Quotes about solution
page 12

Thomas Edison photo
Greta Thunberg photo

“You don’t listen to the science because you are only interested in solutions that will enable you to carry on like before. Like now. And those answers don’t exist any more. Because you did not act in time.”

"You did not act in time": Greta Thunberg's full speech to UK MPs https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/23/greta-thunberg-full-speech-to-mps-you-did-not-act-in-time (23 April 2019)
Cited in No One is Too Small to Make a Difference, Penguin Books, 2019, pages 58 and 67 (ISBN 9780141991740).
2019, "You did not act in time" (April 2019)

Alfredo Rocco photo
Alfredo Rocco photo
Ruhollah Khomeini photo

“As the imperialist countries attained a high degree of wealth and affluence— the result both of scientific and technical progress and of their plunder of the nations of Asia and Africa— these individuals lost all self-confidence and imagined that the only way to achieve technical progress was to abandon their own laws and beliefs. When the moon landings took place, for instance, they concluded that Muslims should jettison their laws! But what is the connection between going to the moon and the laws of Islam? Do they not see that countries having opposing laws and social systems compete with each other in technical and scientific progress and the conquest of space? Let them go all the way to Mars or beyond the Milky Way; they will still be deprived of true happiness, moral virtue, and spiritual advancement and be unable to solve their own social problems. For the solution of social problems and the relief of human misery require foundations in faith and morals; merely acquiring material power and wealth, conquering nature and space, have no effect in this regard. They must be supplemented by, and balanced with, the faith, the conviction, and the morality of Islam in order truly to serve humanity instead of endangering it. This conviction, this morality, these laws that are needed, we already possess. So as soon as someone goes somewhere or invents something, we should not hurry to abandon our religion and its laws, which regulate the life of man and provide for his well-being in this world and the hereafter.”

Ruhollah Khomeini (1902–1989) Religious leader, politician

Islam and Revolution, Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini, Translated and Annotated by Hamid Algar, Mizan Press, Berkley, pp 36.
Islam and civilization

Ruhollah Khomeini photo
Samir D. Mathur photo
Rab Butler photo

“The Government will have to give consideration to the question of how much this inflow can be assimilated into our society at the present time. If you give the Government a little longer, we shall try to find a solution as friendly to these people as we can and not based on colour prejudice alone.”

Rab Butler (1902–1982) British politician

Remark at the annual conference of the Conservative and Unionist Teachers' Association in London (17 June 1961), quoted in The Times (19 June 1961), p. 7
Home Secretary

Neville Chamberlain photo

“I shall not give up the the hope of a peaceful solution, or abandon my efforts for peace, as long as any chance for peace remains. I would not hesitate to pay even a third visit to Germany, if I thought it would do any good.”

Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Broadcast (27 September 1938), quoted in The Times (28 September 1938), p. 10
Prime Minister

Niall Ferguson photo
Derek Parfit photo

“Certain actual sleeping pills cause retrograde amnesia. It can be true that, if I take such a pill, I shall remain awake for an hour, but after my night’s sleep I shall have no memories of the second half of this hour. I have in fact taken such pills, and found out what the results are like. Suppose that I took such a pill nearly an hour ago. The person who wakes up in my bed tomorrow will not be psychologically continuous with me as I was half an hour ago. I am now on psychological branch-line, which will end soon when I fall asleep. During this half-hour, I am psychologically continuous with myself in the past. But I am not now psychologically continuous with myself in the future. I shall never later remember what I do or think or feel during this half-hour. This means that, in some respects, my relation to myself tomorrow is like a relation to another person. Suppose, for instance, that I have been worrying about some practical question. I now see the solution. Since it is clear what I should do, I form a firm intention. In the rest of my life, it would be enough to form this intention. But, when I am no this psychological branch-line, this is not enough. I shall not later remember what I have now decided, and I shall not wake up with the intention that I have now formed. I must therefore communicate with myself tomorrow as if I was communicating with someone else. I must write myself a letter, describing my decision, and my new intention. I must then place this letter where I am bound to notice it tomorrow. I do not in fact have any memories of making such a decision, and writing such a letter. But I did once find such a letter underneath my razor.”

Source: Reasons and Persons (1984), pp. 287-288

Louis Pasteur photo

“Do you understand now the relationship between the question of spontaneous generation and the major problems that I listed in the beginning? But, gentlemen, in such a subject, rather than as poetry, pretty fancy and instinctive solutions, it is time for science, the true method resumes its duties and exercise. Here, it takes no religion, no philosophy, no atheism, no materialism, no spiritualism. I might even add: as a scholar, I do not mind. It is a matter of fact; I approached without a preconceived idea, too ready to declare, if the experiment had imposed upon me the confession, that there was a spontaneous generation, of which I am convinced today that those who assure it are blindfolded.”

Louis Pasteur (1822–1895) French chemist and microbiologist

Soirées scientifiques de la Sorbonne (1864)
Original: (fr) Comprenez-vous maintenant le lien qui existe entre la question des générations spontanées et ces grands problèmes que j'ai énumérés en commençant? Mais, messieurs, dans un pareil sujet, assez de poésie comme cela, assez de fantaisie et de solutions instinctives; il est temps que la science, la vraie méthode reprenne ses droits et les exerce. Il n'y a ici ni religion, ni philosophie, ni athéisme, ni matérialisme, ni spiritualisme qui tienne. Je pourrais même ajouter : Comme savant, peu m'importe. C'est une question de fait; je l'ai abordée sans idée préconçue, aussi prêt à déclarer, si l'expérience m'en avait imposé l'aveu, qu'il existe des générations spontanées, que je suis persuadé aujourd'hui que ceux qui les affirment ont un bandeau sur les veux.

Robert Sheckley photo
Daniel Abraham photo
Koenraad Elst photo
Koenraad Elst photo
Koenraad Elst photo
Coraline Ada Ehmke photo

“Fact: the solution to the problems in tech is not more tech. Especially not more tech written by privileged, heads-in-the-sand white dudes.”

Coraline Ada Ehmke technologist, activist, and transgender feminist

https://twitter.com/coralineada/status/1029162264979546112

Bernie Sanders photo
Albert Einstein photo

“I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child. The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society. Nevertheless, it is necessary to remember that a planned economy is not yet socialism. A planned economy as such may be accompanied by the complete enslavement of the individual. The achievement of socialism requires the solution of some extremely difficult socio-political problems: how is it possible, in view of the far-reaching centralisation of political and economic power, to prevent bureaucracy from becoming all-powerful and overweening? How can the rights of the individual be protected and therewith a democratic counterweight to the power of bureaucracy be assured?”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

1940s, Why Socialism? (1949)

Michael Parenti photo
William Quan Judge photo
William Quan Judge photo
Alice A. Bailey photo
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez photo
Richard Bertrand Spencer photo

“Automation…the White Death…deindustrilization. Trump throws bombast and bluster at the problem. Andrew Yang sees the problem for what it is and offers understanding, sympathy, and solutions. Everyone should take this man and his ideas seriously.”

Richard Bertrand Spencer (1978) American white supremacist

23 November 2018 https://twitter.com/RichardBSpencer/status/1066238599253843968 regarding Andrew Yang, highlighted 11 March 2019 by Vox https://www.vox.com/2019/3/11/18256198/andrew-yang-gang-presidential-policies-universal-basic-income-joe-rogan and 10 April 2019 by Mother Jones https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/04/andrew-yang-4chan-alt-right/
2018

Pete Buttigieg photo
Fidel Castro photo
Henry Campbell-Bannerman photo
Anwar Sadat photo

“Russians can give you arms, but only the United States can give you a solution.”

Anwar Sadat (1918–1981) Egyptian president and Nobel Peace Prize recipient

[Fradkin, Hillel, Libby, Lewis, September/October 2012, Learning from Sadat: The Dividends of American Resolve, http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/learning-sadat-dividends-american-resolve, World Affairs, Washington, D.C., World Affairs Institute, October 9, 2018]

Philip Hammond photo

“There should be a new and sincere attempt to reach a consensus. If we do not find a solution with the members, we may have to ask the British to give their opinion again, in one form or another.”

Philip Hammond (1955) British Conservative politician

Philip Hammond will 'not exclude' backing no confidence vote to stop no-deal Brexit https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-49044966 BBC News (19 July 2019)
2019

Hans Freudenthal photo

“No mathematical idea has ever been published in the way it was discovered. Techniques have been developed and are used, if a problem has been solved, to turn the solution procedure upside down, or if it is a larger complex of statements and theories, to turn definitions into propositions, and propositions into definitions, the hot invention into icy beauty. This then if it has affected teaching matter, is the didactical inversion, which as it happens may be anti-didactical.”

Hans Freudenthal (1905–1990) Dutch mathematician

Rather than behaving anti-didactically, one should recognise that the learner is entitled to recapitulate in a fashion of mankind. Not in the trivial matter of an abridged version, but equally we cannot require the new generation to start at the point where their predecessors left off.
Source: The Concept and the Role of the Model in Mathematics and Natural and Social Sciences (1961), p. ix

Russell Brand photo

“When people are content, they are difficult to maneuver. We are perennially discontent and offered placebos as remedies. My intention in writing this book is to make you feel better, to offer you a solution to the way you feel. I am confident that this is necessary. When do you ever meet people that are happy? Genuinely happy? Only children, the mentally ill, and daytime television presenters. My belief is that it is possible to feel happier, because I feel better than I used to. I am beginning to understand where the solution lies, primarily because of an exhausting process of trial and mostly error. My qualification to write a book on how to change yourself and change the world is not that I’m better than you, it’s that I’m worse. Not that I’m smarter, but that I’m dumber: I bought the lie hook, line, and sinker. My only quality has been an unwitting momentum, a willingness to wade through the static dissatisfaction that has been piped into my mind from the moment I learned language. What if that feeling of inadequacy, isolation, and anxiety isn’t just me? What if it isn’t internally engineered but the result of concerted effort, the product of a transmission? An ongoing broadcast from the powerful that has colonized my mind? Who is it in here, inside your mind, reading these words, feeling that fear? Is there an awareness, an exempt presence, gleaming behind the waterfall of words that commentate on every event, label every object, judge everyone you come into contact with? And is there another way to feel? Is it possible to be in this world and feel another way? Can you conceive, even for a moment, of a species similar to us but a little more evolved, that have transcended the idea that solutions to the way we feel can be externally acquired? What would that look like? How would that feel—to be liberated from the bureaucracy of managing your recalcitrant mind. Is it possible that there is a conspiracy to make us feel this way?”

Revolution (2014)

Russell Brand photo
Angelina Jolie photo
Greg Bear photo

“The hardest theme in science fiction is that of the alien. The simplest solution of all is in fact quite profound—that the real difficulty lies not in understanding what is alien, but in understanding what is self.”

Greg Bear (1951) American writer best known for science fiction

We are all aliens to each other, all different and divided. We are even aliens to ourselves at different stages of our lives. Do any of us remember precisely what it was like to be a baby?
"Introduction to 'Plague of Conscience'", The Collected Stories of Greg Bear (2002)

Prem Rawat photo
Robert Greene photo
Thomas Kuhn photo

“A scientific theory is usually felt to be better than its predecessors not only in the sense that it is a better instrument for discovering and solving puzzles but also because it is somehow a better representation of what nature is really like. One often hears that successive theories grow ever closer to, or approximate more and more closely to, the truth. Apparently generalizations like that refer not to the puzzle-solutions and the concrete predictions derived from a theory but rather to its ontology, to the match, that is, between the entities with which the theory populates nature and what is “really there.””

Perhaps there is some other way of salvaging the notion of ‘truth’ for application to whole theories, but this one will not do. There is, I think, no theory-independent way to reconstruct phrases like ‘really there’; the notion of a match between the ontology of a theory and its “real” counterpart in nature now seems to me illusive in principle. Besides, as a historian, I am impressed with the implausability of the view. I do not doubt, for example, that Newton’s mechanics improves on Aristotle’s and that Einstein’s improves on Newton’s as instruments for puzzle-solving. But I can see in their succession no coherent direction of ontological development. On the contrary, in some important respects, though by no means in all, Einstein’s general theory of relativity is closer to Aristotle’s than either of them is to Newton’s.
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), Postscript (1969)

Cory Doctorow photo
Emmanuel Macron photo
Benjamin Creme photo
China Miéville photo
Alastair Reynolds photo
Richard D. Wolff photo
John F. MacArthur photo
Masaaki Imai photo
Benjamin Creme photo
Joanna Trollope photo

“What I’m trying to do in all these novels is mirror a contemporary preoccupation. I’m not providing any solutions. I’m simply saying: ‘Can we please get the conversation going?’”

Joanna Trollope (1943) British writer

On being more of a social rather than political writer in “Joanna Trollope on families, fiction and feminism: ‘Society still expects women to do all the caring’” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/mar/02/joanna-trollope-on-families-fiction-and-feminism-society-still-expects-women-to-do-all-the-caring in The Guardian (2020 Mar 2)

Amy Coney Barrett photo

“It allows (indeed it requires) the recusal of judges whose convictions keep them from doing their job. This is a good solution.”

Amy Coney Barrett (1972) American judge

Catholic Judges in Capital Cases https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship/527/, co-written in 1998 with John H. Garvey, authored as "Amy V. Coney"

Koenraad Elst photo

“Hindu [educational] institutions have no fundamental right to compensation in case of compulsory acquisition of their property by the state... a lasting solution to this problem lies only in amending Article 30 of the Constitution...”

K. R. Malkani (1921–2003) Indian politician

K.R. Malkani, quoted in Elst, Koenraad (2001). Decolonizing the Hindu mind: Ideological development of Hindu revivalism. New Delhi: Rupa. 525 ff.

Moshe Dayan photo

“Let's say "we don't have a solution, and you will continue living like dogs, and whoever wants will go, and we'll see how this procedure will work out."”

Moshe Dayan (1915–1981) Israeli military leader and politician

For now, it works out. Let's say the truth. We want peace. If there is no peace, we will maintain military rule and we will have four to five military compounds on the mountains, and they will sit ten years under the Israeli military regime. Whoever wants to go, will want. It's possible that in five years, there will be 200,000 fewer people, and that's an enormous thing.

Strategizing an approach to the refugees in West Bank if Jordan rejects a peace deal, in Mehiro shel Ihud (Revivim, 1985) by Yossi Beilin, p. 42

Karl Pearson photo

“…there are individual ways that we work our way through all of these systems that are corrosive and inescapable. But if there is a solution to the system itself, it’s at a collective level. It’s the level of policy and politics, it’s not at the level of individual choice.”

Jia Tolentino (1988) American writer and editor

On why her book Trick Mirror offers no solutions in “Jia Tolentino: What It’s Like Being the Most Talked About Millennial Writer” https://www.anothermag.com/design-living/11896/jia-tolentino-trick-mirror-book-interview-new-yorker-staff-writer-2019 in AnOther (2019 Sep 15)

Newton Lee photo
Tenzin Gyatso photo
Albert Einstein photo
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson photo
Daniel Abraham photo
Daniel Abraham photo
Benito Mussolini photo

“No one knows better than I with forty years' political experience that policy--particularly a revolutionary policy--has its tactical requirements. I recognised the Soviets in 1924. In 1934, I signed with them a treaty of commerce and friendship. I, therefore, understood that, especially as Ribbentrop's forecast about the non-intervention of Britain and France has not come off, you are obliged to avoid the second front [with Russia]. You have had to pay for this in that Russia has, without striking a blow, been the great profiteer of the war in Poland and the Baltic. But I, who was born a revolutionary and have not modified my revolutionary mentality, tell you that you cannot permanently sacrifice the principles of your revolution to the tactical requirements of a given moment... I have also the definite duty to add that a further step in the relations with Moscow would have catastrophic repercussions in Italy, where the unanimity of anti-Bolshevik feeling is absolute, granite-hard, and unbreakable. Permit me to think that this will not happen. The solution of your Lebensraum is in Russia, and nowhere else... The day when we shall have demolished Bolshevism we shall have kept faith with both our revolutions. Then it will be the turn of the great democracies, who will not be able to survive the cancer which gnaws them...”

Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) Duce and President of the Council of Ministers of Italy. Leader of the National Fascist Party and subsequen…

1930s
Source: Letter to Hitler, quoted in Winston Churchill's The Gathering Storm

Benito Mussolini photo
Isaac Mashman photo
George Marshall photo
Albert Einstein photo

“If I had only one hour to save the world, I would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem, and only five minutes finding the solution.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

There is no indication that Einstein said this. According to Quote Investigator, the earliest publication of a quote similar was in a collection of articles about manufacturing in 1966, when an employee of the Stainless Processing Company wrote a piece titled "The Manufacturing Manager's Skills." The article attributed the quote to an unnamed professor at Yale, by saying, "If I had only one hour to solve a problem, I would spend up to two-thirds of that hour in attempting to define what the problem is." (See, 1966, The Manufacturing Man and His Job by Robert E. Finley and Henry R. Ziobro, "The Manufacturing Manager's Skills" by William H. Markle (Vice President, Stainless Processing Company, Chicago, Illinois), Start Page 15, Quote Page 18, Published by American Management Association, Inc., New York. Verified on paper). https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/05/22/solve/
Disputed
Variant: If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.

Garry Davis photo

“Here we are, in one little world, one planet... Everybody agrees that world government is the logical solution...”

Garry Davis (1921–2013) American actor turned peace activist (1921-2013)

As quoted in Garry Davis Cult, Life (Jan 24, 1949)

Luke Rhinehart photo
Robert Kocharyan photo

“An unduly unfair peace cannot be lasting and sustainable. I want to end this conflict, and we must find a solution which which will be fair.”

Robert Kocharyan (1954) second President of Armenia

As quoted in an 2021 interview with Vladimir Pozner in "Robert Kocharyan: An unfair peace can not be lasting and sustainable" in Hyetert.org (6 April 2021) https://hyetert.org/2021/04/06/robert-kocharyan-an-unfair-peace-can-not-be-lasting-and-sustainable/

“Destroying the country is not a solution. These demonstrations are a way to express frustration but it is not the solution. We have to find a way to talk.”

In Haiti, bishops call on government for urgent action to quell ‘fratricidal warfare’ https://www.churchinneed.org/in-haiti-bishops-call-on-government-for-urgent-action-to-quell-fratricidal-warfare/ (10 October 2019)

George W. Bush photo

“I come without explanations or solutions. I can only tell you what I’ve seen.”

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

2020's, Speech during a 9/11 commemoration at the Flight 93 National Memorial

Sheyene Gerardi photo
Koenraad Elst photo

“In difficult transplanting operations, I talk to the tree with humility while doing my best to find the right solution. Then, the tree teaches me how to overcome the obstacle.”

Konami Tsukamoto (1949) Japanese tree doctor

Source: The Goi Peace Foundation Lecture Series - Lecture 18: Learning from trees - Lecture Series: Values for the 21st Century https://www.goipeace.or.jp/en/work/lecture/ - 4 Mar 2008 - Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20211107060323/https://www.goipeace.or.jp/en/work/lecture/

John Derbyshire photo
Henry Miller photo

“There are two solutions to unemployment, one is a job and the other is entrepreneurship... We need to increase 'made in Nigeria'. Even me. We all need to buy 'made in Nigeria'! Eat 'made in Nigeria!'”

Kemi Adeosun (1967) Nigerian accountant, investment banker and politician (born 1967)

Drink 'made in Nigeria'!"
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnQRHlEYB7E Speaking on unemployment challenges in Nigeria

Wojciech Jaruzelski photo
Albin Kurti photo

“We are now (December 2021) working hard to draft a new law that will provide a fair and sustainable solution to the payroll system in the public sector.”

Albin Kurti (1975) Prime Minister of Kosovo

Source: Albin Kurti (2021) cited in " Kosovo approves 2022 budget amid parliamentary disquiet https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/short_news/kosovo-approves-2022-budget-amid-parliamentary-disquiet/" on EURACTIV, 20 December 2021.

Gilmar Pisas photo

“We have not come to quarrel with the Netherlands, but to come to solutions for Curaçao in mutual respect.”

Gilmar Pisas (1971) Curaçaoan politician and civil servant

Source: Gilmar Pisas (2021) cited in: " New Prime Minister of Curaçao Gilmar Pisas wants 'less Kingdom' https://www.curacaochronicle.com/post/main/new-prime-minister-of-curacao-gilmar-pisas-wants-less-kingdom/" in Curaçao Chronicle, 14 June 2021.

Chetan Bhagat photo
Jack Vance photo
Joe Biden photo

“Look, there is no federal solution. This gets solved at a state level.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

2021, December 2021
Source: Remarks by President Biden at COVID-⁠19 Response Team’s Regular Call With the National Governors Association https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/12/27/remarks-by-president-biden-at-covid-19-response-teams-regular-call-with-the-national-governors-association/ (27 December 2021)

Gloria E. Anzaldúa photo

“The solution to your depression lies en esa cueva oscura [in this dark cave] and a deeper integration of your psyche.”

Gloria E. Anzaldúa (1942–2004) Chicana cultural theory, feminist theory, and queer theory

Source: Light in the Dark/Luz en lo Oscuro: Rewriting Identity, Spirituality, Reality (2015), p. 111

Nassim Nicholas Taleb photo

“We are trying to help in every way we can, and above all in order to prevent people from choosing the solution of leaving the country forever, and in many cases risking their lives trying to cross the ocean.”

Antoine Chbeir (1961) Lebanese cleric, Maronite bishop of Latakia

Source: Bishop Chbeir – “The end of the war in Syria is in the hands of the international community” https://acninternational.org/bishop-chbeir-the-end-of-the-war-in-syria-is-in-the-hands-of-the-international-community/ (23 March 2018)