Ostrom Quotes & Sayings

all good books are bad! — Elinor Ostrom

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

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

As he demonstrated with 'Juno' and 'Up in the Air,' Reitman has an uncanny knack among contemporary directors for tapping into the zeitgeist in dramatically satisfying ways. — Lou Lumenick

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

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

We need a cost-effective, high-quality health care system, guaranteeing health care to all of our people as a right. — Hillary Clinton

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

Politics is developing more comedians than radio ever did. — Jimmy Durante

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

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

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

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

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 think Seneca is right: life feels longer the more you engage with it ... I should be loving sculpture! But I have not gone deeply into sculpture. Instead, having been utterly insensitive to sculpture, I fill the time that might have been usefully devoted to sculpture with things like drinking and staring into space. — Zadie Smith

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

Prayer is not a machine. It is not magic. It is not advice offered to God. Our act, when we pray, must not, any more than all our other acts, be separated from the continuous act of God Himself, in which alone all finite causes operate. — C.S. Lewis

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

I present Mr. and Mrs. Cole Bridge. You may kiss the bride." Father Callahan gave Cole a nod of approval.
Cole faced Kyle and wrapped her in his arms. He pulled her off her feet and closer to his face. Livia and Blake were the only ones close enough to hear Cole's private vows.
He kissed her once, gently and almost chastely. "For our past."
Cole kissed her again, just a breath of a kiss, lightly touching her lips. "For today."
The last kiss was deeper, but still maintained church decorum. It was the intimacy in his gaze that made the guests feel voyeuristic. "For the rest of our lives," he said softly as he set her back on her feet. — Debra Anastasia

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

We blended and look to what it has brought us.
I planted lilies on your grave. The rain is already splattering them with dripping dew.
May they last another hundred years, Gerard.
A hundred years of lilies. — Carmen Dominique Taxer

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

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

There seems to be a strange affectation in authors of appearing to have done everything by chance. — Samuel Johnson