Quotes from Herbert A. Simon

We invented a computer program capable of thinking non-numerically, and thereby solved and venerable mind/body problem, explaining how a system composed of matter can have the properties of mind. Opening the way to automate tasks that had previously required human intelligence.

We invented a whole new class of computer programming languages known as list processing languages. The basic idea is that whenever a piece of information is stored in memory, additional information should be stored with it telling where to find the next associated piece of information.

Money does not guarantee excellence. Although university salaries and faculty quality are correlated, the correlation is far from perfect.

If you examine the list of Fellows of the Econometrics Society in 1954 you will find the names of 20 of the first 27 prizewinners. I was a duly certified member of the Econometric Mafia...Without that accreditation, I suspect I would not have won the prize.

If science is to encompass these objects and phenomena in which human purpose as well as natural law are embodied, it must have means for relating these two disparate components. The character of these means and their implications for certain areas of knowledge economics, psychology, and design in particular are the central concern of this book.

We are all Expressionists part of the time. Sometimes we just want to scream loudly at injustice, or to stand up and be counted. These are noble motives, but any serious revolutionist must often deprive himself of the pleasures of self-expression. He must judge his actions by their ultimate effects on institutions.

it may be comforting to recall that detailed longitudinal analysis of the behavior of a single solar system was the foundation stone for Kepler's laws, and ultimately Newton's.

The world is vast, beautiful, and fascinating, even awe-inspiring - but impersonal. It demands nothing of me, and allows me to demand nothing of it.

I like to think that since I was about 19, I have studied human decision-making and problem-solving.

Viewed as a geometric figure, the ant's path is irregular, complex, and hard to describe.

When computers came along, I felt for the first time that I had the proper tools for the kind of theoretical work I wanted to do. So I moved over to that, and that got me into psychology.