Paul Dickson Quotes

“The human hand is made complete by the addition of a baseball.”

— Paul Dickson

“The odds are six to five that the light in the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an oncoming train.”

— Paul Dickson

“Airplane Law, The: When the plane you are on is late, the plane you want to transfer to is on time.”

— Paul Dickson

“A system tends to grow in complexity instead of simplicity, until the resulting unreliability becomes intolerable.”

— Paul Dickson

“Albrecht's Law: Social innovations tend to the level of minimum tolerable well being.”

— Paul Dickson

Advice, First Law of: The correct advice to give is the advice that is desired.

— Paul Dickson

“A clean tie attracts the soup of the day.”

— Paul Dickson

“All real programs contain errors until proved otherwise which is impossible.”

— Paul Dickson

“Accuracy, Rule of, Corollary: Provided, of course, that you know there is a problem.”

— Paul Dickson

“Allen's Law of Civilization: It is better for civilization to be going down the drain than to be coming up it.”

— Paul Dickson

“Abbott's Admonitions: (1) If you have to ask, you're not entitled to know. (2) If you don't like the answer, you shouldn't have asked the question.”

— Paul Dickson

“Don't bite the hand that has your allowance in it.”

— Paul Dickson

“The great comfort of turning forty-nine is the realization that you are now too old to die young.”

— Paul Dickson

“In any decision situation, the amount of relevant information available is inversely proportional to the importance of the decision.”

— Paul Dickson

“The more innocuous the name of a weapon, the more hideous its impact. Some of the most horrific weapons of the Vietnam era were named 'Bambi', 'Infant', 'Daisycutter', 'Grasshopper', and 'Agent Orange'. Nor is the trend new: from the past we have 'Mustard Gas', 'Angel Chasers' (two cannonballs linked with a chain for added destruction) and 'The Peacemaker' to name but a few.)”

— Paul Dickson

“No experiment is ever a complete failure. It can always be used as a bad example.”

— Paul Dickson

“May you look back on the past with as much pleasure as you look forward to the future.”

— Paul Dickson

“A businessman needs three umbrellas - one to leave at the office, one to leave at home, and one to leave on the train.”

— Paul Dickson