Hyman Rickover

Responsibility is a unique concept... You may share it with others, but your portion is not diminished. You may delegate it, but it is still with you... If responsibility is rightfully yours, no evasion, or ignorance or passing the blame can shift the burden to someone else. Unless you can point your finger at the man who is responsible when something goes wrong, then you have never had anyone really responsible.

Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous impatience. Once implemented they can be easily overturned or subverted through apathy or lack of follow-up, so a continuous effort is required.

Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous impatience.

What it takes to do a job will not be learned from management courses. It is principally a matter of experience, the proper attitude, and common sense — none of which can be taught in a classroom... Human experience shows that people, not organizations or management systems, get things done.

I believe it is the duty of each of us to act as if the fate of the world depended on him. Admittedly, one man by himself cannot do the job. However, one man can make a difference. We must live for the future of the human race, and not for our own comfort or success.

The Devil is in the details, but so is salvation.

When doing a job — any job — one must feel that he owns it, and act as though he will remain in that job forever.

All new ideas begin in a non-conforming mind that questions some tenet of the conventional wisdom.

Success teaches us nothing; only failure teaches.

The devil is in the details, and everything we do in the military is a detail.