Every measured thing is part of a web of variables more richly interconnected than we know.

But it is no good using the tongs of reason to pull the Fundamentalists' chestnuts out of the fire of contradiction. Their real troubles lie elsewhere.

You cannot do only one thing.

(Technology reliability) x (Human reliability) = (System reliability)

No one should be able to enter a wilderness by mechanical means.

In a competitive world of limited resources, total freedom of individual action is intolerable

People are the quintessential element in all technology... Once we recognize the inescapable human nexus of all technology our attitude toward the reliability problem is fundamentally changed.

Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons.

Why are ecologists and environmentalists so feared and hated? This is because in part what they have to say is new to the general public, and the new is always alarming.

Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.

The only thing we can really count on in this uncertain world is human unreliability itself.

Well I'd certainly hate to interrupt your pleasant night stroll with my sudden death.

Before thinking about what you are going to say, think about what I am saying.

The key to abundance is acceptance. The more you expect, the less you accept.

If you don't have any fight in you, you might as well be dead.

My theory is children don't do what you tell them to do, they do what you do. You have to always do the right thing because they follow you.

Mississippi gets more than their fair share back in federal money, but who the hell wants to live in Mississippi?

In the university, professors make up artificial problems. In the real world, the problems do not come in nice, neat packages. They have to be discovered.

I aim to help the Germans and the Europeans successfully travel all the way down the path toward European integration, and I can do this more effectively if I don't commit myself to a party.

He who is not proud of his own blood is not worthy of it.

I'd like to live in Paris, New York, and Los Angeles all at the same time.