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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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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
Firsts
Tomorrow
Refuge
First
Principles
Fools
Right
Doubt
Defend
Men
Wrong
Civilized
Action
Consistent
Past
Actions
Today
Mark
May
Fool
Consistency

More quotes by Hyman Rickover

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Those involved with practical reactors, humbled by their experiences, speak less and worry more.
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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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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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Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous impatience.
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Human experience shows that people, not organizations or management systems, get things done
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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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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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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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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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All new ideas begin in a non-conforming mind that questions some tenet of the conventional wisdom.
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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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Optimism and stupidity are nearly synonymous.
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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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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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Good ideas and innovations must be driven into existence by courage and patience.
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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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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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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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