E. F. Schumacher Quotes

Quotes about:

• Anyone who thinks consumption can expand forever on a finite planet is either insane or an economist.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Thinking, Forever, Insane

  45 Copy quote

• Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Inspirational, Motivational, Courage

  54 Copy quote

• Wisdom demands a new orientation of science and technology toward the organic, the gentle, the elegant and beautiful.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Beautiful, Technology, Demand

  E.F. Schumacher (1975). “Small is Beautiful”

  44 Copy quote

• We must do what we conceive to be the right thing, and not bother our heads or burden our souls with whether we are going to be successful. Because if we don't do the right thing, we'll be doing the wrong thing, and we will just be part of the disease, and not a part of the cure.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Success, Integrity, Soul

  40 Copy quote

• An ounce of practice is generally worth more than a ton of theory.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Practice, Theory, Small Is Beautiful

  E.F. Schumacher (1975). “Small is Beautiful”

  9 Copy quote

• Development does not start with goods; it starts with people and their education, organization, and discipline. Without these three, all resources remain latent, untapped, potential.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Organization, Discipline, People

  E.F.SCHUMACHER (1973). “SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL”

  41 Copy quote

• The system of nature, of which man is a part, tends to be self-balancing, self-adjusting, self-cleansing. Not so with technology.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Technology, Men, Self

  E.F. Schumacher (1975). “Small is Beautiful”

  92 Copy quote

• The purpose of work is to give people a chance to utilize and develop their faculties; to enable them to overcome their ego-centeredness by joining others in a common task; and to bring for the goods and services needed for a becoming existence.

  E. F. Schumacher

  People, Giving, Ego

  15 Copy quote

• Study how a society uses its land, and you can come to pretty reliable conclusions as to what its future will be.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Land, Use, Study

  E.F. Schumacher (1975). “Small is Beautiful”

  5 Copy quote

• The real problems of our planet are not economic or technical, they are philosophical. The philosophy of unbridled materialism is being challenged by events.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Philosophy, Real, Philosophical

  29 Copy quote

• I cannot predict the wind but I can have my sail ready.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Wind, Sail, Ready

  26 Copy quote

• There are three things healthy people most need to do - to be creatively productive, to render service, and to act in accordance with their moral impulses. In all three respects modern society frustrates most people most of the time.

  E. F. Schumacher

  People, Healthy, Three Things

  20 Copy quote

• Real life consists of the tensions produced by the incompatibility of opposites, each of which is needed

  E. F. Schumacher

  Real, Opposites, Incompatibility

  E.F. Schumacher (1975). “Small is Beautiful”

  16 Copy quote

• At present, there can be little doubt that the whole of mankind is in mortal danger, not because we are short of scientific and technological know-how, but because we tend to use it destructively, without wisdom. More education can help us only if produces more wisdom.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Doubt, Growth, Use

  E.F. Schumacher (1975). “Small is Beautiful”

  20 Copy quote

• Any intelligent fool can invent further complications, but it takes a genius to retain, or recapture, simplicity.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Intelligent, Simplicity, Genius

  33 Copy quote

• An entirely new system of thought is needed, a system based on attention to people, and not primarily attention to goods. . . .

  E. F. Schumacher

  People, Attention, Goods

  E.F. Schumacher (1975). “Small is Beautiful”

  33 Copy quote

• The best aid to give is intellectual aid, a gift of useful knowledge. A gift of knowledge is infinitely preferable to a gift of material things.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Giving, Intellectual, Aids

  E.F. Schumacher (1975). “Small is Beautiful”

  9 Copy quote

• To organize work in such a manner that it becomes meaningless, boring, stultifying, or nerve-racking for the worker would be little short of criminal; it would indicate a greater concern with goods than with people, an evil lack of compassion and a soul-destroying degree of attachment to the most primitive side of this worldly existence.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Compassion, Attachment, People

  E.F. Schumacher (1975). “Small is Beautiful”

  9 Copy quote

• Scientific and technological "solutions" which poison the environment or degrade the social structure and man himself are of no benefit, no matter how brilliantly conceived or how great their superficial attraction.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Men, Poison, Benefits

  E.F. Schumacher (1975). “Small is Beautiful”

  8 Copy quote

• Even bigger machines, entailing even bigger concentrations of economic power and exerting ever greater violence against the environment, do not represent progress: they are a denial of wisdom. Wisdom demands a new orientation of science and technology towards the organic, the gentle, the nonviolent, the elegant and beautiful.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Beautiful, Technology, Progress

  11 Copy quote

• The truly educated man is not a man who knows a bit of everything, not even the man who knows all the details of all subjects (if such a thing were possible): the “whole man” in fact, may have little detailed knowledge of facts and theories...but he will be truly in touch with the centre. He will not be in doubt about his basic convictions, about his view on the meaning and purpose of his life. He may not be able to explain these matters in words, but the conduct of his life will show a certain sureness of touch which stems from this inner clarity.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Men, Views, Doubt

  "Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered". Book by E. F. Schumacher, 1973.

  13 Copy quote

• Infinite growth of material consumption in a finite world is an impossibility.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Courage, Organization, Simplicity

  E.F. Schumacher (1975). “Small is Beautiful”

  30 Copy quote

• Our task is to look at the world, and see it whole.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Tasks, Looks, World

  7 Copy quote

• That soul-destroying, meaningless, mechanical, moronic work is an insult to human nature which must necessarily and inevitably produce either escapism or aggression, and that no amount of 'bread and circuses' can compensate for the damage done-these are facts which are neither denied nor acknowledged but are met with an unbreakable conspiracy of silence-because to deny them would be too obviously absurd and to acknowledge them would condemn the central preoccupation of modern society as a crime against humanity.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Silence, Soul, Humanity

  E.F. Schumacher (1975). “Small is Beautiful”

  13 Copy quote

• The art of living is always to make a good thing out of a bad thing.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Life, Art, Inspire

  7 Copy quote

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