Kevin de Leon Quotes

I'm tired of high policy talks. I want to focus on nuts and bolts.

How empty is theory in the presence of fact!

The test is can you do something, rather than have a theoretical argument - can you make a difference?

Basic research is very useful, but it should be more geared toward application than it was before.

The brightest flashes in the world of thought are incomplete until they have been proven to have their counterparts in the world of fact.

Nothing shows up the difference between the things said or read, so much as the daily experience of it.

I was always a data guy, not a theorist. Theorists can maintain total purity. The data are always messy.

Practical knowledge of what works and what doesn't work is much better. Theoretical knowledge is important, but I think practical knowledge works better.

In the late 60s, 70s and possibly early 80s, social scientists were interested in researching the diffusion of innovation and studying the link between applied research and policy and program development. Recently there has been less interest in these issues and we feel that this interest must be rekindled.

In England, more than in any other country, science is felt rather than thought. ... A defect of the English is their almost complete lack of systematic thinking. Science to them consists of a number of successful raids into the unknown.

Knowledge must come through action. You can have no test which is not fanciful, save by trial.

One ounce of practice is worth a thousand pounds of theory.

A man who is all theory is like "a rudderless ship on a shoreless sea." ... Theories and speculations may be indulged in with safety only as long as they are based on facts that we can go back to at all times and know that we are on solid ground.

There's always a tension in my world between the pragmatic and the practical and the theoretical. I have a very theoretical turn of mind, but I also like to test things in place.

Teaching is all armchair. I learn about writing by writing and thinking about what I've written and throwing it away.

Let experience solve it. To listen to mere speculation in such a case were criminal.

You know, there are certain things that make for good sound bites but don't always translate into good policy.

There's a very big difference between campaigning and governing.

Nothing speaks like results. If you want to build the kind of credibility that connects with people, then deliver results before you deliver a message. Get out and do what you advise others to do. Communicate from experience.

I don't think in national categories. For me it [policy] is about concepts and substance.

Theory can leave questions unanswered, but practice has to come up with something.

If the Sharia was to be implemented elsewhere, and, as part of its foreign policy, it would remove the operators in the way of preventing the Sharia.

I think when you're running for president, especially someone that's never held elected office, there's one set of things that you may view the world through - a lens that you may view the world through. Then, you get elected and you get good people. And those good people bring you the facts. And they bring you, "Here's what's going on. Here are our options. Here's what happens if you do this. Here's what happens when you do that." And that reality begins to assert itself. And you have to react to that. You're now the president. You're no longer a candidate.

To be impacted. Then, once a policy is determined, you call on them to help.

Foreign policy is conducted for the convenience and enjoyment of people in Washington.