Pragmatism Quotes

“Elegance is for tailors.”

“The public demands forecasts, and we must do the best we can with the means at hand.”

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”

“The first thing to do is to be a good animal.”

“As far as I was concerned, the problem was not to get an elegant programming language, but was to get a language that could be translated into efficient code.”

“Any landing you can walk away from is a good one.”

“We are not asked to subscribe to any utopia or to believe in a perfect world. We are asked to prevent a catastrophe.”

“If it's stupid but it works, it isn't stupid.”

“I've always believed that you have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time.”

“The purpose of foreign policy is not to provide an outlet for our own sentiments of hope or indignation; it is to shape real events in a real world.”

“We have to choose our battles.”

“One of the advantages of being a coward is that you're alive to tell the tale.”

“Alright, we waste him. No offense.”

“My object has not been to make a beautiful machine, but a thoroughly practical one.”

“Be approximately right rather than exactly wrong.”

“We weren't making art. We were making a living.”

“My advice to anybody who wants to get into this business is to have a good education to fall back on.”

“I do not care what you call it, so long as it has the power of knocking people insensible to pain.”

“We must distinguish between what is desirable and what is possible.”

“Never worry about theory as long as the machinery does what it's supposed to do.”