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Starting with the behavior of the system forces you to focus on facts, not theories. It keeps you from falling too quickly into your own beliefs or misconceptions, or those of others.

— Donella Meadows Dancing with Systems: What to do when systems resist change (2001)

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More quotes by Donella Meadows

Models can easily become so complex that they are impenetrable, unexaminable, and virtually unalterable.

Meadows (1980)

The bounded rationality of each actor in a system may not lead to decisions that further the welfare of the system as a whole.

Thinking in Systems: A Primer (2008)

If you want to understand the deepest malfunctions of systems, pay attention to the rules and to who has power over them.

Thinking in Systems: A Primer (2008)

Dynamic systems studies usually are not designed to predict what will happen. Rather, they're designed to explore what would happen, if a number of driving factors unfold in a range of different ways.

Thinking in Systems: A Primer (2008)

Calculating how much carbon is absorbed by which forests and farms is a tricky task, especially when politicians do it.

Meadows (2000)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Donella Meadows (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.