“Dad, how do soldiers killing each other solve the world's problems?”
Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist
Source: Calvin and Hobbes: Sunday Pages 1985-1995: An Exhibition Catalogue
“Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems”
Last update Jan. 28, 2026. History
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René Descartes47
French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist 1596–1650Related quotes
Mark Manson (1984) American writer and blogger
Source: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck (2016), Chapter 8, “The Importance of Saying No” (pp. 177-178)
Russell L. Ackoff (1919–2009) Scientist
Cited in Donella Meadows (2008) Thinking in Systems: a Primer. p. 1.
1970s, The future of operational research is past, 1979
“If you can't solve a problem, it's because you're playing by the rules”
Paul Arden (1940–2008) writer
Source: It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be
Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) American architect, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor and futurist
World Design Science Decade 1965-1975 Phase I (1965), Document 3 : Comprehensive Thinking, "Venus Proximity Day", p. 33 http://challenge.bfi.org/sites/challenge.bfi.org/files/pdf_files/wdsd_phase1_doc3.pdf <br class="br">1960s <br class="br">Context: One of my working assumptions which has been proven successful so often as seemingly to qualify it as a reliable tenet is that A problem adequately stated is a problem solved theoretically and immediately, and therefore subsequently to be solved, realistically. Others have probably stated the principle in many ways. The assumption is that the inevitability of a solution's realization is inherent in the interaction of human intellect and the constantly transformative evolution of physical universe. At first the, only subconsciously apprehended, approaching confluences of complex events make themselves known intuitively within the intellectual weather. Then comes a gradually awakening consciousness of the presence of new families of differentiating-out challenging concepts of every day prominence. It is with these randomly patterning families of separate concepts that evolution is about to deal integratively. As a now specific unitary problem it may be disposed of effectively when and if that unified problem becomes "adequately stated" and thereby comprehensibly solvable.
“If you cannot solve the proposed problem, try to solve first a simpler related problem.”
George Pólya (1887–1985) Hungarian mathematician
Mathematical Methods in Science (1977), p.164
