E. F. Schumacher Quotes

Quotes about:

• 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

  41 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

  36 Copy quote

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

  E. F. Schumacher

  Thinking, Forever, Insane

  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”

  86 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”

  40 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”

  37 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”

  29 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”

  16 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

  24 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

  16 Copy quote

• 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”

  14 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

  11 Copy quote

• Is there enough to go around? What is enough? Who can tell us? Certainly not the economist who pursues economic growth as the highest of all values, and therefore has no concept of enough.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Growth, Economic, Enough

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

  24 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

  28 Copy quote

• 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

  23 Copy quote

• 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”

  21 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”

  26 Copy quote

• Our ordinary mind always tries to persuade us that we are nothing but acorns and that our greatest happiness will be to become bigger, fatter, shinier acorns; but that is of interest only to pigs. Our faith gives us knowledge of something better: that we can become oak trees.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Faith, Confidence, Soulmate

  24 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

  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”

  6 Copy quote

• It is doubly chimerical to build peace on economic foundations which, in turn, rest on the systematic cultivation of greed and envy, the very forces which drive men into conflict.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Men, Envy, Greed

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

  15 Copy quote

• There are poor societies which have too little; but where is the rich society that says: 'Halt! We have enough'? There is none.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Littles, Rich, Enough

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

  10 Copy quote

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

  E. F. Schumacher

  Wind, Sail, Ready

  21 Copy quote

• Not mass production but production by the masses.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Mass, Mass Production, Productions

  3 Copy quote

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

  E. F. Schumacher

  Tasks, Looks, World

  3 Copy quote

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