“In life you must often choose between getting a job done or getting credit for it.”

— Leó Szilárd

As quoted in "Some Szilardisms on War, Fame, Peace", LIFE‎ magazine, Vol. 51, no. 9 (1 September 1961), p. 79
Context: In life you must often choose between getting a job done or getting credit for it. In science, the most important thing is not the ideas you have but the decision which ones you choose to pursue. If you have an idea and are not doing anything with it, why spoil someone else's fun by publishing it?

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Leó Szilárd 17

Physicist and biologist 1898–1964

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“The most important step in getting a job done is the recognition of the problem.”

Leó Szilárd (1898–1964) Physicist and biologist

As quoted in "Close-up : I'm looking for a market for wisdom. : Leo Szilard, scientist" in LIFE‎ magazine, Vol. 51, no. 9 (1 September 1961), p. 75
Context: The most important step in getting a job done is the recognition of the problem. Once I recognize a problem I usually can think of someone who can work it out better than I could.

“At the present moment in world history nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of life. The choice is too often not a free one.”

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Context: At the present moment in world history nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of life. The choice is too often not a free one.
One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free elections, guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression.
The second way of life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio; fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms.
I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.
I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way.

“Violence is useless. Civil disobedience is a necessary and effective tool to get the job done.”

Reza Pahlavi (1960) Last crown prince of the former Imperial State of Iran

As quoted by Michel Bole-Richard, The regime is archaic. The country is on the brink of explosion http://www.rezapahlavi.org/details_article.php?article=4&page=6, Le Monde, June 18, 2005.
Interviews, 2005
Context: Violence is useless. Civil disobedience is a necessary and effective tool to get the job done. The system must be paralyzed and national reconciliation facilitated. A police State can not control a massive uprising. Iranians, in particular the youth, are aware of what is going on in the world. The regime is archaic. The country is on the brink of explosion. But this should not happen in anarchy. What we want is a democratic and peaceful implosion. If the champion of reforms, Mohammad Khatami, couldn't do anything, it is not Ali Akbar Rafsanjani, the most detested and most corrupt individual in the country, who can bring about change. What we have is a paralyzed mafia regime.

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“You learnt that, whatever you are doing in life, obstacles don't matter very much. Pain or other circumstances can be there, but if you want to do a job bad enough, you'll find a way to get it done.”

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“It's illegal to kill yourself in a quick and painless way, but if you do it slowly over a few decades -- say by not exercising -- that's called laziness, not suicide, and it's completely legal. You might even get credit for being jolly or get a job as a TV chef on a cable network.”

Scott Adams (1957) cartoonist, writer

Source: Books, Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel (2002)

“In life you must often choose between getting a job done or getting credit for it.”

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Leó Szilárd 17

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