Paul Hawken Quotes

Industrial forces set in motion by steam and electricity have materially changed the structure of our civilization.

Corporatization is the descendant of industrialization.

The Industrial Revolution was another of those extraordinary jumps forward in the story of civilization.

The introduction of so powerful an agent as steam will make a great change in the situation of man.

The main occupation of society has changed from fighting to business, from military to industrial life.

A completely industrialized society is of no consequence to me.

...industrialisation took centuries, rather than decades

Nearly every country in the world is now becoming industrialized as rapidly as it can.

Towards the end of the eighteenth century the industrial-financial revolution began.

The world is poised on the cusp of an economic and cultural shift as dramatic as that of the Industrial Revolution.

There are the manufacturing multitudes of England; they must have work, and find markets for their work; if machines and the Black Country are ugly, famine would be uglier still.

Europe and North America, we are told, are less dependent on energy-intensive heavy industry than in the 1960s and 1970s. It seems we squeeze more GDP out of a barrel of oil than in those benighted days.

A system where self-employment and self-finance was typical gave way to a system of companies having various business freedoms and enabling institutions. This was the 'great transformation' on which historians and sociologists as well as business commentators were to write volumes.

With production alone as the goal, industry in North America was dominated by the assembly line, standardization for mass consumption.

The real conflict, if any exists, is between two industrial systems.

Good intentions can often lead to unintended consequences. It is hard to imagine a law intended for the workforce known to Henry Ford can serve the needs of a workplace shaped by the innovations of Bill Gates.

The industrial revolution that defined the first half of the 20 century marked the start of modern business, typified by high-volume, large-scale organizations. Mechanization created a culture of business derived from the capabilities and needs of the time.

Luddism is no longer with us, but today we seem to be overtaken by its opposite, the inevitability of technological change coupled with the blind belief in capitalism's ability to provide us with all we need.

The role of humans as the most important factor of production is bound to diminish in the same way that the role of the horse in agricultural production.

Cities have made the transition from industrial to service economies.

… post-industrial society

The industrial revolution turned time into a commodity.

Industrial Revolution

The market economy itself was not a product of violent action—of revolutions—but of a series of gradual peaceful changes. The implications of the term “industrial revolution” are utterly misleading.

We like to think of industrialization as being despicable. I don't really know what to make of it. There's something terribly brittle about it.