“Strong as it looks at the outset, State-agency perpetually disappoints every one. Puny as are its first stages, private efforts daily achieve results that astound the world.”

—  Herbert Spencer

Vol. 3, Ch. VII, Over-Legislation
Essays: Scientific, Political, and Speculative (1891)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Strong as it looks at the outset, State-agency perpetually disappoints every one. Puny as are its first stages, private…" by Herbert Spencer?
Herbert Spencer photo
Herbert Spencer81
English philosopher, biologist, sociologist, and prominent … 1820–1903

Related quotes

Jim Butcher photo

“Maybe the Merlin was right. Maybe its better to look stupid but strong, than it is to look smart but weak, I don't know. I'm not sure I want to believe that the world stage bears that strong a resemblance to high school.”

Jim Butcher Turn Coat

Source: Turn Coat

Vince Lombardi photo

“The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual.”

Vince Lombardi (1913–1970) American football player, coach, and executive

Ernest Shackleton photo

“Superhuman effort isn't worth a damn unless it achieves results.”

Ernest Shackleton (1874–1922) Anglo-Irish polar explorer

“Self-discipline without talent can often achieve astounding results, whereas talent without self-discipline inevitably dooms itself to failure.”

Sydney J. Harris (1917–1986) American journalist

Pieces of Eight (1982)

M. C. Escher photo

“After the first proof [of 'Sphere Spirals'] my high expectations were, as always, greatly disappointed. I am now struggling on - with some feeling of despair - so that I at least achieve a passable result.”

M. C. Escher (1898–1972) Dutch graphic artist

Quote of Escher, c. 1958; as cited in Biography of M.C. Escher http://im-possible.info/english/articles/escher/escher.html <br class="br">1950&#x27;s

James Branch Cabell photo

“Here was the astounding fact: the race did go forward; the race did achieve; and in every way the race grew better. Progress through irrational and astounding blunders, whose outrageousness bedwarfed the wildest cliches of romance, was what Kennaston found everywhere. All this, then, also was foreplanned, just as all happenings at Storisende had been, in his puny romance; and the puppets, here to, moved as they thought of their own volition, but really in order to serve a denouement in which many of them had not any personal part or interest….”

James Branch Cabell book The Cream of the Jest

Source: The Cream of the Jest (1917), Ch. 26 : "Epper Si Muove" [this chapter title is derived from a purported comment of Galileo: Eppur Si Muove "And yet it moves."]

Benjamin Graham photo

“To achieve satisfactory investment results is easier than most people realize; to achieve superior results is harder than it looks.”

Benjamin Graham book The Intelligent Investor

Source: The Intelligent Investor (1973) (Fourth Revised Edition), Chapter 20, "Margin of Safety": The Central Concept, p. 287

Clive Staples Lewis photo

“God will look to every soul like its first love because He is its first love.”

Clive Staples Lewis book The Problem of Pain

The Problem of Pain (1940)

Mao Zedong photo

“In accordance with Dr. Sun's principles and the experience of the Chinese revolution, China's national economy at the present stage should be composed of the state sector, the private sector and the co-operative sector. But the state here must certainly not be one "privately owned by the few", but a new-democratic state "shared by all the common people" under the leadership of the proletariat.”

Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

On Coalition Government (1945)

Calvin Coolidge photo

“A decrease in the world supply of wheat has resulted in a very large increase in the price of that commodity. The position of all agricultural products indicates a better balanced supply, but we can not yet conclude that agriculture is recovered from the effects of the war period or that it is permanently on a prosperous basis. The cattle industry has not yet recovered and in some sections has been suffering from dry weather. Every effort must be made both by Government activity and by private agencies to restore and maintain agriculture to a complete normal relationship with other industries.”

Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)

1920s, Second State of the Union Address (1924)

Related topics