E. F. Schumacher
E. F. Schumacher
Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacherwas an internationally influential economic thinker, statistician and economist in Britain, serving as Chief Economic Advisor to the UK National Coal Board for two decades. His ideas became popularised in much of the English-speaking world during the 1970s. He is best known for his critique of Western economies and his proposals for human-scale, decentralised and appropriate technologies...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionEconomist
Date of Birth16 August 1911
E. F. Schumacher quotes about
worthwhile-things pay impossible
The richer a society, the more impossible it becomes to do worthwhile things without immediate pay-off.
courage growth world
Infinite growth of material consumption in a finite world is an impossibility.
choices world tasks
Our task - and the task of all education - is to understand the present world, the world in which we live and make our choices.
intelligent simplicity genius
Any intelligent fool can invent further complications, but it takes a genius to retain, or recapture, simplicity.
people attention goods
An entirely new system of thought is needed, a system based on attention to people, and not primarily attention to goods. . . .
generosity incredibles
There is incredible generosity in the potentialities of Nature. We only have to discover how to utilize them.
silence soul humanity
That soul-destroying, meaningless, mechanical, moronic work is an insult to human nature which must necessarily and inevitably produce either escapism or aggression, and that no amount of 'bread and circuses' can compensate for the damage done-these are facts which are neither denied nor acknowledged but are met with an unbreakable conspiracy of silence-because to deny them would be too obviously absurd and to acknowledge them would condemn the central preoccupation of modern society as a crime against humanity.
thinking forever insane
Anyone who thinks consumption can expand forever on a finite planet is either insane or an economist.
organization discipline people
Development does not start with goods; it starts with people and their education, organization, and discipline. Without these three, all resources remain latent, untapped, potential.
beautiful technology demand
Wisdom demands a new orientation of science and technology toward the organic, the gentle, the elegant and beautiful.
inspirational motivational courage
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.
technology men self
The system of nature, of which man is a part, tends to be self-balancing, self-adjusting, self-cleansing. Not so with technology.