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

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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A child is being properly educated only when he is learning to become independent of his parents.
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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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Those involved with practical reactors, humbled by their experiences, speak less and worry more.
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Free discussion requires an atmosphere unembarrassed by any suggestion of authority or even respect.
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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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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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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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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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Trying to make things work in government is sometimes like trying to sew a button on a custard pie.
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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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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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Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous impatience.
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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 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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Optimism and stupidity are nearly synonymous.
Hyman Rickover
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Any one detail, followed through to its source, will usually reveal the general state of readiness of the whole organization.
Hyman Rickover
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Good ideas and innovations must be driven into existence by courage and patience.
Hyman Rickover
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Human experience shows that people, not organizations or management systems, get things done
Hyman Rickover
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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.
Hyman Rickover