“Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window.” Widely attributed visionmindset
“This is a political book... It has a political purpose: to strengthen the will to maintain freedom against the threat of its abandonment in favor of totalitarianism.” execution
“With Christianity, freedom and equality became the two basic concepts of Europe; they are themselves Europe.” execution
“[T]he Western European democracies... will be forced into totalitarianism unless they produce a noneconomic society striving for the freedom and equality of the individual.” execution
“No society can function as a society, unless it gives the individual member social status and function, and unless the decisive social power is legitimate.” mindset
“In the modern corporation the decisive power, that of the managers, is derived from no one but the managers themselves controlled by nobody and nothing and responsible to no one. It is in the most literal sense unfounded, unjustified, uncontrolled and irresponsible power.” leadership
“Unless the power of the corporation can be organized on an accepted principle of legitimacy, it will... be taken over by a Central government...” mindset
“We have only one alternative: either to build a functioning industrial society or see freedom itself disappear in anarchy and tyranny.” execution
“[T]he basic decisions are... about aims... what is desirable... the greater good or the lesser evil in the case of conflicting aims... what sacrifice we are willing to make for a certain achievement, and at what point the sacrifice outweighs the advantages.” mindset
“There can be no freedom if one man or one group of men... is assumed... inherently perfect or perfectible. Its claim to perfection or perfectibility is a claim to absolute rule.” execution
“If war production should remain the only way out of a long-term depression, industrial society would be reduced to the choice between suicide through total war or suicide through total depression.” riskproduct
“For if this country—or any other of the great powers—were to make its defense program a function of its domestic employment situation, it would become impossible to conduct a constructive and well-thought out foreign policy or to develop any lasting collaboration.” execution
“[C]ollaboration between... divergent systems is possible... only as long as both are stable. ...International security is ...based upon the internal political and social security of each of the Great Powers.” risk
“It is not enough for the economist in a free society to be a good economic craftsman; he must also think and act as a citizen.” mindset
“[I]n a free society each individual has a responsibility towards the beliefs of his society—a responsibility on which all the rights and duties of citizenship are founded.” execution
“The large industrial enterprise is... the representative institution of an industrial society. It determines the individual's view of his society.” mindset
“The major incentive to productivity and efficiency are social and moral rather than financial.” product
“There is only one valid definition of a business purpose: to create a customer.” innovationcustomers
“Free enterprise cannot be justified as being good for business. It can be justified only as being good for society.” mindset
“A man should never be appointed into a managerial position if his vision focuses on people's weaknesses rather than on their strengths.” leadershipvision
“The better a man is, the more mistakes will he make - for the more new things he will try. I would never promote a man into a top level job who had not made mistakes, and big ones at that. Otherwise he is sure to be mediocre.” failureriskinnovation
“It does not matter whether the worker wants responsibility or not, ...The enterprise must demand it of him.” execution
“The fundamental reality for every worker, from sweeper to executive vice-president, is the eight hours or so that he spends on the job. In our society of organizations, it is the job through which the great majority has access to achievement, to fulfillment, and to community.” mindset
“- A manager sets objectives - A manager organizes - A manager motivates and communicates - A manager, by establishing yardsticks, measures - A manager develops people.” leadership
“Capitalism is being attacked not because it is inefficient or misgoverned but because it is cynical. And indeed a society based on the assertion that private vices become public benefits cannot endure, no matter how impeccable its logic, no matter how great its benefits.” mindset
“The moment people talk of "implementing" instead of "doing," and of "finalizing" instead of "finishing," the organization is already running a fever.” executionleadership
“[T]hroughout the ages to be educated meant to be unproductive.... our word "school" - and its equivalent in all European languages - derives from a Greek word meaning "leisure.” product
“Tomorrow everybody - or practically everybody - will have had the education of the upper class of yesterday, and will expect equivalent opportunities. That is why we face the problem of making every kind of job meaningful and capable of satisfying every educated man.” mindset
“In book subjects a student can only do a student's work. All that can be measured is how well he learns, rather than how well he performs. All he can show is promise.” execution