Quotations

OSE Transformation

• We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations. -Confucius
• Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. -Confucius
• Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance. - Confucius
• Freedom isn't free.
• If money is your hope for Independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge experience and ability. -Henry Ford
• I can teach anybody how to get what they want out of life. The problem is that I can't find anybody who can tell me what they want. -Mark Twain
• Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction. -Albert Einstein

Decisions, Decisionmaking

• By Bezos - [1] - “Some decisions are consequential and irreversible or nearly irreversible – one-way doors – and these decisions must be made methodically, carefully, slowly, with great deliberation and consultation. If you walk through and don’t like what you see on the other side, you can’t get back to where you were before. We can call these Type 1 decisions. But most decisions aren’t like that – they are changeable, reversible – they’re two-way doors. If you’ve made a suboptimal Type 2 decision, you don’t have to live with the consequences for that long. You can reopen the door and go back through. Type 2 decisions can and should be made quickly by high judgment individuals or small groups.”

Commitment

• Jerry Seinfeld talking with Howard Stern on finding the pain you're comfortable with: - "Seinfeld: I'm never not working on material. Every second of my existence, I'm thinking, could I do something with that? Howard Stern: That, to me, sounds torturous. Seinfeld: Your blessing in life is when you find the torture you're comfortable with." Source - [2]

Antifragility (Or Failure-Loving)

• “I have missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot . . . and missed. And I have failed over and over and over again inmy life. And that is why I succeed.” - Michael Jordan

Obstacles, Solving Problems

• James Dyson - “You are just as likely to solve a problem by being unconventional and determined as by being brilliant.”
• The biggest obstacles are internal. - tiny thoughts from Farnam Street

Agency

• “I was waiting for something extraordinary to happen, but as the years wasted on, nothing ever did unless I caused it.”— Charles Bukowski

Applied Moral Philosophy

• For the heart of Rome to be the marble of the senate - not the blood-stained sand of the coliseum, we must master distributive production - MJ

BHAG

• On non-ambitious goals: "Why should we settle for so little when so much is at stake for so many?" Churchill edited.

Optimism/Possibility

• Active Optimism - Optimism is seeing problems as challenges that are solvable; it’s having the confidence that there are things that we can do to make a difference. “Urgent optimism,” “pragmatic optimism,” “realistic optimism,” “impatient optimism” — I’ve heard many terms for this concept. To make my case for why optimism is so essential for progress, we need to understand the positions of optimists versus pessimists. The definition of pessimism is “a tendency to see the worst aspect of things or believe that the worst will happen.” Optimism, on the other hand, is the “hopefulness and confidence about the future or the success of something.” People mistakenly see optimism as an excuse for inaction. They think that it’s pessimism that drives change, and optimism that keeps us where we are. The opposite is true."</p>

https://click.convertkit-mail4.com/75ulwgekw0t8hk8d3d4bz/l2hehmho8omdzei6/aHR0cHM6Ly9iaWd0aGluay5jb20vcHJvZ3Jlc3MvcGVzc2ltaXNtLWlzLWEtYmFycmllci10by1wcm9ncmVzcy8=

• "If they say it’s impossible, it’s impossible for them - not for you." Bruce Lee.

Determination , Perseverance

• One sign that determination matters more than talent: there are lots of talented people who never achieve anything, but not that many determined people who don't. — Paul Graham
• Pessimism is a Barrier to Progress.
• From Farnam Street -
  • In the long term, you can't get better results than your consistency.
  • Not all progress is visible. Not all victories are celebrated.
  • Just because others can't see the results doesn't mean you're not getting better. Just because someone is ahead of you doesn't mean you are on the wrong trajectory. Just because no one notices doesn't mean it doesn't matter. Just because there is no applause doesn't mean you didn't score.

Purpose

• ”Loneliness is not lack of company, loneliness is lack of purpose.” – Guillermo Maldonado. (Note purpose can come from various sources, probably internal sources in Radical Man personal and political transformation.

Luxury

• Our vitality creates our luxury, and our luxury conceals our vitality. - David French writing for the Atlantic [3]. Why Dictators Underestimate Democracies.

Execution/Action

• Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics - Gen. Omar Bradley. Amateurs talk vision. Professionals talk execution. - MJ
• Seneca is attributed with saying, “It’s not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It’s because we dare not venture that they are difficult.”

Genius

• “Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius." Edward Gibbon

Democracy and Liberty

• John Dewey; “Democracy is when people are in charge of the culture that is creating them.”
• The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. - Thomas Jefferson, slaveholder, freed 10 of his 600 slaves [4].
• Freedom must be better armed than tyranny - Zielensky. [5]

Courage

• "Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear. – Franklin D. Roosevelt [6]. Later copied by Ambrose Redmoon in more words of slightly less precision, while adding more explanatory observation - see last paragraph at [7]

Competitive Waste

• George Bernard Shaw - Was quoted saying- “Every profession is a conspiracy against the layman”

Communication

• "The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." - George Bernard Shaw

Inspiration Quotes

Uplifting and encouraging things to help everyone. Feel free to add.

• The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself.
• Our perspective shapes our reality.
• The map is not the territory. General Semantics.
• "I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it." Pablo Picasso
• "80 percent of success is showing up" - woody allen
• http://www.sunnyskyz.com/inspirational-quotes

Quotes About OSE

• Noam Chomsky - see Reviews of Our Work
• There is a bunch of quotes from supporters from around 2009 at In the News page
• ozlem yalım - comment from TED Talk at the TED site -"Jul 6 2013: proud to exhibit this tractor by downloading it from the internet, and producing here together with interns at the first istanbul design biennial@adhocracy exhibition curated by joseph grima.'
• "Open Source Ecology is one of the most visionary and intelligent efforts I've yet come across. It's a logical and comprehensive approach to thoroughgoing social and economic transformation. I find their whole approach very exciting." - Juliet Schor, Professor of Sociology, Boston College, author of Plenitude: the new economics of true wealth.
• "Resilient Community Construction Set," an advanced industrial economy in a box that can be deployed inexpensively anywhere in the world.- Permakent
• "The mind-blowing thing about this project is that anybody who wants to start a similar community can do so virtually for free on the outskirts of many cities in the United States... I say to all those who are actually taking up this opportunity, all the power to you. The idea is, if you can generate the money to create the system, you will reap the benefits forever." - Arthur Magazine

Famous Quotes

• “There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle than to initiate a new order of things,” Niccolo Macchiavelli
• "Here’s to the crazy ones — the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things. They push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do." - Steve Jobs

Philosophies

• The cripping of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparationn for his future career. - Albert Einstein

• Cyberpunk - near-future post-industrial dystopias, but tend to be marked by extraordinary cultural ferment and the use of technology in ways never anticipated by its creators ("the street finds its own uses for things").

Top 40 Quotes on Innovation

A list of EcoSalon’s favorite quotes on thinking outside the box - http://ecosalon.com/40-best-quotes-on-innovation/ :

There has been opposition to every innovation in the history of man, with the possible exception of the sword. -Benjamin Dana

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. -Steve Jobs

I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones. -John Cage

In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative original thinker unless you can also sell what you create. Management cannot be expected to recognize a good idea unless it is presented to them by a good salesman. -David Ogilvy

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen. -John Steinbeck

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -George Bernard Shaw

Never before in history has innovation offered promise of so much to so many in so short a time. -Bill Gates

All work and no play doesn’t just make Jill and Jack dull, it kills the potential of discovery, mastery, and openness to change and flexibility and it hinders innovation and invention. -Joline Godfrey

You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can’t get them across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere. -Lee Iacocca

The best way to predict the future is to invent it. -Alan Kay

Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow. -William Pollard

You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take. -Wayne Gretzky

If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got. -Albert Einstein

Capital isn’t so important in business. Experience isn’t so important. You can get both these things. What is important is ideas. If you have ideas, you have the main asset you need, and there isn’t any limit to what you can do with your business and your life. -Harvey Firestone

The greater the contrast, the greater the potential. Great energy only comes from a correspondingly great tension of opposites. -Carl Jung

If you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything very innovative. -Woody Allen

Never innovate to compete, innovate to change the rules of the game. -David O. Adeife

It’s easy to come up with new ideas; the hard part is letting go of what worked for you two years ago, but will soon be out of date. -Roger von Oech

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. -General George Patton

Stay hungry, stay foolish. -Whole Earth Catalog, via Steve Jobs

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. -Thomas Edison

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads. -Erica Jong

The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas. -Dr. Linus Pauling

Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought. -Albert von Szent-Gyorgy

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing. -George Bernard Shaw

Held in the palms of thousands of disgruntled people over the centuries have been ideas worth millions – if they only had taken the first step and then followed through. -Robert M. Hayes

Anyone can look for fashion in a boutique or history in a museum. The creative explorer looks for history in a hardware store and fashion in an airport. -Robert Wieder

The only thing all successful people have in common is that they’re successful, so don’t waste your time copying “the successful strategies” of others. -Seth Godin

Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats. -Howard Aiken

Some men look at things the way they are and ask why? I dream of things that are not and ask why not? -Robert Kennedy

Ideas won’t keep. Something must be done about them. -Alfred North Whitehead

Just as energy is the basis of life itself, and ideas the source of innovation, so is innovation the vital spark of all human change, improvement and progress. -Ted Levitt

If you can dream it, you can do it. -Walt Disney

The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it. -Michelangelo

The practice of R&D involves making mistakes, realizations, corrections, and more mistakes. Trial and error is a fundamental part of the process. Too many managers in corporate America learn to avoid invention and new thinking because they have been convinced that their careers depend upon not making mistakes. -Tom Huff

The innovation point is the pivotal moment when talented and motivated people seek the opportunity to act on their ideas and dreams. -W. Arthur Porter

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking, and don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. -Steve Jobs

It’s not about breaking the rules. It is about abandoning the concept of rules altogether. -Paul Lemberg

Genius is one percent inspiration, and ninety-nine percent perspiration. -Thomas Edison

Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world! -Joel Arthur Barker

See Also

• Gandhi
• In the News