Quotes about planning
page 15

Richard Maurice Bucke photo
Calvin Coolidge photo
David Miscavige photo

“What goes wrong [in long-range planning] is that sensible anticipation gets converted into foolish numbers: and their validity always hinges on large loose assumptions.”

Robert Heller (1932–2012) British magician

Cited in: Michael Armstrong, Tina Stephens (2005) A Handbook Of Management And Leadership. p. 71
The Naked Manager (1972)

Clement Attlee photo

“We are told that we have to accept the Treaty of Rome. I have read the Treaty of Rome pretty carefully, and it expresses an outlook entirely different from our own. It may be that I am insular, but I value our Parliamentary outlook, an outlook which has extended throughout the Commonwealth. That is not the same position that holds on the Continent of Europe. No one of these principal countries in the Common Market has been very successful in running Parliamentary institutions: Germany, hardly any experience; Italy, very little; France, a swing between a dictatorship and more or less anarchic Parliament, and not very successfully. As I read the Treaty of Rome, the whole position means that we shall enter a federation which is composed in an entirely different way. I do not say it is the wrong way. But it is not our way. In this set-up it is the official who really puts up all the proposals; the whole of the planning is done by officials. It seems to me that the Ministers come in at a later stage—and if there is anything like a Federal Parliament, at a later stage still. I do not think that that is the way this country has developed, or wishes to develop. I am all for working in with our Continental friends. I was one of those who worked to build up NATO; I have worked for European integration. But that is a very different thing from bringing us into a close association which, I may say, is not one for defence, or even just for foreign policy. The fact is that if the designs behind the Common Market are carried out, we are bound to be affected in every phase of our national life. There would be no national planning, except under the guidance of Continental planning—we shall not be able to deal with our own problems; we shall not be able to build up the country in the way we want to do, so far as I can see. I think we shall be subject to overall control and planning by others. That is my objection.”

Clement Attlee (1883–1967) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/1962/nov/08/britain-and-the-common-market in the House of Lords on the British application to join the Common Market (8 November 1962).
1960s

Maximilien Robespierre photo
Gwendolyn Brooks photo
Kent Hovind photo
Alexis De Tocqueville photo
Mortimer J. Adler photo
Friedrich Hayek photo
Derren Brown photo
Robert Todd Carroll photo
Lewis Black photo

“If you are an adult, and you are planning to dress up on Halloween…don't. I will find you. I will hurt you.”

Lewis Black (1948) American stand-up comedian, author, playwright, social critic and actor

The Carnegie Hall Performance (2006)

Linus Torvalds photo

“I'd like to say that I knew this would happen, that it's all part of the plan for world domination.”

Linus Torvalds (1969) Finnish-American software engineer and hacker

[Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution, The Linux Edge, http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/linus.html, 2006-08-28, 1-56592-582-3, 1999, O'Reilly & Associates, DiBona, C]
1990s, 1995-99

Terence V. Powderly photo

“Revolutions are not manufactured or made to order; they are never successfully planned or deliberately entered upon; they do not come at the bidding of one man or one set of men; they grow and then come”

Terence V. Powderly (1849–1924) American mayor

[Powderly, Terence, 'The Path I Trod: The Autobiography of Terence V. Powderly, 1940, Columbia University Press, 9781163178164, https://archive.org/stream/pathitrodautobio00powdrich, 46]

Daniel Burnham photo
Amir Taheri photo
Merlin Mann photo

“"Friend us on Facebook!" is a social media strategy like "Buy me a malt liquor!" is a charitable giving plan.”

Merlin Mann (1966) American blogger

Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/hotdogsladies/status/27195139381
Tweeting as @hotdogsladies

“It is a bad plan that admits of no modification.”
Malum est consilium, quod mutari non potest.

Publilio Siro Latin writer

Maxim 469
Sentences

Friedrich Hayek photo
Marianne Moore photo
Gloria Estefan photo
Bel Kaufmanová photo
Kent Hovind photo
Marek Edelman photo

“The Bundists did not wait for the Messiah, nor did they plan to leave for Palestine. They believed that Poland was their country and they fought for a just, socialist Poland, in which each nationality would have its own cultural autonomy, and in which minorities' rights would be guaranteed.”

Marek Edelman (1922–2009) Jewish resistance member

"Warsaw Ghetto uprising leader Marek Edelman dies at 90" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/6256830/Warsaw-Ghetto-uprising-leader-Marek-Edelman-dies-at-90.html. The Daily Telegraph. 2009-10-03. Retrieved 2009-10-04.

Scott Lynch photo
Amir Taheri photo

“In Iran, no-one can ignore the tragic record of the revolution. Over the past three decades some six million Iranians have fled their homeland. The Iran-Iraq war claimed almost a million lives on both sides. During the first four years of the Khomeinist regime alone 22,000 people were executed, according to Amnesty International. Since then, the number of executions has topped 80,000. More than five million people have spent some time in prison, often on trumped-up charges. In terms of purchasing power parity, the average Iranian today is poorer than he was before the revolution. De-Khomeinization does not mean holding the late ayatollah solely responsible for all that Iran has suffered just as Robespierre, Stalin, Mao, and Fidel Castro shared the blame with others in their respective countries. However, there is ample evidence that Khomeini was the principal source of the key decisions that led to tragedy… Memoirs and interviews and articles by dozens of Khomeini’s former associates—including former Presidents Abol-Hassan Banisadr and Hashemi Rafsanjani and former Premier Mehdi Bazargan—make it clear that he was personally responsible for some of the new regime’s worst excesses. These include the disbanding of the national army, the repression of the traditional Shi’ite clergy, and the creation of an atmosphere of terror, with targeted assassinations at home and abroad. Khomeini has become a symbol of what went wrong with Iran’s wayward revolution. De-Khomeinization might not spell the end of Iran’s miseries just as de-Stalinization and de-Maoization initially produced only minimal results. However, no nation can plan its future without coming to terms with its past.”

Amir Taheri (1942) Iranian journalist

"Opinion: Iran must confront its past to move forwards" http://www.aawsat.net/2015/02/article55341173, Ashraq Al-Awsat (February 6, 2015).

Grant Morrison photo
Thomas M. Disch photo
Winston S. Churchill photo

“Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

This military aphorism has been attributed to both von Moltke and Clausewitz, as well as Churchill. It was familiar to President and former Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe Dwight D. Eisenhower: I tell this story to illustrate the truth of the statement I heard long ago in the Army: Plans are worthless, but planning is everything. There is a very great distinction because when you are planning for an emergency you must start with this one thing: the very definition of 'emergency' is that it is unexpected, therefore it is not going to happen the way you are planning.
Speech to the National Defense Executive Reserve Conference in Washington, D.C. (November 14, 1957) ; from Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1957, National Archives and Records Service, Government Printing Office, p. 818 : ISBN 0160588510, 9780160588518
Misattributed

Dennis Kucinich photo
Arlen Specter photo

“We're all looking for a plan that will work. The current plan is not working, and 21,500 additional troops -- it's a snowball in July. It's not going to work.”

Arlen Specter (1930–2012) American politician; former United States Senator from Pennsylvania

In a hearing on Congress's War Powers; reported in " Senate Republicans divided in dissent on Iraq http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16877327/", NBC News (January 30, 2007)/

George W. Bush photo
Josefa Iloilo photo
Calvin Coolidge photo
George W. Bush photo

“Good morning. This coming week I will be making the trip up Pennsylvania Avenue to address a joint session of Congress. We have some business to attend to called the budget of the United States. The federal budget is a document about the size of a big city phone book, and about as hard to read from cover to cover. The blueprint I submit this week contains many numbers, but there is one that probably counts more than any other – $5.6 trillion. That is the surplus the federal government expects to collect over the next 10 years; money left over after we have met our obligations to Social Security, Medicare, health care, education, defense and other priorities. The plan I submit will fund our highest national priorities. Education gets the biggest percentage increase of any department in our federal government. We won't just spend more money on schools and education, we will spend it responsibly. We'll give states more freedom to decide what works. And as we give more to our schools we're going to expect more in return by requiring states and local jurisdictions to test every year. How else can we know whether schools are teaching and children are learning? Social Security and Medicare will get every dollar they need to meet their commitments. And every dollar of Social Security and Medicare tax revenue will be reserved for Social Security and Medicare.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

2000s, 2001, Radio Address to the Nation (February 2001)

Gordon Tullock photo
Alexander H. Stephens photo
William Binney photo
Eduardo Torroja photo
Igor Ansoff photo
Nouriel Roubini photo
Benjamin Zephaniah photo
Calvin Coolidge photo
Hermann Göring photo
Akio Morita photo
Ferdinand Foch photo
George Gordon Byron photo

“When a man hath no freedom to fight for at home,
Let him combat for that of his neighbours;
Let him think of the glories of Greece and of Rome
And get knock'd on the head for his labours.
To do good to mankind is the chivalrous plan,
And is always as nobly requited;
Then battle for freedom wherever you can.
And, if not shot or hang'd, you'll get knighted.”

George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement

Letter to Thomas Moore, 5 November 1820 http://books.google.com/books?id=K-s_AAAAYAAJ&q=%22When+a+man+hath+no+freedom+to+fight+for+at+home+Let+him+combat+for+that+of+his+neighbours+Let+him+think+of+the+glories+of+Greece+and+of+Rome+And+get+knock'd+on+the+head+for+his+labours+To+do+good+to+mankind+is+the+chivalrous+plan+And+is+always+as+nobly+requited+Then+battle+for+freedom+wherever+you+can+And+if+not+shot+or+hang'd+you+'ll+get+knighted%22&pg=PA377#v=onepage

Scott Lynch photo
Nathanael Greene photo
Michael Halliday photo

“Any text in spoken English is organized into what may be called 'information units'. (…) this is not determined (…) by constituent structure. Rather could it be said that the distribution of information specifies a distinct structure on a different plan. (…) Information structure is realized phonologically by 'tonality', the distribution of the text into tone groups.”

Michael Halliday (1925–2018) Australian linguist

Michael Halliday Notes on transitivity and theme in English: Part 2, 1967. p. 200 cited in: Klaus von Heusinger "Information Structure and the Partition of Sentence Meaning". In: Eva Hajičová (2002) Form, Meaning and Function. p. 287
1950s–1960s

Ernest Hemingway photo
Jack Johnson (musician) photo
Allen C. Guelzo photo
Albert Einstein photo
Gerhard Richter photo
Bobby Troup photo

“If you ever plan to motor west,
Travel my way, take the highway that is best.
Get your kicks on route sixty-six.”

Bobby Troup (1918–1999) American actor and musician

Route 66, first sung by Nat King Cole, 1946
Song lyrics

Gulzarilal Nanda photo
Bill Mollison photo

“I had no idea what I was doing when I wrote Search. There was no carefully designed work plan. There was no theory that I was out to prove. I went out and talked to genuinely smart, remarkably interesting, first-rate people. I had an infinite travel budget that allowed me to fly first class and stay at top-notch hotels and a license from McKinsey to talk to as many cool people as I could all around the United States and the world.
I went to see Karl Weick, who had totally influenced my life. I had read his work a thousand times, and I'd never met him. I went to Oslo to talk with Einar Thorsrud, who had studied empowerment on oil tankers. I went to the Tavistock Institute in London, where the leading thinkers on organizational development were looking at why people work together effectively in team configurations under certain circumstances.
Word of the meeting got back to McKinsey USA, and I was invited to give a presentation to the top management of PepsiCo… The time was drawing near for the Pepsi presentation to take place. One morning at about 6, I sat down at my desk overlooking the San Francisco Bay from the 48th floor of the Bank of America Tower, and I closed my eyes. Then I leaned forward, and I wrote down eight things on a pad of paper. Those eight things haven't changed since that moment. They were the eight basic principles of Search.”

Tom Peters (1942) American writer on business management practices

Tom Peters (2001) "Tom Peters's True Confessions" in Fast Company, December 2001 ( online http://www.fastcompany.com/44077/tom-peterss-true-confessions, Nov 31, 2001).

Qian Xuesen photo

“I do not plan to come back. I have no reason to come back.. I plan to do my best to help the Chinese people build up the nation to where they can live with dignity and happiness.”

Qian Xuesen (1911–2009) Chinese rocket scientist

Qian (1955) to reporters after returning to China. Cited in: " Qian Xuesen dies at 98; rocket scientist helped establish Jet Propulsion Laboratory http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-me-qian-xuesen1-2009nov01,0,2865408.story" Obituary Nov 1, 2009

Charmaine Yoest photo
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge photo
Henri Fayol photo
Emily Deschanel photo
Subhas Chandra Bose photo
Thomas Jefferson photo
Thomas Little Heath photo
John Fante photo
Sun Myung Moon photo
Will Eisner photo
Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Sr. photo
P.G. Wodehouse photo
Bob Dylan photo
Tenzin Gyatso photo
Clifford D. Simak photo

“Accident, he wondered, or a way of hiding? Trapped or planned? He had no way of knowing and further speculation was ridiculous, based as it necessarily must be upon earlier assumptions that were entirely without support.”

Clifford D. Simak (1904–1988) American writer, journalist

“The Thing in the Stone” (pp. 211-212); originally published in Worlds of If, March 1970
Short Fiction, Skirmish (1977)

John P. Kotter photo

“For the happiest life, days should he rigorously planned, nights left open to chance.”

Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

Alan Charles Kors photo
Amy Poehler photo
Ann Coulter photo
Michael Moore photo
Samuel T. Cohen photo

“Teller’s irascible behavior forced him out of the mainstream but not out of the lab, thanks to Oppenheimer who didn’t think we should be without geniuses, even those whose enormous egos caused serious friction. As bright and innovative as Teller was, his overall performance during the war left a lot to be desired. He was not content to be part of a team effort (like yours truly) and preferred to work off to the side on new and different and sometime pretty far-out ideas (like yours truly). This caused considerable resentment. After all there was a war going on and most people thought future nuclear weapon concepts should be worked on sometime in the future, after we had finished our primary assignment. Edward’s behavior was like a colonel on a planning staff during a military campaign who tells his commanding general that he’d like to plan for the next war. That would be the end of the colonel, who would be demoted and shipped off to some base in the Aleutian Islands.
[5]Oppenheimer, however, realized that guys like Teller, despite their shortcomings, were necessary to have around; one never knows when a guy like that can be worth his weight in gold, which to the best of my recollection never happened with Teller. So an arrangement was worked out where Teller and a handful of like-minded theoretical physicists, willing to put up with his domineering ways, formed a small group dedicated to doing what they pleased, realizing their efforts stood precious little chance of impacting on the project.
[5]The one idea dearest to Teller’s heart was the H-bomb. He and a couple of his cronies applied themselves to devising various schemes on designing such a weapon. All of them turned out to be impractical and most of them unworkable. Which never slowed him down in the slightest for reasons we’ll never know nor will he. I’ve known Edward for a very long time and although I’ve never known him well, one thing about him became clear to me from the very beginning: he was a creature possessed. By what? Again, who knows? Many, if not most, who have read about his life and what he has done, plus those who have known him directly and observed him close at hand and at great length, would say by Satan (which has been said all over the world about me). I wouldn’t go along with that and although I have seen Teller give some of the most impassioned statements morally defending his positions, some of which I have found deeply moving and thoroughly convincing, I would not say that the God I’ve been told exists has had a tight hold on him. If Edward has been possessed by anyone it’s been himself. I’d say the same for myself, and I’ve given you some reasons why, but hardly all of them. I don’t know all of them and would be ashamed to tell you if I did.”

Samuel T. Cohen (1921–2010) American physicist

F*** You! Mr. President: Confessions of the Father of the Neutron Bomb (2006)

Gulzarilal Nanda photo
H. Rider Haggard photo
Ben Carson photo
Charles Taze Russell photo
Edward Heath photo