Hyman Rickover famous quotes

03-29-2025

Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous patience.
-- Hyman Rickover

#Life #Motivational #Patience
Success teaches us nothing; only failure teaches.
-- Hyman Rickover

#Optimistic #Teach
Responsibility is a unique concept... You may share it with others, but your portion is not diminished. You may delegate it, but it is still with you... If responsibility is rightfully yours, no evasion, or ignorance or passing the blame can shift the burden to someone else. Unless you can point your finger at the man who is responsible when something goes wrong, then you have never had anyone really responsible.
-- Hyman Rickover

#Ignorance #Responsibility #Unique
Optimism and stupidity are nearly synonymous.
-- Hyman Rickover

#Optimism #Stupidity
A child is being properly educated only when he is learning to become independent of his parents.
-- Hyman Rickover

#Education #Children #Independent
When doing a job â€” any job â€” one must feel that he owns it, and act as though he will remain in that job forever.
-- Hyman Rickover

#Jobs #Forever #Feels
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.
-- Hyman Rickover

#Ambition #Limits #Common
I believe it is the duty of each of us to act as if the fate of the world depended on him. Admittedly, one man by himself cannot do the job. However, one man can make a difference. We must live for the future of the human race, and not for our own comfort or success.
-- Hyman Rickover

#Jobs #Believe #Fate
Human experience shows that people, not organizations or management systems, get things done
-- Hyman Rickover

#Organization #People #Done
Good ideas and innovations must be driven into existence by courage and patience.
-- Hyman Rickover

#Courage #Ideas #Innovation
Trying to make things work in government is sometimes like trying to sew a button on a custard pie.
-- Hyman Rickover

#Work #Government #Pie
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.
-- Hyman Rickover

#Successful #Work Out #Temptation
Nothing so sharpens the thought process as writing down one's arguments. Weaknesses overlooked in oral discussion become painfully obvious on the written page.
-- Hyman Rickover

#Writing #Weakness #Pages
The Devil is in the details, but so is salvation.
-- Hyman Rickover

#Devil #Details #Salvation
What it takes to do a job will not be learned from management courses. It is principally a matter of experience, the proper attitude, and common sense â€” none of which can be taught in a classroom... Human experience shows that people, not organizations or management systems, get things done.
-- Hyman Rickover

#Jobs #Attitude #Organization
If you are going to sin, sin against God, not the bureaucracy. God will forgive you but the bureaucracy won't.
-- Hyman Rickover

#Inspirational #Funny #Twilight
All new ideas begin in a non-conforming mind that questions some tenet of the conventional wisdom.
-- Hyman Rickover

#Creativity #Ideas #Mind
The devil is in the details, and everything we do in the military is a detail.
-- Hyman Rickover

#Military #Devil #Details
Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous impatience. Once implemented they can be easily overturned or subverted through apathy or lack of follow-up, so a continuous effort is required.
-- Hyman Rickover

#Leadership #Ideas #Practice
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.
-- Hyman Rickover

#Nature #Technology #Progress
Act as if you are going to live for ever and cast your plans way ahead. You must feel responsible without time limitations, and the consideration of whether you may or may not be around to see the results should never enter your thoughts.
-- Hyman Rickover

#Life #May #Way
I do not have regrets. I believe I helped preserve the peace for this country. Why should I regret that? What I accomplished was approved by Congress - which represents our people. All of you live in safety from domestic enemies because of security from the police. Likewise, you live in safety from foreign enemies because our military keeps them from attacking us.
-- Hyman Rickover

#Country #Regret #Military
Above all, we should bear in mind that our liberty is not an end in itself; it is a means to win respect for human dignity for all classes of our society.
-- Hyman Rickover

#Mean #Winning #Class

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