To organize work in such a manner that it becomes meaningless, boring, stultifying, or nerve-racking for the worker would be little short of criminal; it would indicate a greater concern with goods than with people, an evil lack of compassion and a soul-destroying degree of attachment to the most primitive side of this worldly existence.

Our intentions tend to be much more real to us than our actions, and this can lead to a great deal of misunderstanding with other people, to whom our actions tend to be much more real than our intentions.

The most striking about modern industry is that it requires so much and accomplishes so little. Modern industry seems to be inefficient to a degree that surpasses one's ordinary powers of imagination. Its inefficiency therefore remains unnoticed.

Study how a society uses its land, and you can come to pretty reliable conclusions as to what its future will be.

The richer a society, the more impossible it becomes to do worthwhile things without immediate pay-off.

It might be said that it is the ideal of the employer to have production without employees and the ideal of the employee is to have income without work.

An entirely new system of thought is needed, a system based on attention to people, and not primarily attention to goods. . . .