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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.

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
Successful
Manager
Hope
Resist
Human
Managers
Humans
Temptation
Must
Despite
Work
Contrary
Things
Evidence
Doubt
Inclination

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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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Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous impatience.
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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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The Devil is in the details, but so is salvation.
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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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Optimism and stupidity are nearly synonymous.
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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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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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Any one detail, followed through to its source, will usually reveal the general state of readiness of the whole organization.
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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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Free discussion requires an atmosphere unembarrassed by any suggestion of authority or even respect.
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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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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.
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Those involved with practical reactors, humbled by their experiences, speak less and worry more.
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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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All new ideas begin in a non-conforming mind that questions some tenet of the conventional wisdom.
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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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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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A child is being properly educated only when he is learning to become independent of his parents.
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