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

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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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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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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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Optimism and stupidity are nearly synonymous.
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The Devil is in the details, but so is salvation.
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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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Any one detail, followed through to its source, will usually reveal the general state of readiness of the whole organization.
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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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Trying to make things work in government is sometimes like trying to sew a button on a custard pie.
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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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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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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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Free discussion requires an atmosphere unembarrassed by any suggestion of authority or even respect.
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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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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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Those involved with practical reactors, humbled by their experiences, speak less and worry more.
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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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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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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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Good ideas and innovations must be driven into existence by courage and patience.
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