraq Today Does Have A Chance To Shape Its Own Future. They May Not Do That, Or This Generation May Not Do That. But Maybe The Next One Will, I Don't Know. They May Try And Fail, And Stumble, Get Up And Fall Back.
Fall
Iraq
Trying
Capitalism Makes People Unequally Rich. Communism Makes People Equally Poor.
People
Rich
Communism
Criticizing Israel Is Not Anti-semitic, And Saying So Is Vile. But Singling Out Israel For Opprobrium And International Sanction - Out Of All Proportion To Any Other Party In The Middle East - Is Anti-semitic, And Not Saying So Is Dishonest.
Party
Israel
Middle East
Something Really Big Happened In The World's Wiring In The Last Decade, But It Was Obscured By The Financial Crisis And Post-9/11. We Went From A Connected World To A Hyperconnected World. I'm Always Struck That Facebook, Twitter, 4g, Iphones, Ipads, High-speech Broadband, Ubiquitous Wireless And Web-enabled Cellphones, The Cloud, Big Data, Cellphone Apps And Skype Did Not Exist Or Were In Their Infancy A Decade Ago.
Change
Data
Ipads
I Don't Think A Monarchy Led By 75- And 80-year-old Men [saudi Arabia] In Today's Modern World Is Really Sustainable.
Men
Thinking
Years
It Is Hard To Partner With Someone When You Become So Radioactive No One Wants To Stand Next To You.
Want
Next
Partners
Most Jobs Are Outsourced To The Past, They Aren't Outsourced To India Or Mexico Or Pakistan Or Anywhere Else.
Jobs
Past
India
America Is The Greatest Engine Of Innovation That Has Ever Existed, And It Can't Be Duplicated Anytime Soon, Because It Is The Product Of A Multitude Of Factors: Extreme Freedom Of Thought, An Emphasis On Independent Thinking, A Steady Immigration Of New Minds, A Risk-taking Culture With No Stigma Attached To Trying And Failing, A Noncorrupt Bureaucracy, And Financial Markets And A Venture Capital System That Are Unrivaled At Taking New Ideas And Turning Them Into Global Products.
Independent
Thinking
Ideas
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.
Kings
Good Day
Bad Day
In China Today, Bill Gates Is Britney Spears. In America Today, Britney Spears Is Britney Spears-and That Is Our Problem.
America
Bills
Today
America Is Interested In Change And Reform In The Middle East But In A Stable Way.
America
Middle East
Reform
Tap Into People's Dignity And They Will Do Anything For You. Ignore It, And They Won't Lift A Finger.
Wisdom
People
Dignity
My Mom Enlisted In The U.s. Navy In World War Ii, And My Parents Actually Bought Our Home Thanks To The Loan She Got Through The Gi Bill.
Mom
War
Home
I Am Always A Little Skeptical On The Water Thing Because I Have Been Hearing That For 30 Years, But One Year It's Going To Be True. With The Rising Populations, Yemen Could Be The First Country In The World, Or Sana'a The First Major City In The World, To Run Out Of Water, That's From Yemeni Hydrological Engineers And The United Nations. Sooner Or Later, All Of These People, From 7 To 9 Billion, All Of Them Want To Live Like America, Will Be Consuming So Much More Water That Some Of The Societies Will Hit A Wall Without More Sustainable Environmental Practices.
Country
Running
Wall
Only If You Give The Palestinians Something To Lose Is There A Hope That They Will Agree To Moderate Their Demands.... I Believe That As Soon As Ahmed Has A Seat In The Bus, He Will Limit His Demands.
Believe
Giving
Demand
Two Things Are Going On At The Same Time With The Flattening Of The World: The Relentless Quest For Efficiency Is Squeezing Some Of The Fat Out Of Life.
Two
World
Quests
Everything I’ve Ever Gotten In Life Is Largely Due To The Fact That I Was Born In This Country, America, At This Time With These Opportunities For Its Citizens. It Is The Primary Obligation Of Our Generation To Turn Over A Similar America To Our Kids.
Country
Kids
Opportunity
I'm A Radical Pro-immigration Advocate. I'm Not Saying We Just Look At The Muslim World Or We Just Look At China, We Just Look At India As A Source Of Our Talent. But, One Thing We Know... First Or Second Generation Or New Immigrants Or Children Of Immigrants Have Started About 40% Of The Fortune 500 Companies. For Me It's Always Been A Really Very Important Issue That I Want America To Be Open To The Most Energetic And Talented People From Around The World.
Children
America
Issues
The Dell Theory Of Conflict Prevention Argues That No Two Countries That Are Both Part Of The Same Global Supply Chain Will Ever Fight A War As Long As They Are Each Part Of That Supply Chain.
Country
War
Fighting
Remember, In China When You Are One In A Million, There Are 1,300 Other People Just Like You.
Funny
Humor
People
You Take One Bomber And Deploy Him In Baghdad, And Another Is Manufactured In Riyadh The Next Day. It's Exactly Like When You Take The Toy Off The Shelf At Wal-mart And Another Is Made In Shen Zhen The Next Day.
Next Day
Riyadh
Baghdad
Rock Stars Get Room Keys, I Get Business Cards. Wherever I Go I Meet Innovators Of Wind Power Equipment, Solar Energy Operators.
Stars
Keys
Rocks
It Has Always Been My View That Terrorism Is Not Spawned By The Poverty Of Money; It Is Spawned By The Poverty Of Dignity. Humiliation Is The Most Underestimated Force In International Relations And In Human Relations. It Is When People Or Nations Are Humiliated That They Really Lash Out And Engage In Extreme Violence.
Views
People
Poverty
If You Don't Have An Ethic Of Conservation, You Basically Have A License To Drive A Hummer Through The Amazon.
Amazon
Ethics
Conservation
You'll Know The Green Revolution Has Been Won When The Word 'green' Disappears.
Green
Revolution
Disappear
It's Easy To Kind Of Say It's The Elite That's Putting You Down. Well, It Wasn't Really The Elite, Technology Will Do That.
Technology
Kind
Easy
Mcdonald's Cannot Flourish Without Mcdonnell Douglas, The Builder Of The F-15.
Mcdonalds
Designer
Many Of Us Who Grew Up Playing Golf Know That Our Kids Aren't Doing It. A Great Way To Enhance The Game, Make It Cool Again And Bring Back Some Of The Interest Among Younger People Is To Make Golf The Greenest Sport In An Environmental Sense. Every Course's Greenkeeper Should Think Of Himself Or Herself As The Greenkeeper: Responsible For Preserving The Green, Not Just The Greens.
Sports
Kids
Golf
We've Gone From Thinking The Fuels That Powered Our Growth Were Inexpensive, Inexhaustible And Benign To Understanding They Are Exhaustible, Expensive And Toxic. Once You Frame The Problem That Way, People Will Look At Solutions Differently.
Thinking
People
Understanding
What Is Al Qaeda? It's An Open Source Religious Political Movement That Works Off The Global Supply Chain.
Religious
Political
Movement
Saudi Hijackers First Came Into Contact With Al-qaeda And Went Through Terrorism 101 When They Signed Up For The Jihad In Afghanistan.
Als
Firsts
Terrorism
We Need To Become Energy Independent Or At Least Aspire To That.
Independent
Energy
Needs
If You Followed This Economic Crisis And You Do Not Think That The World Is Getting Flatter, You Are Not Paying Attention. We Saw The Entire Global Economy At One Time Acting Totally In Sync. The Real Truth Is The World Is Even Flatter Than I Thought. Our Mortgage Crisis Is Killing Deutsche Bank. You Still Don't Think The World Is Flat?
Real
Thinking
Acting
What Is The Most Entrepreneurial Country In The Middle East Today? It's Lebanon. Which Country Has No Oil Or Gas? Lebanon. The Same Was True Of Israel, The Same Was Of Bahrain. You Could See A Real Gradation. Turkey, For Instance: No Oil And Gas, Very Entrepreneurial. You Can Either Dig Your Future Out Of The Ground Or You Can Unlock The Potential Of Your People.
Country
Real
Israel
There's A Difference Between Being Able To Make Long Distance Phone Calls Cheaper On The Internet And Walking Around Riyadh With A Pda Where You Can Have All Of Google In Your Pocket. It's A Difference In Degree That's So Enormous It Becomes A Difference In Kind.
Distance
Phones
Differences
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