Hock Quotes & Sayings

I don't care. I want that one out. We can't afford a stampede. Find some polite way to get rid of him." Anderson pulls over another stack of paychecks waiting for his signature.
Hock Seng tries again. "Khun, negotiating with the union is a complicated thing."
"That's why I have you. It's called delegating." Anderson continues flipping the papers.
"Yes, of course." Hock Seng regards him drily. "Thank you for your management instruction. — Paolo Bacigalupi

What is a question but a moment of discontent in pursuit of understanding? What is an answer but a moment of illusion in our flight from ignorance? — Dee Hock

Do not get angry, stubborn, and imperious. Get curious. — Dee Hock

I sing of brooks, of blossoms, birds, and bowers; Of April, May, of June, and July flowers. I sing of Maypoles, Hock-carts, wassails, wakes, Of bridegrooms, brides, and of their bridal cakes. - ROBERT HERRICK — Nora Roberts

Families out there know that if they get in trouble and they've spent up a bunch of money and they've borrowed and they are up to hock to their necks, the thing they've got to do is start paying off what they owe and cut back their spending. — Mike Huckabee

If you go back to the first single-cell form of life, it clearly possessed the capacity to receive, to utilize, to store, to transform, and to transmit information. — Dee Hock

People are not "things" to be manipulated, labeled, boxed, bought, and sold. Above all else, they are not "human resources." They are entire human beings, containing the whole of the evolving universe, limitless until we start limiting them. We must examine the concept of leading and following with new eyes. We must examine the concept of superior and subordinate with increasing skepticism. We must examine the concept of management and labor with new beliefs. And we must examine the nature of organizations that demand such distinctions with an entirely different consciousness. — Dee Hock

Right is not this or that doctrine or opinion; right is rational discussion about shared experience between honorable people leading to mutual understanding and tolerance. — Dee Hock

Its funny how we can go from good friends for months to strangers for years and best friends for hours. Plastic world, realistic people. — Lik Hock Yap

Hire and promote first on the basis of integrity; second, motivation; third, capacity; fourth, understanding; fifth, knowledge; and last and least, experience. Without integrity, motivation is dangerous; without motivation, capacity is impotent; without capacity, understanding is limited; without understanding, knowledge is meaningless; without knowledge, experience is blind. Experience is easy to provide and quickly put to good use by people with all the other qualities. — Dee Hock

Do you know that i paid two dollars for [Doxocology] thirty-three years ago? Everything was wrong with him, hoofs like flapjacks, a hock so thick and short and straight there seems no joint at all. he's hammerheaded and swaybacked. He has a pinched chest and a big behind. He has an iron mouth and he still fights the upper. with a saddle he feels as thought you were riding a sled over a gravel pit. He can't trot and he stumbles over his feet when he walks. I have never in thirty-three years fond one good thing about him. He even has an ugly disposition. He is selfish and quarrelsome and mean and disobedient. to this day I don't dare walk behind him because he will surely take a kick at me. when I feed him mush he tries to bite my hand. And I love him. — John Steinbeck

Much of that which passes for conversation these days is the lobbing of small bombs of dogma and little clots of banality at one another. — Dee Hock

No one is as simple as they may seem to be. — Lik Hock Yap

I figure it's almost like a balance. We're eating these wonderful collard greens and turnip greens which are so medicinally good for you and, OK, so what if it has a little ham hock in it? — Paula Deen

Intent is in the composer, interpretation is in the conductor, rendering is in the instrumentalist, perception is in the listener, sound is in the notes, and rhythm is in the intervals. Music is the harmonious relationship between them all. Relationship is beauty. — Dee Hock

World peace in such a thin file?
The concept is easy. The execution is hard — Hock G. Tjoa

If a plethora of learning with a paucity of teaching is an approach to heaven and a plethora of teaching with a paucity of learning an approach to hell, the devil is hard at work in our educational systems. — Dee Hock

What we call originality is no more than ignorance of antecedents. — Dee Hock

Education that gives priority to measurement rather than values, to efficiency rather than conscience, to information rather than ethics, provides no barrier to barbarity and violence. The Holocaust was perpetrated by a society of the most disciplined, highly educated people on earth. — Dee Hock

We believe that a man does not have to be devoted to the winning side for his loyalty to be celebrated with reverence. — Hock G. Tjoa

Far better than a precise plan is a clear sense of direction and compelling beliefs. And that lies within you. The question is, how do you evoke it? — Dee Hock

If Satan were twins, one the Republican nominee for president, the other the nominee of the Democrats, and God ran as an independent, can there be any doubt who would come in last? — Dee Hock

The disgruntled are abundant among those who are idle, and to be idle is a matter of choice. — Dee Hock

The greatest writers have no purpose but to incite in the minds of each reader the highest and best thought of which they are capable. — Dee Hock

Throughout history, it took centuries for the habits of one culture to materially affect another. Now, that which becomes popular in one country can sweep through others within months. — Dee Hock

Heaven is purpose, principle, and people. Purgatory is paper and procedure. Hell is rules and regulations. — Dee Hock

It is not making better people of others that management is about. It's about making a better person of self. Income, power, and titles have nothing to do with that. — Dee Hock

Only an unimaginative man would think that mechanistic, command-and-control organizations could ever produce an equitable, enduring, free society. Only a thoughtless man would create them. Only an arrogant man would run them. Only a cruel man would perpetuate them. — Dee Hock

Nature is infinite innovation and beauty that never repeats itself. Only man-made artifacts are endlessly repetitious, which is a principal reason our lives are so boring, full of anxiety and devoid of meaning. — Dee Hock

Don't preach. Don't teach. Don't judge. Take a loved child by the hand and explore something fascinating together. — Dee Hock

Great thought, great achievement, and great love have this in common: all involve great risk. — Dee Hock

Knowledge is never in doubt. Wisdom is never certain. — Dee Hock

Karl Marx got a bum rap. All he was trying to do was figure out how to take care of a whole lot of people. Of course, socialism is just "evil" now. It's completely discredited, supposedly, by the collapse of the Soviet Union. I can't help noticing that my grandchildren are heavily in hock to communist China now, which is evidently a whole lot better at business than we are. You talk about the collapse of communism or the Soviet Union. My goodness, this country collapsed in 1929. I mean it crashed, big time, and capitalism looked like a very poor idea. — Kurt Vonnegut

It is essential to employ, trust, and reward those whose perspective, ability, and judgment are radically different from yours. It is also rare, for it requires uncommon humility, tolerance, and wisdom. — Dee Hock

Nothing can be more violent and merciless than a group of true believers, no matter what they choose to believe. — Dee Hock

We never fully understand what we have been told until we experience it. Learning not embedded in experience is forever crippled. Unfortunately, our present society is schooled, not educated. — Dee Hock

We are at that very point in time when a 400-year old age is rattling in its death bed and another is struggling to be born. — Dee Hock

He begged me not to be impatient - to moderate my transports - to read soothing books - to drink nothing stronger than Hock - and to bring the consolations of philosophy to my aid. The fool! if he could not come himself, why, in the name of every thing rational, could he not have enclosed me a letter of presentation? — Edgar Allan Poe

For every difficult destination, there are thousands who stand aside and point the way for each one with courage and capacity to go before and show the way. The former are managers; the latter are leaders. — Dee Hock

It won't do away with hierarchy totally, but the principal leader will be the person who most exemplifies the kind of organization and behavior required who is best able to create the conditions such organizations require. — Dee Hock

What is it you do for your family? Aside from trying to put it in your sister, I mean? — Greg Rucka

We don't have to remain in this radically destructive mind-set and institutional-set. We can change, and the natural order of things could emerge in all of our societal organizations-government, commerce, religion-it's right there, waiting to happen. I often tell people that every mind is like a room in an old house, stuffed with very old furniture. Take any space in your mind and empty it of your old conceptions and new ones will rush in, good or bad. So change is more a getting rid of rather than an adding to or an acquiring. — Dee Hock

The prudent course is to make an investment in learning, testing and understanding, determine how the new concepts compare to how you now operate and thoughtfully determine how they apply to what you want to achieve in the future. — Dee Hock

Certainty is the place where questions go to die. — Dee Hock

Reality cannot be captured by language - not even the language of mathematics - since all language, by its very nature, is man-made, self-referent ambiguity. — Dee Hock

Of course, socialism is just evil now. It's completely discredited supposedly by the collapse of the Soviet Union, but I can't help noticing that my grandchildren are heavily in hock to Communist China now which is evidently a whole lot better at business than we are. — Kurt Vonnegut

The humble one is the better one. — Lik Hock Yap

It is common to learn from experience what we already believe, then repeat the experience to prove what we believe we learned. The process was invented by religion and perfected by science. — Dee Hock

Good Hock (Hochheimer) keeps off the Doc. — Queen Victoria

As a parent, you may sometimes react in frustration, wanting to break his will or mete out some severe punishment in order to bring him down a notch and make him more docile. But even Father Hock back in the early 1930s recognized that much care must be taken not to cause the choleric to become hardened and embittered by harsh and punitive discipline: [B]y hard, proud treatment the choleric is not improved, but embittered and hardened; whereas even a very proud choleric can easily be influenced by reasonable suggestions and supernatural motives . . . it is absolutely necessary to remain calm and to allow the choleric to "cool off" and then to persuade him to accept guidance in order to correct his faults. . . .11 — Art Bennett

If you don't understand that you work for your mislabeled 'subordinates', then you know nothing of leadership. You know only tyranny. — Dee Hock

A man with a credit card is in hock to his own image of himself. — John D. MacDonald

It is beginning."
Pak Eng and Laughing Chan and Peter all look at Hock Seng with respect. "You were right."
Hock Seng nods impatiently. "I learn."
The storm is gathering. The megodonts must do battle. It is their fate. The power sharing of the last coup could never last. The beasts must clash and one will establish final dominance. Hock Seng murmurs a prayer to his ancestors that he will come out of this maelstrom alive. — Paolo Bacigalupi

Every mind is a room packed with archaic furniture. — Dee Hock

The ultimate profanity is to invoke any deity in support of death or destruction in any form, particularly war. — Dee Hock

An organization, no matter how well designed, is only as good as the people who live and work in it. — Dee Hock

Given the right circumstances, from no more than dreams, determination, and the liberty to try, quite ordinary people consistently do extraordinary things — Dee Hock

Someone somewhere may be one of the most important person to you currently but you will always be nothing more than a backup plan to them. — Lik Hock Yap

All things are transient. Buddha says it is so, and Hock Seng, who didn't believe in or care about karma or the truths of the dharma when he was young, has come in his old age to understand his grandmother's religion and its painful truths. Suffering is his lot. Attachment is the source of his suffering. And yet he cannot stop himself from saving and preparing and striving to preserve himself in this life which has turned out so poorly.
How is it that I sinned to earn this bitter fate? Saw my clan whittled by red machetes? Saw my businesses burned and my clipper ships sunk? He closes his eyes, forcing memories away. Regret is suffering. — Paolo Bacigalupi

Accomplishment is one part commitment, one part ability, one part persistence, and one part circumstance. Circumstance we cannot control. The rest we might. — Dee Hock

Just because all your friends are doing it, doesn't mean you have to follow suit. Don't be a blind follower, you don't know where you're going. — Lik Hock Yap

If there are spelling and grammatical errors, assume that the same level of attention to detail probably went into the gathering and reporting of the "facts" given on the site. — Randolph Hock

Community is composed of that which we don't attempt to measure, for which we keep no record and ask no recompense. Most are things we cannot measure no matter how hard we try. — Dee Hock

there wasn't a stove
and we put cans of beans
in hot water in the sink
to heat them
up
and we read the Sunday papers
on Monday
after digging them out of the
trash cans
but somehow we managed
money for wine
and the
rent
and the money came off
the streets
out of hock shops
out of nowhere
and all that mattered
was the next
bottle
and we drank and sang
and
fought
were in and out
of drunk
tanks
car crashes
hospitals
we barricaded ourselves
against the
police
and the other roomers
hated
us
and the desk clerk
of the hotel
feared
us
and it went on
and
on
and it was one of the
most wonderful times
of my
life.
-- Bumming with Jane — Charles Bukowski

Yes, I know.
Death sits with his key in my lock.
Not one day is taken for granted.
Even nursery rhymes have put me in hock. — Anne Sexton

The most abundant, least used, and most abused resource in the world is human spirit and ingenuity. — Dee Hock

I said that sometimes it is an esteemed author who puts one on the track of a buried book. "What! He liked that book?" you say to yourself, and immediately the barriers fall away and the mind becomes not only open and receptive but positively aflame. Often it happens that it is not a friend of similar tastes who revives one's interest in a dead book but a chance acquaintance. Sometimes this individual gives the impression of being a nitwit, and one wonders why he should retain the memory of a book which this person casually recommended, or perhaps did not recommend at all but merely mentioned in the course of conversation as being an "odd" book. In a vacant mood, at loose ends, as we say, suddenly the recollection of this conversation occurs, and we are ready to give the book a trial. Then comes a hock, the shock of discovery. — Henry Miller

Neither a gossip or a busybody, Mother Bo took a keen interest in the aches and pains of the entire village, and she was indefatigable. — Hock G. Tjoa

One needs to be beyond love and above humanity to wield power, or so I sometimes think. — Hock G. Tjoa

One of the more fascinating things about human behavior is the degree to which we conceive of countless boundaries that constrain and inhibit us in extraordinary ways, even though they are nothing but mental constructs that, in reality, do not exist. — Dee Hock

Just as bad money drives out good, the broad, deep, inclusive renaissance mind is being driven out by the narrow, specialized, technical mind. — Dee Hock

In hock to the excitements and commercial advantages of rage, the news cruelly ignores the project of consolation. — Alain De Botton

If we pay great attention to the meaning of each moment of our unique life, the meaning of life in general will attend to itself. — Dee Hock

If you think you can't, why think — Dee Hock

Of this we can be certain: at no time, in no place, and in no way is anything in the universe separate, independent, or unrelated. — Dee Hock

Matt Hock was the first person who showed me how much fun and how cool it can be to be a Christian, — Aaron Rodgers

Making good judgments when one has complete data, facts, and knowledge is not leadership - it's bookkeeping — Dee Hock

Lead yourself, lead your superiors, lead your peers, and free your people to do the same. All else is trivia. — Dee Hock

The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get old ones out. — Dee Hock

To put it another way, I believe that purpose and principle, clearly understood and articulated, and commonly shared, are the genetic code of any healthy organization. To the degree that you hold purpose and principles in common among you, you can dispense with command and control. People will know how to behave in accordance with them, and they'll do it in thousands of unimaginable, creative ways. The organization will become a vital, living set of beliefs. — Dee Hock

You learn nothing form your successes except to think too much of yourself. It is from failure that all growth comes, provided you can recognize it, admit it, learn from it, rise above it, and then try again. — Dee Hock

An illustration I use to get people to understand it is this: I'll ask major corporate audiences: Why don't you just take all your traditional beliefs about organizations, and apply them to the neurons in your brain? — Dee Hock

Nobody can tell about this California climate. One minit its hot and the next minit its cold, so a person never knows what to hock. — Anita Loos

Substance is enduring, form is ephemeral. — Dee Hock

Particularity and separability are infirmities of the mind, not characteristics of the universe. — Dee Hock

If you look to lead, invest at least 40% of your time managing yourself - your ethics, character, principles, purpose, motivation, and conduct. Invest at least 30% managing those with authority over you, and 15% managing your peers. — Dee Hock

Do you think to make man good by enacting more laws? — Hock G. Tjoa

Even the false accusations of a person of dubious morality can taint the reputation of an upright servant. — Hock G. Tjoa

from The Ninja and The Diplomat (coming in September 2015)--As an unintended but ineluctable consequence of the one child policy, he and his wife, like most of his generation and those succeeding, consisted of only children; hence his family included no aunts or uncles, no cousins, and no nieces or nephews. The Chinese family had lost an immeasurable dimension of richness. — Hock G. Tjoa

The reason is still difficult to explain, but it is not complicated. That inner voice that will not be denied, once we learn to listen to it, had whispered since the beginning, "Business is not what your life is about. Founding VISA and being its chief executive officer is something you must do, but it's only preparatory." — Dee Hock

The relational aspect of all things is the music that sets life and the universe dancing. — Dee Hock

The ultimate insanity is to so organize society that power, wealth, and information are concentrated in the hands of so few people that they have the power, for whatever reason, to put to death our species and the living earth as well. But so we have. — Dee Hock

There is nothing that dictates behavior more than what we want others to think of us. When that happens, we become a reflection in our own mind of what we believe is reflected in the mind of another, neither of which has the slightest chance of being correct. Talk about dogs chasing tails. — Dee Hock

Make an empty space in any corner of your mind, and creativity will instantly fill it. — Dee Hock

It is far too late and things are far too bad for pessimism. — Dee Hock

Children are easily taught, for they readily accept and believe lies told by their elders. — Dee Hock

Money motivates neither the best people, nor the best in people. It can move the body and influence the mind, but it cannot touch the heart or move the spirit; that is reserved for belief, principle, and morality. — Dee Hock

What will become compellingly important is absolute clarity of shared purpose and set of principles of conduct sort of institutional genetic code that every member of the organization understands in a common way, and with deep conviction. — Dee Hock

My personal life is a source of incredible happiness for me, but it's personal, and it's not for me to hock or shop around to the highest bidder. — Matt Bomer

Language was a huge expansion of that capacity to deal with information. — Dee Hock