28 quotes
A diverse community is a resilient community, capable of adapting to changing situations.
Partnership—the tendency to associate, establish links, live inside one another, and cooperate—is one of the hallmarks of life.
There is no self-awareness in ecosystems, no language, no consciousness, and no culture; and therefore no justice and democracy; but also no greed or dishonesty.
A page from a journal of modern experimental physics will be as mysterious to the uninitiated as a Tibetan mandala. Both are records of enquiries into the nature of the universe.
The Tao of Physics (1975)
Economics emphasizes competition, expansion, and domination; ecology emphasizes cooperation, conservation, and partnership.
Organizations need to undergo fundamental changes, both in order to adapt to the new business environment and to become ecologically sustainable.
The Hidden Connections (2002)
Mystics understand the roots of the Tao but not its branches; scientists understand its branches but not its roots. Science does not need mysticism and mysticism does not need science; but man needs both.
The Tao of Physics (1975)
For the modern physicists, then, Shiva's dance is the dance of subatomic matter.
Both the physicist and the mystic want to communicate their knowledge, and when they do so with words their statements are paradoxical and full of logical contradictions.
The Tao of Physics (1975)
One of the key insights of the systems approach has been the realization that the network is a pattern that is common to all life. Wherever we see life, we see networks.
The Hidden Connections (2002)
Whenever the essential nature of things is analysed by the intellect, it must seem absurd or paradoxical. This has always been recognized by the mystics, but has become a problem in science only very recently.
The Tao of Physics (1975)
Tektology was the first attempt in the history of science to arrive at a systematic formulation of the principles of organization operating in living and nonliving systems.
The mystic and the physicist arrive at the same conclusion; one starting from the inner realm, the other from the outer world. The harmony between their views confirms the ancient Indian wisdom that Brahman, the ultimate reality without, is identical to Atman, the reality within.
The Tao of Physics (1975)
The more we study the major problems of our time, the more we come to realise that they cannot be understood in isolation. They are systemic problems, which means that they are interconnected and interdependent.
p. 3; As cited in: Michael C. Jackson (2000)
We shall see how the two foundations of twentieth-century physics – quantum theory and relativity – both force us to see the world very much in the way a Hindu, Buddhist or Taoist sees it ....
The Tao of Physics (1975)
The term "paradigm," from the Greek paradeigma ("pattern"), was used by Kuhn to denote a conceptual framework shared by a community of scientists and providing them with model problems and solutions
Uncommon Wisdom (1988)
Lack of flexibility manifests itself as stress. ...stress will occur when one or more variables of the system are pushed to their extreme values, which induces increased rigidity throughout the system.
The influence of modern physics goes beyond technology. It extends to the realm of thought and culture where it has led to a deep revision in man's conception of the universe and his relation to it.
The Tao of Physics (1975)
At the subatomic level, matter does not exist with certainty at definite places, but rather shows "tendencies to exist," and atomic events do not occur with certainty at definite times and in definite ways, but rather show "tendencies to occur."
The Turning Point (1982)
Before the 1940s the terms "system" and "systems thinking" had been used by several scientists, but it was Bertalanffy's concepts of an open system and a general systems theory that established systems thinking as a major scientific movement