E. F. Schumacher Quotes

If, however, economic ambitions are good servants, they are bad masters

After all, for mankind as a whole there are no exports. We did not start developing by obtaining foreign exchange from Mars or the moon. Mankind is a closed society.

True art is the intermediary between man's ordinary nature and his higher potentialities.

Opening a book in the middle of a chapter always made me feel like I was interrupting a group of strangers, wandering unannounced into their villages and apartments and taxis and slums.

Somehow I have managed to delay looking old. In reality I have good genes.

Talking to a therapist, I thought, was like taking your clothes off and then taking your skin off, and then having the other person say, "Would you mind opening up your rib cage so that we can start?

To describe an animal as a physico-chemical system of extreme complexityis no doubt perfectly correct, except that it misses out on the animalness of the animal.

The substance of man cannot be measured by Gross National Product.

The most striking thing about modern industry is that it requires so much and accomplishes so little.

Modern industry seems to be inefficient to a degree that surpasses one's enduring powers of imagination. Its inefficiency therefore remains unnoticed.

The heart of the matter, as I see it, is the stark fact that world poverty is primarily a problem of two million villages, and thus a problem of two thousand million villagers.

Obsession can be a great thing or it can also destroy lives.

Don't you hear people saying things you can't believe they're saying?

Boredom is why God invented books.

Believing in books is a lot like believing in God.

A drowning person doesn't rescue herself.

My mother says that some books are good no matter when you read them, and some are good at a particular moment; they come into your life at just the right time.

I had just wanted to be part of a story; I wanted to be a person who had a story to tell.

In football, I need full concentration even though I really enjoy it.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.

Depression is an illness, and no fault of the person who suffers from it

To say that life is nothing but a property of certain peculiar combinations of atoms is like saying that Shakespeare's Hamlet is nothing but a property of a peculiar combination of letters.

Maybe the things she loved most weren't meant to be permanent. Maybe the fact that they existed was enough.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger more complex and more violent. It takes a touch of genius-and a lot of courage-to move in the opposite direction.

I don't want to tell your story because you're a insensitive, self-centered moron. I've told a lot of stories about young people, and I always feel there's hope.

If you're lucky enough to be famous, then it's great if you can use your fame and the power your fame gives you to draw attention to things that really matter.