Albert Hirschman Quotes & Sayings

To be acceptable, it seems, a project must often be billed as a pure replica of a successful venture in an advanced country. — Albert O. Hirschman

In a nation of frightened dullards there is a sorry shortage of outlaws, and those few who make the grade are always welcome: — Hunter S. Thompson

The secret of creativity is then to place yourself in situations where you've got to be creative, but this is done only when one doesn't know in advance that one will have to be creative. This, in turn, is so because we underestimate our creative resources; quite properly, we cannot believe in our creativity until we experience it; and since we thus necessarily underestimate our creative resources we do not consciously engage upon tasks which we know require such resources; hence the only way in which we can bring our creative resources into play is by similarly underestimating the difficulty of a task. — Albert O. Hirschman

Here's to opening and upward ...
and to yourself and up with you and up with and up with laughing. — E. E. Cummings

Theatrical is fantastic. I don't think anything will ever replace the big dark room, the screen and the popcorn. You can kind of do it in your home if you have a nice screen, but it's not the same thing. — Mel Gibson

I never get upset about what I read in the newspaper. I realize that every human being can make a difference in this world. — George Foreman

Leadership is about doing the right thing, even if it going against a vast number of naysayers and mediocre people. — N. R. Narayana Murthy

in certain societies there is a systematic underestimate of one's own creativity — Albert O. Hirschman

The Journey of Reconciliation was organized not only to devise techniques for eliminating Jim Crow in travel, but also as a training ground for similar peaceful projects against discrimination in such major areas as employment and in the armed services. — Bayard Rustin

In real-life situations, however, risks frequently increase without any corresponding increase in the payoff: — Albert O. Hirschman

Creativity always comes a surprise to us; therefore we can never count on it and we dare not believe in it until it has happened. In other words, we would not consciously engage upon tasks whose success clearly requires that creativity be forthcoming. Hence, the only way in which we can bring our creative resources fully into play is by misjudging the nature of the task, by presenting it to ourselves as more routine, simple, undemanding of genuine creativity that it will turn out to be — Albert O. Hirschman

An honest heart seeks to please God in all things and offend Him in none. — Arthur W. Pink

If I hurt somebody's feelings, I go right to them and talk to them and explain what happens. Sometimes I'm mad at myself because I left a pitch in the middle. It's big when you leave a pitch in the middle. When I make that mistake, it's frustrating for me. I have to think about what I did wrong and go to the next step. — Carlos Zambrano

History is nothing if not far-fetched. — Albert O. Hirschman

Is the purpose of free elections to allow the most clever and vicious person to aggregate power, or is the purpose of free elections to enable the American people to have a serious conversation about their country's future and try to find both a policy and a personality that they think will carry to them that better future? — Newt Gingrich

I am sorry I can say nothing more to console you, for love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams. Love in dreams is greedy for immediate action, rapidly performed and in the sight of all. Men will even give their lives if only the ordeal does not last long but is soon over, with all looking on and applauding as though on stage. But active love is labor and fortitude, and for some people too, perhaps, a complete science. — Fyodor Dostoyevsky