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How can we design improvement in large systems without understanding the whole system, and if we the answer is that we cannot, how is it possible to understand the whole system?

— C. West Churchman The Systems Approach (1968)

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More quotes by C. West Churchman

The systems approach goes on to discovering that every world-view is terribly restricted.

C. West Churchman (1970)

A systems approach begins when first you see the world through the eyes of another.

The Systems Approach (1968)

If the story of my early years with Russ sound like they were years of battle, then the sound is correct.

The problem of systems improvement is the problem of the 'ethics of the whole system'.

The Systems Approach (1968)

Enemies are hostile, out to stop you, to eliminate you and your ideas; they are also to be loved, even as yourself.

The Systems Approach and Its Enemies (1979)

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Attribution

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