Quotes About Pragmatism

The core hacker premise that 'code wins arguments' is just another way of saying that anything is worth trying, regardless of whether it is a conservative or liberal idea, and that whatever works is worth keeping.

Measures of policy are necessarily controlled by circumstances; and, consequently, what may be wise and expedient under certain circumstances might be eminently unwise and impolitic under different circumstances. To persist in acting in the same way under circumstances essentially different would be folly and obstinacy, and not consistency.

Wishful thinking is not sound public policy.

Let us take things as we find them: let us not attempt to distort them into what they are not... We cannot make facts. All our wishing cannot change them. We must use them.

For all of its well-deserved reputation for pragmatism, American popular culture frequently nurtures or at least tolerates preposterous views and theories. Witness the 9/11 'truthers' who, lacking any evidence whatsoever, claim that 9/11 was a Bush administration plot.

As a rule we disbelieve all the facts and theories for which we have no use.

You cannot run a business, or anything else, on a theory.

If you look at the approach Theresa May has taken to Brexit so far, she has the instincts of a Brexiteer but the cautious pragmatism of a remainer, which is where I think the British people are. She brings incredible resilience, and we have to allow her to get on and negotiate this deal.

Human intellect is mere smartness that ensures survival.

She thought: "They both see the truth of this war, but Ashley is willing to die about it and Rhett isn't. I think that shows Rhett's good sense.

believed in carnal love. To us, a book's words were holy, but the paper, cloth, cardboard, glue, thread, and ink that contained them were a mere vessel, and it was no sacrilege to treat them as wantonly as desire and pragmatism dictated. Hard use was a sign not of disrespect but of intimacy.

Remember, my dear, you are dealing with the world as it is, not as you believe, maybe rightly, that it ought to be.

Remember, my dear, you are dealing with the world as it is, not as you believe, maybe rightly, that it ought to be. There will be a great many things you can achieve not by attacking them but with a little patience and a modicum of flattery

Deep in my mind a thought did flash for a moment that one who commands must of necessity be wildly imperfect, boldly pragmatic, capable of compromises impossible for the truly wise and the truly good.

that one who commands must of necessity be wildly imperfect, boldly pragmatic, capable of compromises impossible for the truly wise and the truly good.

Let us take things as we find them: let us not attempt to distort them into what they are not. We cannot make facts. All our wishing cannot change them. We must use them.

I'm not deeply ideologically driven. I believe in good center-right politics.

solid midwestern pragmatism. Circle of life and all that.

I have a lot of courage. I'm a realist.

The huntsman of the Libyan desert, the discerning art collector, the tolerant intellectual, disappeared, and in their place Hadrian emerged as a model of Roman power responding to perceived threat with absolute ruthlessness. Generosity became irresolution, tolerance turned into suppression, pragmatism into punitively enforced proscription.

You have to deal with the world as it is and not as you want it to be

I think that we must find some way to get more common sense, more rationality, in our decisions and less emotion.

I like to be an optimist, but I like to be a realist, too.

I'm not sexist, I'm just a realist.