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Optimism and stupidity are nearly synonymous.

Hyman Rickover

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Hyman Rickover
Age: 86 †
Born: 1900
Born: January 27
Died: 1986
Died: July 8
Admiral
Military Officer
Submariner
Makow Mazowiecki
Hyman George Rickover
Hyman Rickover
Synonymous
Optimism
Nearly
Stupidity
Stupid

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Trying to make things work in government is sometimes like trying to sew a button on a custard pie.
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Human experience shows that people, not organizations or management systems, get things done
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I have the charisma of the chipmunk. I never have thought I was smart. I thought the people I dealt with were dumb.
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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.
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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.
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Free discussion requires an atmosphere unembarrassed by any suggestion of authority or even respect.
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Any one detail, followed through to its source, will usually reveal the general state of readiness of the whole organization.
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Those involved with practical reactors, humbled by their experiences, speak less and worry more.
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A system under which it takes three men to check what one is doing is not control it is systematic strangulation.
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All new ideas begin in a non-conforming mind that questions some tenet of the conventional wisdom.
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A child is being properly educated only when he is learning to become independent of his parents.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous impatience.
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The Devil is in the details, but so is salvation.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Good ideas and innovations must be driven into existence by courage and patience.
Hyman Rickover