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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
Buttons
Government
Sometimes
Trying
Work
Make
Custard
Things
Button
Like
Pie

More quotes by Hyman Rickover

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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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Human experience shows that people, not organizations or management systems, get things done
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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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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.
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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.
Hyman Rickover
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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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Those involved with practical reactors, humbled by their experiences, speak less and worry more.
Hyman Rickover
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How the hell are you supposed to know what God wants you to do with your life, eh?
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All new ideas begin in a non-conforming mind that questions some tenet of the conventional wisdom.
Hyman Rickover
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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.
Hyman Rickover
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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.
Hyman Rickover
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Free discussion requires an atmosphere unembarrassed by any suggestion of authority or even respect.
Hyman Rickover
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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.
Hyman Rickover
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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.
Hyman Rickover
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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.
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
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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.
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.
Hyman Rickover
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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