James R. Schlesinger Quotes & Sayings

Under budgetary pressure (arbitrary or not) it is truly remarkable how many options one discovers one can do without. — James R. Schlesinger

Viewed abstractly, systems analysis implies rigorous thinking, hopefully quantitative, regarding the gains and the resource-expenditures involved in a particular course of action -- to insure that scarce resources are employed productively rather than wastefully. — James R. Schlesinger

We are not good at recognizing distant threats even if their probability is 100%. Society ignoring [peak oil] is like the people of Pompeii ignoring the rumblings below Vesuvius. — James R. Schlesinger

The notion of a defense that will protect American cities is one that will not be achieved, but it is that goal that supplies the political magic, as it were, in the president's vision. — James R. Schlesinger

We have only two modes - complacency and panic. — James R. Schlesinger

Oil production should peak out around the world in the early 1990s ... That means in five years' time we may have chewed up most of the possibility of further expansion of oil production. — James R. Schlesinger