The Quotation IndexThe trusted reference for quotations and the sources behind them
Tag Tag Adaptation
A fundamental rule in technology says that whatever can be done will be done.
Andrew S. Grove Only the Paranoid Survive · 1996

Quotes

“I think that to keep trying new solutions is the way to do everything.”

Richard Feynman · The Meaning of It All, 1998 · Primary source

“The person who is the star of a previous era is often the last one to adapt to change.”

Andrew S. Grove · Only the Paranoid Survive, 1996 · Primary source

“Nothing fails like success.”

Arnold J. Toynbee · A Study of History, 1934-1961 · Primary source

“Now civilizations, I believe, come to birth and proceed to grow by successfully responding to successive challenges. They break down and go to pieces if and when a challenge confronts them which they fail to meet.”

Arnold J. Toynbee · Civilization on Trial, 1948 · Primary source

“Life starts in the sea. There it attains to an extraordinary efficiency. The fishes give rise to types which are so successful (such for instance as the sharks) that they have lasted on unchanged until to-day. The path of ascending evolution did not however lie in this direction. In Evolution Dr. Inge’s aphorism is probably always right: ‘Nothing fails likes success.’ A creature which has become perfectly adapted to its environment, an animal whose whole capacity and vital force is concentrated and expended in succeeding here and now, has nothing left over with which to respond to any radical change. Age by age it becomes more perfectly economical in the way its entire resources meet exactly its current and customary opportunities. In the end it can do all that is necessary to survive without any conscious striving or unadapted movement. It can therefore beat all competitors in the special field but equally on the other hand should that field change it must become extinct. It is this success of efficiency which seems to account for the extinction of an enormous number of species. Climatic conditions altered. They had used up all their resources of vital energy in adapting to things as they were. Like unwise virgins they had no oil left over for further adaptations. They were committed, could not readjust and so they vanished.”

Gerald Heard · The Source of Civilization, 1935 · Primary source

“Any company that stays the same will be passed by very quickly.”

Bill Gates · Smithsonian Interview: Bill Gates, 1993 · Primary source

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”

Helen Keller · We Bereaved, 1929 · Primary source

“The old order won’t give way to the new without a phase of experimentation and chaos in between.”

Andrew S. Grove · High Output Management, 1983 · Primary source

“Biologists tell us that animal species which have adapted themselves too nicely to highly specialized environments are at a dead end and have no future in the evolutionary process.”

Arnold J. Toynbee · A Study of History, 1934-1961 · Primary source

“Success is the result of making many mistakes and learning from experience.”

Winston Churchill · You do your worst—and we will do our best, 1941 · Primary source

“Nature suffers nothing to remain in her kingdoms which cannot help itself.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Self-Reliance, 1841 · Primary source

“No man had ever a point of pride that was not injurious to him, so no man had ever a defect that was not somewhere made useful to him.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Compensation, 1841 · Primary source

“He was a killer, a thing that preyed, living on the things that lived, unaided, alone, by virtue of his own strength and prowess, surviving triumphantly in a hostile environment where only the strong survived.”

Jack London · The Call of the Wild, 1903 · Primary source

“In technology, whatever can be done will be done.”

Andrew S. Grove · Only the Paranoid Survive, 1996 · Primary source

“A bend in the road is not the end of the road… Unless you fail to make the turn.”

Helen Keller · No reliable source

“The Wild still lingered in him and the wolf in him merely slept.”

Jack London · White Fang, 1906 · Primary source

Related Tags

Self-reliance 49 Resilience 30 Experience 30 Independence 29 Perspective 21 Uncertainty 20 Nature 20 Persistence 19 Problem-solving 15 Opportunity 15 Technological change 12 Reflection 10 Experimentation 9 Self-knowledge 9 Complacency 8 Pride 7 Change 7 Survival 7 Preparedness 6 Innovation 6 Compensation 6 Organisational change 5 Specialisation 5 Mistakes 5 Personal agency 5 Happiness 5 Loss 5 Wilderness 5 Instinct 5 Challenge and response 4 Civilisations 4 Growth 4 Improvement 4 Setbacks 3 Disruption 2 Past success 2 Evolution 2 Flexibility 2 Competitive pressure 2 Iteration 2 Trial and error 2 Domestication 2 Transition 1 Technological possibility 1 Strategic renewal 1 Environmental change 1 Civilisational growth 1 Breakdown 1 Extinction 1 Business renewal 1 Technology industry 1 Limitations 1 Strength 1 Latent nature 1