General System Theory

Famous quotes containing the words general, system and/or theory:

    “Towards him they bend
    With awful reverence prone; and as a God
    Extoll him equal to the highest in Heav’n:
    Nor fail’d they to express how much they prais’d,
    That for the general safety he despis’d
    His own: for neither do the Spirits damn’d
    Loose all thir vertue; lest bad men should boast
    Thir specious deeds on earth, which glory excites,
    Or close ambition varnisht o’er with zeal.”
    —John Milton (1608–1674)

    “An avant-garde man is like an enemy inside a city he is bent on destroying, against which he rebels; for like any system of government, an established form of expression is also a form of oppression. The avant-garde man is the opponent of an existing system.”
    —Eugène Ionesco (b. 1912)

    “No one thinks anything silly is suitable when they are an adolescent. Such an enormous share of their own behavior is silly that they lose all proper perspective on silliness, like a baker who is nauseated by the sight of his own eclairs. This provides another good argument for the emerging theory that the best use of cryogenics is to freeze all human beings when they are between the ages of twelve and nineteen.”
    —Anna Quindlen (20th century)