E Ostrom Quotes & Sayings

all good books are bad! — Elinor Ostrom

So how come it looks so beautiful? How come the moon falls from the sky? — Thom Yorke

The dividing line [between friends and acquaintances] is communication, I think. A friend is someone to whom you can say any jackass thing that enters your mind. With acquaintances, you are forever aware of their slightly unreal image of you, and to keep them content, you edit yourself to fit. Many marriages are between acquaintances. You can be with a person for three hours of your life and have a friend. Another will remain an acquaintance for thirty years. — John D. MacDonald

His eyes softened into something almost like amusement, as if such a ragged appearance was all one could expect from a renowned mechanic. — Marissa Meyer

It's simple. Success comes from training harder, living better and digging deeper than the others. — Lance Armstrong

The power of a theory is exactly proportional to the diversity of situations it can explain. — Elinor Ostrom

You might not be able to run a paintbrush over unpleasant memories, but you can certainly cover them with a black cloth and pretend they don't exist. — Amy Matayo

Little by little, bit by bit, family by family, so much good can be done on so many levels — Elinor Ostrom

Some of the homes that have been built in the last 10 years just appall me. Why do humans need huge homes? I was born poor and I didn't know you bought clothes at anything but the Goodwill until I went to college. Some of our mentality about what it means to have a good life is, I think, not going to help us in the next 50 years. We have to think through how to choose a meaningful life where we're helping one another in ways that really help the Earth. — Elinor Ostrom

We are compelled by reflection to recognize that God is not to be placed against the material world [as in Christianity], but must be placed as a 'divine power' or 'moving spirit' within the cosmos itself ... All the wonderful phenomena of nature around us, organic as well as inorganic, are only various products of one and the same original force. — Ernst Haeckel

At times I ask myself if I shouldn't be living a more regular, stable life with a 9-to-5 job. Then I think about it and realise that there is no point in planning everything. — Meredith Ostrom

Al Gore won the popular vote and didn't get elected president, so I'm not going to sit here and kill myself over not winning Defensive Player of the Year. — Draymond Green

Driven by a concern with institutions, we re-enter the world of the behavioralists. But we do so not in protest against the notion of rational choice, but rather in an effort to understand how rationality on the part of individuals leads to coherence at the level of society. (Bates 1988, p. 399) — Elinor Ostrom

I'm so not into being emaciated. — Meredith Ostrom

As long as a single center has a monopoly on the use of coercion, one has a state rather than a self-governed society. — Elinor Ostrom

People say, 'Why don't you just paint with paintbrushes?' I say that I feel more connected to my painting using my skin. It's very tribal in a way - savage! — Meredith Ostrom

Bureaucrats sometimes do not have the correct information, while citizens and users of resources do. — Elinor Ostrom

Now it is mine." "I only dropped it because I got shot in the neck!" "That is no excuse for sloppy weapon retention," Acosta replied. "It — Larry Correia

In some settings, however, rampant opportunistic behavior severely limits what can be done jointly without major investments in monitoring and sanctioning arrangements. — Elinor Ostrom

No man can call himself liberal, or radical, or even a conservative advocate of fair play, if his work depends in any way on the unpaid or underpaid labor of women at home, or in the office. — Gloria Steinem

There is no reason to believe that bureaucrats and politicians, no matter how well meaning, are better at solving problems than the people on the spot, who have the strongest incentive to get the solution right. — Elinor Ostrom

I can't think of a greater single vehicle to goodness and a better world than if everyone battled their own natures — Dennis Prager

Rage - whether in reaction to social injustice, or to our leaders' insanity, or to those who threaten or harm us - is a powerful energy that, with diligent practice, can be transformed into fierce compassion. — Bonnie Myotai Treace

What is missing from the policy analyst's tool kit
and from the set of accepted, well-developed theories of human organization
is an adequately specified theory of collective action whereby a group of principals can organize themselves voluntarily to retain the residuals of their own efforts. — Elinor Ostrom

Organizing is a process; an organization is the result of that process. — Elinor Ostrom

Scientific knowledge is as much an understanding of the diversity of situations for which a theory or its models are relevant as an understanding of its limits. — Elinor Ostrom

In the 1990s, Elinor Ostrom, the American political scientist most responsible for reviving serious thought about commons, studies what specifically makes a commons successful. She concluded that a commons must have an evolving set of rules about access and usage and that it must have a way of punishing transgressions. It must also respect the particular character of the resource being managed and the people who have worked with that resource the longest. — Douglas Rushkoff

I can be very messy and disorganized. And I don't throw away anything. — Meredith Ostrom

Throwing acid is wrong ... in some people's eyes. — Jimmy Carr

What we have ignored is what citizens can do and the importance of real involvement of the people involved - versus just having somebody in Washington make a rule. — Elinor Ostrom

Brian Walker and David Salt have written a thoughtful and powerful book to help resource users and managers put resilience thinking into practice and aim toward increasing the sustainability of our world. I urge public officials, scholars, and students in public policy programs to place this volume on their list of must-read books. It is a powerful antidote to the overly simplified proposals too often offered as solutions to contemporary problems at multiple scales. — Elinor Ostrom

John Casablancas was saying, 'You will be the next Claudia Schiffer!' But I said, 'Actually, I have to go to college.' — Meredith Ostrom

When you are in a long relationship, sometimes you forget who you are, what you love to do. — Meredith Ostrom

I'm too sensitive and too sincere. — Meredith Ostrom