Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Stand by me, my brave grenadiers!
Optimism and stupidity are nearly synonymous.
Success teaches us nothing; only failure teaches.
The Devil is in the details, but so is salvation.
Far too many people hide behind their busy lifestyles
Half-truths are like half a brick - they can be thrown farther.
Thoughts arising from practical experience may be a bridle or a spur.
The devil is in the details, and everything we do in the military is a detail.
One hundred rounds do not constitute fire power. One hit constitutes fire power.
Good ideas and innovations must be driven into existence by courage and patience.
How the hell are you supposed to know what God wants you to do with your life, eh?
Unrelated doesn't necessarily mean unrelated. Allow ideas to dwell with one another.
The only things those people have that you don't is guts. Do you wanna live forever?
Human experience shows that people, not organizations or management systems, get things done
Growth is ignited anytime you put in expressways and interchanges. It's a synergistic effect.
Those involved with practical reactors, humbled by their experiences, speak less and worry more.
A child is being properly educated only when he is learning to become independent of his parents.
All new ideas begin in a non-conforming mind that questions some tenet of the conventional wisdom.
I preach darkness. I don't inspire hope—only shadows. It's up to you to find the light in my words.
Trying to make things work in government is sometimes like trying to sew a button on a custard pie.
Free discussion requires an atmosphere unembarrassed by any suggestion of authority or even respect.
Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous impatience.
If you're going to sin, sin against God, not the bureaucracy; God will forgive you but the bureaucracy won't.
If you are going to sin, sin against God, not the bureaucracy. God will forgive you but the bureaucracy won't.
When doing a job — any job — one must feel that he owns it, and act as though he will remain in that job forever.
A system under which it takes three men to check what one is doing is not control; it is systematic strangulation.
I have the charisma of the chipmunk. I never have thought I was smart. I thought the people I dealt with were dumb.
The man in charge must concern himself with details. If he does not consider them important, neither will his subordinates.
Any one detail, followed through to its source, will usually reveal the general state of readiness of the whole organization.
It is a human inclination to hope things will work out, despite evidence or doubt to the contrary. A successful manager must resist this temptation.
I have a son. I love my son. I want everything that I do to be so safe that I would be happy to have my son operating it. That's my fundamental rule.
When the men in Russia foul up, they are dismisses, sometimes losing their necks. But we protect those who fail and press them to the government bosom.
Above all, we should bear in mind that our liberty is not an end in itself; it is a means to win respect for human dignity for all classes of our society.
We bury the men who do the nation's creative work under layers of administrators and mountains of memoranda. We shrivel creativity by endless frustrations.
Nothing so sharpens the thought process as writing down one's arguments. Weaknesses overlooked in oral discussion become painfully obvious on the written page.
Knowing more about the public effects his work will have, the engineer ought to consider himself an "officer of the court" and keep the general interest always in mind.
More than ambition, more than ability, it is rules that limit contribution; rules are the lowest common denominator of human behavior. They are a substitute for rational thought.
There it is. It is useless to ask ourselves why it is we who are here. We are here. There is only us between the airfield and the Japs. If we don't hold, we will loose Guadalcanal.
The sugar industry doesn't want to see more of the agricultural areas turned into storm-water treatment areas. Ultimately they want to develop that land for houses and a shopping center.
To doubt one's own first principles is the mark of a civilized man. Don't defend past actions; what is right today may be wrong tomorrow. Don't be consistent; consistency is the refuge of fools.
As a guide to engineering ethics, I should like to commend to you a liberal adaptation of the injunction contained in the oath of Hippocrates that the professional man do nothing that will harm his client.
Be ever questioning. Ignorance is not bliss. It is oblivion. You don't go to heaven if you die dumb. Become better informed. Lean from others' mistakes. You could not live long enough to make them all yourself.
In Greek mythology, Antaeus was a giant who was strong as long as he had contact with the earth. When he was lifted from the earth he lost strength. So it is with engineers. They must not become isolated from the real world...
Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous impatience. Once implemented they can be easily overturned or subverted through apathy or lack of follow-up, so a continuous effort is required.
Act as if you are going to live for ever and cast your plans way ahead. You must feel responsible without time limitations, and the consideration of whether you may or may not be around to see the results should never enter your thoughts.
It troubles me that we are so easily pressured by purveyors of technology into permitting so-called "progress" to alter our lives without attempting to control it-as if technology were an irrepressible force of nature to which we must meekly submit.
The tools of the academic designer are a piece of paper and a pencil with an eraser. If a mistake is made, it can always be erased and changed. If the practical-reactor designer errs, he wears the mistake around his neck; it cannot be erased. Everyone sees it.
I believe it is the duty of each of us to act as if the fate of the world depended on him. Admittedly, one man by himself cannot do the job. However, one man can make a difference. We must live for the future of the human race, and not for our own comfort or success.
What it takes to do a job will not be learned from management courses. It is principally a matter of experience, the proper attitude, and common sense — none of which can be taught in a classroom... Human experience shows that people, not organizations or management systems, get things done.
All men are by nature conservative but conservatism in the military profession is a source of danger to the country. One must be ready to change his line sharply and suddenly, with no concern for the prejudices and memories of what was yesterday. To rest upon formula is a slumber that, prolonged, means death.