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Calculations Quotes

On the planning that precedes success or failure.

These calculations quotes open with a classic military observation: the general who wins makes many calculations before battle, while the losing general makes few. It's a natural pairing with Ability quotes on preparation and skill.

Arab leaders worry more about making money from the profits they get from oil and gas that they turn the other way when Lebanon is being destroyed right next to them. Their neighbours are being murdered, but they only make...

Quotes by Abu Bakar Bashir

The general who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses makes but few calculations beforehand.

Sun Tzu

When you do calculations using quantum mechanics, even when you are calculating something perfectly sensible like the energy of an atomic state, you get an answer that is infinite. This means you are wrong - but how do you deal...

Quotes by Steven Weinberg

I wish I could calculate my way to a bigger audience, but I don't think I'm smart enough. Actually, I don't think anyone is smart enough. Most calculations along those lines fail.

Quotes by Stephen McCauley

Ability Quotes

As soon, however, as capitalist competition has definitively established the equal rate of profit, that rate becomes the starting point for the calculations of the capitalists in the investment of capital in newly-created branches of production.

Quotes by Rudolf Hilferding

You know, there's a real irony in U.S. assistance programs. First of all, I think it's misnamed. We're not so much trying to help people as we're trying to help ourselves. So let's be clear about this. So these are...

Quotes by Richard Armitage

My actions to promote peace, the mediation missions which I carried out during many conflicts, which very often occurred between brothers of the same country, are not driven by any ulterior motives or any calculations based on personal ambitions.

Quotes by Omar Bongo

The tall building, concentrating man in one place more densely than ever before, similarly concentrates the dilemma of our public architecture at the end of the twentieth century: whether the new forms made possible by technology are doomed by the...

Quotes by Martin Filler

I don't know whether you have done your calculations but, about two or three years back, I did a first assessment of what the first successful device would be worth and it came out at about 300 trillion dollars.

Quotes by Martin Fleischmann

Anon Quotes

Laboratory experiments, field observations and atmospheric modeling calculations have now established that chemical reactions occurring on PSC particles play a central role in polar ozone depletion.

Quotes by Mario J. Molina

The brain's calculations do not require our conscious effort, only our attention and our openness to let the information through. Although the brain absorbs universes of information, little is admitted into normal consciousness.

Quotes by Marilyn Ferguson

I'd rather have a pencil and paper and do all my own calculations rather than rely on a machine. And I'll do most calculations in double digit multiples as quick as the machine.

Quotes by Lindsay Fox

Our political system seems to be proving itself almost incapable of dealing with what's been put before it. The decisions it is making, or fluffing, are so vital and yet are inevitably so compromised by the endless political calculations of...

Quotes by Laura Kuenssberg

I do not remember how it got into my head to make the first calculations related to rocket. It seems to me the first seeds were planted by famous fantaseour, J. Verne.

Quotes by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

Architecture Quotes

We have to choose between a global market driven only by calculations of short-term profit, and one which has a human face.

Quotes by Kofi Annan

To make Europe more effective is a worthwhile objective. To make Europe less important in your calculations is a big mistake.

Quotes by Gordon Brown

You really have to understand this isn't a business where you sit in the back room and do calculations - you have to be very concerned about employees and customers, because that's really what's going to bring you success.

Quotes by Fred DeLuca

There are many different kinds of radioactive waste and each has its own half-life so, just to be on the safe side and to simplify matters, I base my calculations on the worst one and that's plutonium.

Quotes by David R. Brower

I think of the brain as a computational device: It has a bunch of little components that perform calculations on some small aspect of the problem, and another part of the brain has to stitch it all together, like a...

Quotes by Daniel Levitin

Atmospheric Quotes

Life it is not just a series of calculations and a sum total of statistics, it's about experience, it's about participation, it is something more complex and more interesting than what is obvious.

Quotes by Daniel Libeskind

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the central idea behind these calculations quotes?
The opening quote sets the tone: "the general who wins the battle makes many calculations... the general who loses makes but few," framing careful preparation as the real difference between success and failure.
Why do people search for calculations quotes?
People search for these quotes when writing about strategy, preparation, or the limits of prediction, since the word 'calculations' covers both careful planning and moments where even careful planning falls short.
Is there a quote about the limits of calculation?
Yes, one admits wishing they could "calculate my way to a bigger audience," but doubts anyone is smart enough to actually manage it, adding that most calculations aimed at growing an audience end up failing regardless.
Does any quote connect calculations to physics?
Yes, one notes that calculating something as basic as the energy of an atomic state in quantum mechanics can yield an infinite result, illustrating how even rigorous scientific calculation can hit a wall.
Is there a quote about valuing an invention?
Yes, one recalls doing an early assessment of what a first successful device would be worth, arriving at a figure around 300 trillion, showing calculations applied to estimating the value of a scientific breakthrough. See also Anon quotes.

The theme extends into modern life, from admitting that audience growth can't be calculated to estimating a scientific breakthrough's worth at hundreds of trillions. For related technical themes, see Architecture quotes.