WIST Quotations

Abbey, Edward -- “Arizona: How Big is Enough?”One Life at a Time, Please (1988)

Dave — Mon, 01 Mar 2021 18:13:12 +0000

The religion of endless growth — like any religion based on blind faith rather than reason — is a kind of mania, a form of lunacy, indeed a disease. And the one disease to which the growth mania bears an exact analogical resemblance is cancer. Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell. Cancer has no purpose but growth; but it does have another result — the death of the host.

Edward Abbey (1927-1989) American anarchist, writer, environmentalist
“Arizona: How Big is Enough?”One Life at a Time, Please (1988)
(Source)

Packard, David -- (Misattributed)

Dave — Fri, 30 Oct 2020 18:37:51 +0000

More businesses die of indigestion than starvation.

David Packard (1912-1996) American electrical engineer, businessman, government official
(Misattributed)

The quote is frequently attributed to Packard, but actually he (anonymously) quoted in his book, The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company (1995): "Wells Fargo sent a retired engineer to visit us. I spent a full afternoon with him and I have remembered ever since some advice he gave me. He said that more businesses die of indigestion than starvation. I have observed the truth of that advice many times since then."

Variants of the saying include "entrepreneurs," "companies," and "start-ups" in place of "businesses." See here for more information.

Bradley, Omar -- Testimony, Senate Committees on Armed Services and Foreign Relations (15 May 1951)

Dave — Thu, 21 Jan 2016 21:25:53 +0000

I am under no illusion that our present strategy of using means short of total war to achieve our ends and oppose communism is a guarantee that a world war will not be thrust upon us. But a policy of patience and determination without provoking a world war, while we improve our military power, is one which we believe we must continue to follow. … Under present circumstances, we have recommended against enlarging the war from Korea to also include Red China. The course of action often described as a limited war with Red China would increase the risk we are taking by engaging too much of our power in an area that is not the critical strategic prize. Red China is not the powerful nation seeking to dominate the world. Frankly, in the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, this strategy would involve us in the wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrong enemy.

Omar Bradley (1893-1981) American general
Testimony, Senate Committees on Armed Services and Foreign Relations (15 May 1951)