Paul Dickson Quotes

#1. The education needs in Silicon Valley versus rural Iowa versus Tennessee are very different.

Andy Ogle

#2. Allen's Law of Civilization: It is better for civilization to be going down the drain than to be coming up it.

Paul Dickson

#3. All real programs contain errors until proved otherwise which is impossible.

Paul Dickson

#4. In any decision situation, the amount of relevant information available is inversely proportional to the importance of the decision.

Paul Dickson

#5. Don't bite the hand that has your allowance in it.

Paul Dickson

#6. A system tends to grow in complexity instead of simplicity, until the resulting unreliability becomes intolerable.

Paul Dickson

#7. While I still did not know what self- actualization that sat on the top level of the pyramid meant, I could believe
that if I knew I would be able to say something positive about it as well in
my life.

Vann Chow

#8. Airplane Law, The: When the plane you are on is late, the plane you want to transfer to is on time.

Paul Dickson

#9. Abbott's Admonitions: (1) If you have to ask, you're not entitled to know. (2) If you don't like the answer, you shouldn't have asked the question.

Paul Dickson

#10. Albrecht's Law: Social innovations tend to the level of minimum tolerable well being.

Paul Dickson

#11. No experiment is ever a complete failure. It can always be used as a bad example.

Paul Dickson

#12. The great comfort of turning forty-nine is the realization that you are now too old to die young.

Paul Dickson

#13. Trials aren't meant to harm us but to make us more Christlike.

Andrea Boeshaar

#14. The odds are six to five that the light in the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an oncoming train.

Paul Dickson

#15. Advice, First Law of: The correct advice to give is the advice that is desired.

Paul Dickson

#16. Civilisation is hooped together, brought
Under a rule, under the semblance of peace
By manifold illusion ...

William Butler Yeats

#17. Accuracy, Rule of, Corollary: Provided, of course, that you know there is a problem.

Paul Dickson

#18. A businessman needs three umbrellas - one to leave at the office, one to leave at home, and one to leave on the train.

Paul Dickson

#19. What I like most about cigars is simply sitting and talking with other men ... Some of the best conversations I've ever had with men have been over a cigar.

James Belushi

#20. A clean tie attracts the soup of the day.

Paul Dickson

#21. The human hand is made complete by the addition of a baseball.

Paul Dickson

#22. May you look back on the past with as much pleasure as you look forward to the future.

Paul Dickson