The Navy is a master plan designed by geniuses for execution by idiots. If you're not an idiot, but find yourself in the Navy, you can only operate well by pretending to be one.
Interpretation
This quote humorously critiques the Navy's complex operations, suggesting that navigating them can be frustratingly idiotic.
Herman Wouk's quote highlights the irony of military operations, suggesting that they are overly complex and not easily understood by those tasked with executing them. It implies that to succeed in such an environment, one may need to adopt a simplistic approach, humorously pointing out the absurdity of the situation and the challenges faced by service members.
In practice
During a speech about the challenges faced in the armed forces.
The Navy is a master plan designed by geniuses for execution by idiots. If you are not an idiot, but find yourself in the Navy, you can only operate well by pretending to be one. All the shortcuts and economies and common-sense changes that your native intelligence suggests to you are mistakes. Learn to quash them. Constantly ask yourself, "How would I do this if I were a fool?" Throttle down your mind to a crawl. Then you will never go wrong.
I learned about machinery, I learned how men behaved under pressure, and I learned about Americans.
Let us fill a cup and drink to that most noble, ridiculous, laughable, sublime figure in our lives... The Young Man Who Was. Let us drink to his dreams, for they were rainbow-colored; to his appetites, for they were strong; to his blunders, for they were huge; to his pains for they were sharp; to his time for it was brief; and to his end, for it was to become one of us.
The door available to everyone that can lead to happiness & success is the modest door of the public library. I found it to be so in my own life and work.
Every hour spent on the Caine was a great hour in all our lives-if you don't think so now you will later on, more and more.
War is a business in which a lot of people watch a few people get killed and are damn glad it wasn't them.
The audience today has heard every joke. They know every plot. They know where you're going before you even start. That's a tough audience to surprise, and a tough audience to write for. It's much more competitive now, because the audience is so much more - I want to say sophisticated.
OYSTER, n. A slimy, gobby shellfish which civilization gives men the hardihood to eat without removing its entrails! The shells are sometimes given to the poor.
No man goes before his time - unless the boss leaves early.
Murray sounds like a blindfolded man riding a unicycle on the rim of the pit of doom, the men actually facing the danger are all so taciturn that you might as well try interviewing the cars themselves.
A fit of laughter, which has been indulged to excess, almost always produces a violent reaction.
If men had to have babies, they would only ever have one each.
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