Paul Dickson famous quotes

The human hand is made complete by the addition of a baseball.
-- Paul Dickson

#Baseball #Hands #Made

Accuracy, Rule of, Corollary: Provided, of course, that you know there is a problem.
-- Paul Dickson

#Problem #Accuracy

A system tends to grow in complexity instead of simplicity, until the resulting unreliability becomes intolerable.
-- Paul Dickson

#Simplicity #Unreliability #Complexity

Airplane Law, The: When the plane you are on is late, the plane you want to transfer to is on time.
-- Paul Dickson

#Airplane #Law #Want

All real programs contain errors until proved otherwise which is impossible.
-- Paul Dickson

#Real #Errors #Impossible

A clean tie attracts the soup of the day.
-- Paul Dickson

#Ties #Soup

Advice, First Law of: The correct advice to give is the advice that is desired.
-- Paul Dickson

#Law #Giving #Advice

Albrecht's Law: Social innovations tend to the level of minimum tolerable well being.
-- Paul Dickson

#Law #Innovation #Levels

Allen's Law of Civilization: It is better for civilization to be going down the drain than to be coming up it.
-- Paul Dickson

#Civilization #Law #Drains

Abbott's Admonitions: (1) If you have to ask, you're not entitled to know. (2) If you don't like the answer, you shouldn't have asked the question.
-- Paul Dickson

#Answers #Admonition

Abrams's Advice: When eating an elephant, take one bite at a time.
-- Paul Dickson

#Elephants #Advice #Eating

Don't bite the hand that has your allowance in it.
-- Paul Dickson

#Hands #Advice #Allowance

The great comfort of turning forty-nine is the realization that you are now too old to die young.
-- Paul Dickson

#Age #Realization #Nine

In any decision situation, the amount of relevant information available is inversely proportional to the importance of the decision.
-- Paul Dickson

#Decision #Information #Importance

The more innocuous the name of a weapon, the more hideous its impact. Some of the most horrific weapons of the Vietnam era were named 'Bambi', 'Infant', 'Daisycutter', 'Grasshopper', and 'Agent Orange'. Nor is the trend new: from the past we have 'Mustard Gas'', 'Angel Chasers' (two cannonballs linked with a chain for added destruction) and 'The Peacemaker' to name but a few.)
-- Paul Dickson

#Angel #Past #Names

The odds are six to five that the light in the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an oncoming train.
-- Paul Dickson

#Odds #Tunnels #Light

No experiment is ever a complete failure. It can always be used as a bad example.
-- Paul Dickson

#Success #Example #Used

May you look back on the past with as much pleasure as you look forward to the future.
-- Paul Dickson

#Past #May #Looks

A businessman needs three umbrellas - one to leave at the office, one to leave at home, and one to leave on the train.
-- Paul Dickson

#Business #Home #Office