Small Is Beautiful Quotes

• It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.

  Albert Einstein

  Courage, Moving, Simple

  "Small is Beautiful". The Radical Humanist, Vol. 37, No. 5, (p. 22), August 1973.

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• 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”

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• 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

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• 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”

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• Modern man talks of a battle with nature, forgetting that, if he won the battle, he would find himself on the losing side

  E. F. Schumacher

  Nature, Men, Battle

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

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• There can be nothing sacred in something that has a price.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Sacred

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

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• 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”

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

  E. F. Schumacher

  Practice, Theory

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

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• Man is small, and, therefore, small is beautiful.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Beautiful, Men, Growth

  Small Is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered pt. 2, ch. 5 (1973)

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• An attitude to life which seeks fulfillment in the single-minded pursuit of wealth - in short, materialism - does not fit into this world, because it contains within itself no limiting principle, while the environment in which it is placed is strictly limited.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Life, Attitude, Principles

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

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• Man's needs are infinite, and infinitude can be achieved only in the spiritual realm, never in the material.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Spiritual, Peace, Men

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

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• We still have to learn how to live peacefully, not only with our fellow men but also with nature.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Nature, Men, Fellow Man

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

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• 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.

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• If greed were not the master of modern man, how could it be that the frenzy of economic activity does not abate as higher standards of living are attained, and that it is precisely the richest societies which pursue their economic advantage with the greatest ruthlessness?

  E. F. Schumacher

  Men, Greed, Doe

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• The most striking about modern industry is that it requires so much and accomplishes so little. Modern industry seems to be inefficient to a degree that surpasses one's ordinary powers of imagination. Its inefficiency therefore remains unnoticed.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Imagination, Ordinary, Degrees

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

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• The disease having been caused by allowing cleverness to displace wisdom, no amount of clever research is likely to produce a cure.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Clever, Research, Disease

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

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• I have no doubt that it is possible to give a new direction to technological development, a direction that shall lead it back to the real needs of man, and that also means: to the actual size of man. Man is small, and, therefore, small is beautiful.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Beautiful, Real, Mean

  Small Is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered pt. 2, ch. 5 (1973)

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• 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

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• Our task - and the task of all education - is to understand the present world, the world in which we live and make our choices.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Choices, Tasks, World

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

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• 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”

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• Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production.

  Adam Smith

  Purpose, Ends, Sole

  1776 An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, bk.4, ch.8.

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• From a Buddhist point of view, this is standing the truth on its head by considering goods as more important than people and consumption as more important than creative activity. It means shifting the emphasis from the worker to the product of work, that is, from the human to the sub-human, surrender to the forces of evil.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Buddhist, Mean, Views

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

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• We still have to learn how to live peacefully, not only with our fellow men but also with nature and, above all, with those Higher Powers which have made nature and have made us; for, assuredly, we have not come about by accident and certainly have not made ourselves

  E. F. Schumacher

  Men, Fellow Man, Made

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

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• Without ... the creative imagination rushing in where bureaucratic angels fear to tread - without this, life is a mockery and a disgrace.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Business, Angel, Rushing

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

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• Call a thing immoral or ugly, soul-destroying or a degradation to man, a peril to the peace of the world or to the well-being of future generations: as long as you have not shown it to be "uneconomic" you have not really questioned its right to exist, grow, and prosper.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Men, Long, Soul

  Small is Beautiful (1973) pt. 1, ch. 3

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