Dee Hock Quotes

Preserve substance; modify form; know the difference.

The thing is, we've changed our style but we've never changed the actual roots of what we've done.

Success follows those adept at preserving the substance of the past by clothing it in the forms of the future.

I'm not sure I want to preserve the old ways just for the sake of saying, 'I don't believe in change.'

Fashion will last forever. It will exist always. It will exist in its own way in each era. I live in the moment. It's interesting to know the old methods. But you have to live in the present moment.

Tradition simply means that we need to end what began well and continue what is worth continuing

There is no new world that you make without the old world.

Old and new make the warp and woof of every moment. There is no thread that is not a twist of these two strands.

I adore tradition. I cannot stand habit. Simply to repeat is nothing, also to destroy is nothing. Tradition is never interrupted, we are always evolving but never interrupted.

Old ways will always remain unless some one invents a new way and then lives and dies for it

Hold fast to the best of the past and move fast to the best of the future.

The key to Zeppelin's longevity has been change.

I have to change to stay the same.

Nothing is permanent but change.

This, milord, is my family's axe. We have owned it for almost nine hundred years, see. Of course, sometimes it needed a new blade. And sometimes it has required a new handle, new designs on the metalwork, a little refreshing of the ornamentation . . . but is this not the nine hundred-year-old axe of my family? And because it has changed gently over time, it is still a pretty good axe, y'know. Pretty good.

To continue in one path is to go backward.

Our philosophy is about reaching back to move forward. We have something different to say with a sensibility that is both old and new.

Success always obsoletes the very behavior that achieved it.

All failure is failure to adapt, all success is successful adaptation.

Never accept or be too comfortable with the status quo, because the companies that get into trouble are historically the ones that aren't able to adapt to change and respond quickly enough.

If a thing is old, it is a sign that it was fit to live. The guarantee of continuity is quality.

If we fix on the old, we get stuck.

I think it's important that you always transform if you can. That's what I was trained to do. You try and hide yourself as much as you can - that's the key to longevity.

Out of limitations, new forms emerge

Whatever worked in the past, build on it; whatever didn't work in the past, break the chain that binds you to it.