Donella H. Meadows

“a system must consist of three kinds of things: elements, interconnections, and a function or purpose.”

— Donella H. Meadows

“Managers do not solve problems, they manage messes.”

— Donella H. Meadows

“So, what is a system? A system is a set of things—people, cells, molecules, or whatever—interconnected in such a way that they…

— Donella H. Meadows

“You think that because you understand “one” that you must therefore understand “two” because one and one make two. But you forget…

— Donella H. Meadows

“Designing a system for intrinsic responsibility could mean, for example, requiring all towns or companies that emit wastewater into a stream to…

— Donella H. Meadows

“The systems-thinking lens allows us to reclaim our intuition about whole systems and • hone our abilities to understand parts, • see…

— Donella H. Meadows

“We can't impose our will on a system. We can listen to what the system tells us, and discover how its properties…

— Donella H. Meadows

“When we, system dynamicists, see a pattern persist in many parts of a system over long periods, we assume that it has…

— Donella H. Meadows

“People don't need enormous cars; they need admiration and respect. They don't need a constant stream of new clothes; they need to…

— Donella H. Meadows

“The difference between a sustainable society and a present-day economic recession is like the difference between stopping and automobile purposefully with the…

— Donella H. Meadows

“But rules for sustainability, like every workable social rule, would be put into place not to destroy freedoms, but to create freedoms…

— Donella H. Meadows

“When our small research group moved from MIT to Dartmouth College years ago, one of the Dartmouth engineering professors watched us in…

— Donella H. Meadows

“One of the strangest assumptions of present-day mental models is the idea that world of moderation must be a world of strict,…

— Donella H. Meadows

“This ancient Sufi story was told to teach a simple lesson but one that we often ignore: The behavior of a system…

— Donella H. Meadows

“Remember, always, that everything you know, and everything everyone knows, is only a model. Get your model out there where it can…

— Donella H. Meadows

“We see no reason why a sustainable world needs to leave anyone living in poverty. Quite the contrary, we think such a…

— Donella H. Meadows

“Model utility depends not on whether its driving scenarios are realistic (since no one can know that for sure), but on whether…

— Donella H. Meadows

“Because we bump into reinforcing loops so often, it is handy to know this shortcut: The time it takes for an exponentially…

— Donella H. Meadows