Quotations

Quotations

I think quotes are very dangerous things.

Kate Bush
Singer, dancer, songwriter, record producer.

Chapter Synopsis and Highlights

On globalization…

Today every national economy is an integral part of the world economy. We cannot consider the best interests of any nation as an issue separate from the economic good of the world as a whole.
Eiji Toyoda (1913-2013), Chairman of the Toyota Motor Corporation, letter to the Editor of the Harvard Business Review.

I think globalization cannot be stopped. Nobody can stop globalization. Nobody can stop trade. And I believe, if trade stops, war starts. Trade is the way to dissolve the war, not cause the wars. We think that shutting ourselves off from the rest of the world and isolating ourselves will not lead us into a good future. Protectionism is not the answer.
Jack Ma, co-founder and former executive chairman, Alibaba Group, speaking at The World Economic Forum on January 25 2018.

On knowledge…

There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also ‘unknown unknowns’ – the ones we don’t know we don’t know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tends to be the difficult ones.
Donald Rumsfeld (1932-2021),  US  Congressman, Secretary of Defense (two terms), NATO Representative, businessman. Cited in Known and Unknown: A Memoir (2013). London: Penguin.

We live in a world of radical uncertainty in which our understanding of the present is imperfect, our understanding of the future even more limited, and in which no one person or organisation can hold the range of information required to arrive at the ‘best explanation’.
Sir John Kay (economist, distinguished professor) and Sir Mervyn King (Baron King of Lothburyand), former Bank of England Governor, (2021). Radical Uncertainty: Decision-making for an unknowable future. London: The Bridge Street Press.

On chance…

… I became ablaze at the thought: I am right. I must always obey the dice. Lead where they will, I must follow. All power to the die! Excited and proud, I stood for a moment on my own personal Rubicon. And then I stepped across. I established in my mind at that moment and for all time, the never-to-be-questioned principle that what the die dictates, I will perform.
Luke Rhinehart, novelist, 1971: The Dice Man: This book will change your life. London: Talmy, Franklin Ltd.

On inquiry…

Chance favours only the prepared mind.
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), biologist, chemist, uber-scientist.

On complexity…

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955), Genius.

On risk…

If no one ever took risks, Michelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor.
Neil Simon (1927-2018), humorist, playwright, screenwriter, author.

On values and optimism…

Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny.
Mahatma Gandhi, (1869-1948), provider of inspiration for worldwide civil rights and freedom movements.

From the Epilogue to Ten Years That Shook the (Capitalist) World: 1988-1998 (2e)…

“So, do we take a chance and roll the die; or do we study and think and learn; and apply the great ingenuity, and patience, and perseverance, and endeavour, and stubbornness, and sheer bloody-mindedness which distinguishes our species and its innate humanity? Can we cooperate or must we compete? And how do we compute complexity?”

As Plato (423-347 BC), Greek philosopher and higher education pioneer,  observed:

A good decision is based on knowledge, not numbers.

 


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All content © Colin Edward Egan, 2022