Malcolm Gladwell is a renowned journalist, best-selling author, and public speaker. He has penned five New York Times best-selling books and has been included in the TIME 100 Most Influential People list. As an internationally respected thought leader, Gladwell definitely has something to say, and we think his thoughts are worth listening to.

Here, we’ve compiled some of Gladwell’s most poignant and thought-provoking quotes from his most acclaimed and popular audiobooks.

Influence & Social Change

“Look at the world around you. With the slightest push, in just the right place, it can be tipped.” —The Tipping Point

“We have, in short, somehow become convinced that we need to tackle the whole problem, all at once. … We only need to find the sticky Tipping Points.” —The Tipping Point

“As human beings we are a lot more sophisticated about each other than we are about the abstract world.” — The Tipping Point

“Emotion is contagious.” — The Tipping Point

“Don’t look at the stranger and jump to conclusions. Look at the stranger's world.” —Talking to Strangers

“The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.” —The Tipping Point

“Communities have their own stories, and those stories are contagious.” —Revenge of the Tipping Point

Trust & Misunderstanding

“We have a default to truth: our operating assumption is that the people we are dealing with are honest.” —Talking to Strangers

“Defaulting to truth is a problem. It lets spies and con artists roam free.” —Talking to Strangers

“We are bad lie detectors in those situations when the person we’re judging is mismatched.” —Talking to Strangers

“Puzzle Number One: Why can’t we tell when the stranger in front of us is lying to our face?” —Talking to Strangers

“The right way to talk to strangers is with caution and humility.” —Talking to Strangers

“Those occasions when our trusting nature gets violated are tragic. But the alternative—to abandon trust as a defense against predation and deception—is worse.” —Talking to Strangers

“We fall out of truth-default mode only when the case against our initial assumption becomes definitive. … We start by believing. And we stop believing only when our doubts and misgivings rise to the point where we can no longer explain them away.” —Talking to Strangers

Human Nature & Character

“Character isn’t what we think it is … it only seems that way because of a glitch in the way our brains are organized. Character is more like a bundle of habits and tendencies … dependent, at certain times, on circumstance and context.” —The Tipping Point

“The people who were right about Hitler were those who knew the least about him personally. … The people who were wrong … had talked with him for hours.” —Talking to Strangers

“Sometimes the best conversations between strangers allow the stranger to remain a stranger.” —Talking to Strangers

“We think we can transform the stranger, without cost or sacrifice, into the familiar and the known, and we can’t.” —Talking to Strangers

“The real me isn’t the person I describe, no the real me is the me revealed by my actions.” —Blink

“All of us, when it comes to personality, naturally think in terms of absolutes: that a person is a certain way … but … when we think only in terms of inherent traits and forget the role of situations, we’re deceiving ourselves about the real causes of human behavior.” —The Tipping Point

“What we get in exchange for being vulnerable to an occasional lie is efficient communication and social coordination.” —Talking to Strangers

Thinking, Expertise & Knowledge

“When we become expert in something, our tastes grow more esoteric and complex.” —Blink

“Often a sign of expertise is noticing what doesn’t happen.” —Blink

“The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding.” —Blink

“We have, as human beings, a storytelling problem. We’re a bit too quick to come up with explanations for things we really don’t have an explanation for.” —Blink

“We need to accept our ignorance and say ‘I don’t know’ more often.” —Blink

“Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.” —Outliers

“Insight is not a lightbulb that goes off inside our heads. It is a flickering candle that can easily be snuffed out.” —Blink

Perception, Meaning & Intuition

“A book … is a living and breathing document that grows richer with each new reading.” —The Tipping Point

“If suicide is coupled, then it isn’t simply the act of depressed people … a particular moment of extreme vulnerability and … readily available lethal means.” —Talking to Strangers

“That’s the consequence of not defaulting to truth. If you don’t begin in a state of trust, you can’t have meaningful social encounters.” —Talking to Strangers

“In the act of tearing something apart, you lose its meaning.” —Blink

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

“This is what is meant, in the technical sense, by empathy. We imitate each other’s emotions as a way of expressing support and caring … as a way of communicating with each other.” —The Tipping Point

“The entire principle of a blind taste test was ridiculous. … Why not? Because in the real world, no one ever drinks Coca-Cola blind.” —Blink