Herman Kahn Quotes

Quotes about:

Decisions Nuclear War Nuclear Weapons War

Risk-taking is the essence of innovation.

Herman Kahn

Essence, Risk, Innovation

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I'm against ignorance. I'm against sloppy, emotional thinking. I'm against fashionable thinking. I am against the whole cliché of the moment.

Herman Kahn

Ignorance, Emotional, Thinking

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Authority is not power; that's coercion. Authority is not knowledge; that's persuasion, or seduction. Authority is simply that the author has the right to make a statement and to be heard.

Herman Kahn

Coercion, Seduction, Persuasion

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My guess is that nuclear weapons will be used sometime in the next hundred years, but that their use is much more likely to be small and limited than widespread and unconstrained.

Herman Kahn

Years, Weapons, Next

Herman Kahn, Paul Dragoș Aligică, Kenneth R. Weinstein (2009). “The Essential Herman Kahn: In Defense of Thinking”, p.31, Lexington Books

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The objective of nuclear-weapons policy should not be solely to decrease the number of weapons in the world, but to make the world safer - which is not necessarily the same thing.

Herman Kahn

Numbers, Objectivity, Weapons

Herman Kahn, Paul Dragoș Aligică, Kenneth R. Weinstein (2009). “The Essential Herman Kahn: In Defense of Thinking”, p.29, Lexington Books

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Nuclear war is such an emotional subject that many people see the weapons themselves as the common enemy of humanity.

Herman Kahn

War, Emotional, People

Herman Kahn (1985). “Thinking Unth 80SP”, p.31, Simon and Schuster

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World War I broke out largely because of an arms race, and World War II because of the lack of an arms race.

Herman Kahn

War, Race, World

Herman Kahn (1985). “Thinking Unth 80SP”, p.25, Simon and Schuster

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A surprising number of government committees will make important decisions on fundamental matters with less attention than each individual would give to buying a suit.

Herman Kahn

Government, Numbers, Giving

Herman Kahn, Paul Dragoș Aligică, Kenneth R. Weinstein (2009). “The Essential Herman Kahn: In Defense of Thinking”, p.209, Lexington Books

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Human and moral factors must always be considered. They must never be missing from policies and from public discussion.

Herman Kahn

Missing You, Moral, Policy

Herman Kahn, Paul Dragoș Aligică, Kenneth R. Weinstein (2009). “The Essential Herman Kahn: In Defense of Thinking”, p.24, Lexington Books

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For some years I have spent my time on exactly these questions - both in thinking about ways to prevent war, and in thinking about how to fight, survive, and terminate a war, should it occur.

Herman Kahn

War, Fighting, Thinking

Herman Kahn, Paul Dragoș Aligică, Kenneth R. Weinstein (2009). “The Essential Herman Kahn: In Defense of Thinking”, p.11, Lexington Books

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From a scientific perspective there is some indication that a nuclear war could deplete the earth's ozone layer or, less likely, could bring on a new Ice Age - but there is no suggestion that either the created order or mankind would be destroyed in the process.

Herman Kahn

War, Ozone, Order

Herman Kahn (1985). “Thinking Unth 80SP”, p.30, Simon and Schuster

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Projecting a persuasive image of a desirable and practical future is extremely important to high morale, to dynamism, to consensus, and in general to help the wheels of society turn smoothly.

Herman Kahn

Important, Wheels, Helping

Herman Kahn, Paul Dragoș Aligică, Kenneth R. Weinstein (2009). “The Essential Herman Kahn: In Defense of Thinking”, p.260, Lexington Books

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A healthy and fully functioning society must allocate its resources among a variety of competing interests, all of which are more or less valid but none of which should take precedence over national security.

Herman Kahn

Healthy, Resources, Should

Herman Kahn, Paul Dragoș Aligică, Kenneth R. Weinstein (2009). “The Essential Herman Kahn: In Defense of Thinking”, p.34, Lexington Books

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Failures of perspective in decision-making can be due to aspects of the social utility paradox, but more often result from simple mistakes caused by inadequate thought.

Herman Kahn

Mistake, Simple, Perspective

Herman Kahn, Paul Dragoș Aligică, Kenneth R. Weinstein (2009). “The Essential Herman Kahn: In Defense of Thinking”, p.208, Lexington Books

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Because of new technologies, new wealth, new conditions of domestic life and of international relations, unprecedented criteria and issues are coming up for national decision.

Herman Kahn

Technology, Issues, Decision

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Clearly, the first task is to gain acceptance of a more reasonable view of the future, one that opens possibilities rather than forecloses them.

Herman Kahn

Acceptance, Views, Tasks

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Hopefully, nations will refuse to accept a situation in which nuclear accidents actually do occur, and, if at all possible, they will do something to correct a system which makes them likely.

Herman Kahn

Nuclear, Accepting, Situation

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Deterrence itself is not a preeminent value; the primary values are safety and morality.

Herman Kahn

Safety, Morality, Primaries

Herman Kahn, Paul Dragoș Aligică, Kenneth R. Weinstein (2009). “The Essential Herman Kahn: In Defense of Thinking”, p.35, Lexington Books

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The widespread diffusion of nuclear weapons would make many nations able, and in some cases also create the pressure, to aggravate an on-going crisis, or even touch off a war between two other powers for purposes of their own.

Herman Kahn

War, Aggravation, Two

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Many people believe that the current system must inevitably end in total annihilation. They reject, sometimes very emotionally, any attempts to analyze this notion.

Herman Kahn

Believe, People, Sometimes

Herman Kahn, Paul Dragoș Aligică, Kenneth R. Weinstein (2009). “The Essential Herman Kahn: In Defense of Thinking”, p.17, Lexington Books

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I'm against fashionable thinking.

Herman Kahn

Thinking, Fashionable

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For if enough people were really convinced that growth should be halted, and if they acted on that conviction, then billions of others might be deprived of any realistic hope of gaining the opportunities now enjoyed by the more fortunate.

Herman Kahn

Opportunity, People, Growth

Herman Kahn, William Morle Brown, Léon Martel (1976). “The next 200 years: a scenario for America and the world”, William Morrow & Company

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Nuclear weapons are intrinsically neither moral nor immoral, though they are more prone to immoral use than most weapons.

Herman Kahn

Weapons, Nuclear, Use

Herman Kahn (1985). “Thinking Unth 80SP”, p.31, Simon and Schuster

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It is immoral from almost any point of view to refuse to defend yourself and others from very grave and terrible threats, even as there are limits to the means that can be used in such defense.

Herman Kahn

Mean, Views, Limits

Herman Kahn (1985). “Thinking Unth 80SP”, p.31, Simon and Schuster

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A total nuclear freeze is counterproductive - especially now, when technology is rapidly changing and the Soviets have some important strategic advantages.

Herman Kahn

Technology, Important, Nuclear

Herman Kahn (1985). “Thinking Unth 80SP”, p.26, Simon and Schuster

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Born: February 15, 1922
Died: July 7, 1983
Occupation: Strategist
Cite this Page: Citation

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