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Trying to make things work in government is sometimes like trying to sew a button on a custard pie.

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
Government
Sometimes
Trying
Work
Make
Custard
Things
Button
Like
Pie
Buttons

More quotes by Hyman Rickover

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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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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.
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Human experience shows that people, not organizations or management systems, get things done
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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.
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Good ideas and innovations must be driven into existence by courage and patience.
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Nothing so sharpens the thought process as writing down one's arguments. Weaknesses overlooked in oral discussion become painfully obvious on the written page.
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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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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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Any one detail, followed through to its source, will usually reveal the general state of readiness of the whole organization.
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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.
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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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A child is being properly educated only when he is learning to become independent of his parents.
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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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Free discussion requires an atmosphere unembarrassed by any suggestion of authority or even respect.
Hyman Rickover
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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.
Hyman Rickover
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The Devil is in the details, but so is salvation.
Hyman Rickover
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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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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.
Hyman Rickover
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Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous impatience.
Hyman Rickover
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Optimism and stupidity are nearly synonymous.
Hyman Rickover