E. F. Schumacher

If I limit myself to knowledge that I consider true beyond doubt, I minimize the risk of error but I maximize, at…

— E. F. Schumacher

There is no economic problem and, in a sense, there never has been.

— E. F. Schumacher

The way in which we experience and interpret the world obviously depends very much indeed on the kind of ideas that fill…

— E. F. Schumacher

Never let an inventor run a company. You can never get him to stop tinkering and bring something to market

— E. F. Schumacher

The system of nature, of which man is a part, tends to be self-balancing, self-adjusting, self-cleansing. Not so with technology.

— E. F. Schumacher

From the point of view of the employer, it is in any case simply an item of cost, to be reduced to…

— E. F. Schumacher

The purpose of work is to give people a chance to utilize and develop their faculties; to enable them to overcome their…

— E. F. Schumacher

An ounce of practice is generally worth more than a ton of theory.

— E. F. Schumacher

There are poor societies which have too little; but where is the rich society that says: 'Halt! We have enough'? There is…

— E. F. Schumacher

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

— E. F. Schumacher

Anyone who thinks consumption can expand forever on a finite planet is either insane or an economist.

— E. F. Schumacher

From a Buddhist point of view, this is standing the truth on its head by considering goods as more important than people…

— E. F. Schumacher

Development does not start with goods; it starts with people and their education, organization, and discipline. Without these three, all resources remain…

— E. F. Schumacher

The key words of violent economics are urbanization, industrialization, centralization, efficiency, quantity, speed. . . . The problem of evolving a nonviolent…

— E. F. Schumacher

A way of life that ever more rapidly depletes the power of the Earth to sustain it and piles up ever more…

— E. F. Schumacher

The best aid to give is intellectual aid, a gift of useful knowledge. A gift of knowledge is infinitely preferable to a…

— E. F. Schumacher

Anything that we can destroy, but are unable to make is, in a sense, sacred, and all our 'explanations' of it do…

— E. F. Schumacher

That soul-destroying, meaningless, mechanical, moronic work is an insult to human nature which must necessarily and inevitably produce either escapism or aggression,…

— E. F. Schumacher

The most striking thing about modern industry is that it requires so much and accomplishes so little.

— E. F. Schumacher

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

— E. F. Schumacher

I think I should not go far wrong if I asserted that the amount of genuine leisure available in a society is…

— E. F. Schumacher

No degree of prosperity could justify the accumulation of large amounts of highly toxic substances which nobody knows how to make safe…

— E. F. Schumacher

By means of trees, wildlife could be conserved, pollution decreased, and the beauty of our landscapes enhanced. This is the way, or…

— E. F. Schumacher

We must do what we conceive to be the right thing, and not bother our heads or burden our souls with whether…

— E. F. Schumacher

There are three things healthy people most need to do - to be creatively productive, to render service, and to act in…

— E. F. Schumacher