-George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)

 

The books that help you most are those which make you think the most. The hardest way of learning is that of easy reading; but a great book that comes from a great thinker is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and beauty.

-Theodore Parker (1810 - 1860)

 

What most experimenters take for granted before they begin their experiments is infinitely more interesting than any results to which their experiments lead.

-Norbert Wiener

 

Any impatient student of mathematics or science or engineering who is irked by having algebraic symbolism thrust upon him should try to get along without it for a week.

-Eric Temple Bell

 

Information is the resolution of uncertainty.

-Claude Shannon

 

One of the many interesting and surprising experiences of the beginner in child analysis is to find in even very young children a capacity for insight which is often far greater than that of adults.

-Melanie Klein

 

No idea is so outlandish that it should not be considered with a searching but at the same time a steady eye.

-Winston Churchill

 

the sole purpose of strategic planning is to enable the company to gain, as effectively as possible, a sustainable edge over its competitors.

-Keniche Ohnae

 

Chess computers do not sweat during time pressure and commit costly blunders. Furthermore, the strength of these programs (over and above their faultless recall processes) lies in their capacity to make relatively superficial tactical decisions with incredible speed. Positional values, long-range strategy, aesthetic judgment, and political astuteness remain staples of human performance, man vs. machine results in the foreseeable future to the contrary not withstanding.

-Ira Carmen

 

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.

-Bertrand Russell

 

However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.

-Winston Churchill

 

I passionately hate the idea of being with it, I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time.

-Orson Welles

 

It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.

-Jonathan Swift

 

One must stop [conducting research] before one has finished. Otherwise, one will never stop and never finish.

-Barbara Tuchman

 

We can influence the future but not see it. 

-Stewart Brand (1938- )

 

The most serious mistakes are not being made as a result of wrong answers. The truly dangerous thing is asking the wrong question.

-Peter Drucker

 

All models are wrong; some are useful.

-George Box

 

To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle.

-George Orwell

 

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities. In the expert's mind there are few.

-Shunryu Suzuki

 

The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you get up in the morning, and does not stop until you get into the office.

-Robert Frost

 

it's your decisions about what to focus on, what things mean to you, and what you're going to do about them that will determine your ultimate destiny.

-Anthony Robbins

 

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge.

-Daniel J. Boorstin

 

Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.

-Norman Cousins

 

Tell me to what you pay attention and I will tell you who you are.

-Jose Ortega y Gasset

 

The fog of information can drive out knowledge.

-Daniel J. Boorstin

 

Not to engage in the pursuit of ideas is to live like ants instead of like men.

-Mortimer Adler

 

The computer is only a fast idiot, it has no imagination; it cannot originate action. It is, and will remain, only a tool to man.

-American Library Association

 

We live in an age... in search not merely of its road but even of its direction. There are many voices of counsel, but few voices of vision; there is much excitement and feverish activity, but little concert of thoughtful purpose. We are distressed by our own ungoverned, undirected energies and do many things, but nothing long. It is our duty to find ourselves.

-Woodrow Wilson

 

All our knowledge has its origin in our perceptions.

-Leonardo da Vinci

 

All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.

-Immanuel Kant

 

Anyone who invokes authors in discussion is not using his intelligence but his memory.

-Leonardo da Vinci

 

Knowledge then seems to me to be nothing but the perception of the connexion and agreement, or disagreement and repugnancy of any of our Ideas. In this alone it consists. Where this perception is, there is knowledge, and where it is not, there, though we may fancy, guess, or believe, yet we always come short of knowledge.

-John Locke, Essay IV i 2

 

Chess is a game of understanding and not of memory

-Eugene Znosko-Borovsky

 

The value of an intangible asset is based on its degree of readiness to support the organization’s strategy

-Kaplan & Norton, Strategy Maps

 

The ultimate competitive advantage lies in an organization's ability to learn rapidly and transform that learning into action

-Jack Welsh, former CEO, General Electric

 

Learning is what most adults will be doing for a living in the 21st century.

-Sidney Perelman

 

Learning is the single greatest contributor in all enterprises to superior operating performance and robust value creation.

-CapitalWorks

 

In a time of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.

-Eric Hoffer

 

To know is nothing at all; to imagine is everything.

-Albert Einstein

 

Operational effectiveness and strategy are both essential to superior performance.

-Michael Porter

 

Management is prediction. 

-W. Edwards Deming

 

Question in a seminar, directed to W. Edwards Deming: Please elaborate on your statement that profound knowledge comes from outside the system. Aren't the people in the system the only ones that know what is happening?

 

Answer: The people that work in any organization know what they are doing, but they will not by themselves learn a better way. Their best efforts and hard work only dig deeper the pit that they are working in. Their best efforts and hard work do not provide an outside view of the organization.

 

Measurement plays a dual role: it focuses attention on what is important, as determined by the company's strategy, and it monitors the level of performance along those dimensions in the effort to turn strategy into results. Although measurement is inherently based on information about events that have already happened, certain measures can be predictive in nature when the relationships among the value drivers are well understood. If management has identified its key value drivers and developed reliable means of measuring them, effective use of those measures as a management tool will inevitably create value for shareholders and other stakeholders (or more effectively preserve value in difficult times)

-DiPiazza, Eccles, Building Public Trust

 

Knowledge is theory. We should be thankful if action of management is based on theory. Knowledge has temporal spread. Information is not knowledge. The world is drowning in information but is slow in acquisition of knowledge. There is no substitute for knowledge.

-W. Edwards Deming

 

The future belongs to people who see possibilities before they become obvious.

-Ted Levitt

 

The future belongs to those who see possibilities before they become obvious.

-John Scully

 

Create your future from your future, not your past.

-Werner Erhard

 

The only way to predict the future is to have the power to shape it.

-Eric Hofer

 

Visualization creates simplicity. It forces us to think more simply... Visualization acts as a mirror for our thinking, revealing just how complete our ideas are... or aren't. If a strategy is not clear enough to visualize, it's not clear enough to deploy or to engage people.

-Jim Haudan, The Art of Engagement

 

Most problems, decisions, and performances are multidimensional, but somehow the results have to be reduced to a few key indicators which are to be institutionally rewarded or penalized... The need to reduce the indicators to a manageable few is based not only on the need to conserve the time (and sanity) of those who assign rewards and penalties, but also to provide those subject to these incentives with some objective indication of what their performance is expected to be and how it will be judged... key indicators can never tell the whole story.

-Thomas Sowell, Knowledge and Decisions, p.15-16

 

One of the most basic and pervasive social processes is the sorting and labeling of things, activities, and people... Sorting and labeling processes involve a trade-off of costs and benefits. In general, the more finely the sorting is done, the greater the benefits - and the costs... Sorting and labeling, whether of people or of things, is a sorting and labeling of probabilities rather than of certainties.

-Thomas Sowell

 

Those who approach life like a child playing a game, moving and pushing pieces, possess the power of Kings.

-Heraclitus, Philosopher

 

Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it without knowing what's going to happen next.
-Gilda Radner

 

Unrest and uncertainty are our lot.
-Johann von Goethe

 

The longing for certainty ... is in every human mind. But certainty is generally illusion.
-Oliver Wendell Holmes

 

No great deed is done by falterers who ask for certainty.
-George Eliot

 

Every year, if not every day, we have to wager our salvation upon some prophecy based upon imperfect knowledge.
-Oliver Wendell Holmes

 

We live in an epoch in which the solid ground of our preconceived ideas shakes daily under our certain feet.
-Barbara Ward

 

All business proceeds on beliefs, or judgment of probabilities, and not on certainties.
-Charles W. Eliot

 

The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides.
-Henri Frederic Amiel

 

We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand.
-Eric Hoffer

 

Doubt is not a pleasant state, but certainty is a ridiculous one.
-Voltaire

 

To be absolutely certain about something, one must know everything, or nothing, about it.
-Olin Miller

 

The demand is for certainty is a sign of weakness.
-Mark Rutherford

 

Only a weak mind seeks ultimate answers.
-Agnes Thornton

 

To teach how to live with uncertainty, yet without being paralyzed by hesitation, is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy can do.
-Bertrand Russell

 

The successful man is he who, when he sees that no further certainty is attainable, promptly decides on the most probable side, as if he were completely sure it was right.
-Mark Rutherford

 

Maturity of mind is the capacity to endure uncertainty.
-John H. Finley

 

Nobody can really guarantee the future. The best we can do is size up the chances, calculate the risks involved, estimate our ability to deal with them and make our plans with confidence.
-Henry Ford II

 

Uncertainty and mystery are energies of life. Don't let them scare you unduly, for they keep boredom at bay and spark creativity.
-R. I. Fitzhenry

 

The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers.
-Erich Fromm