Douglass North Quotes

What is certain about the future is that even the best efforts to predict the conditions of future war will prove erroneous. What is important, however, is to not be so far off the mark that visions of the future run counter to the very nature of war and render American forces unable to adapt to unforeseen challenges.

It is the ability to make predictions about the future that is the crux of intelligence.

You can't really predict the future. All you can do is invent it.

Forecasting is very difficult, especially when it involves the future.

We certainly will prepare consciously and professionally, but still you cannot predict the future.

The future is going to require really smart people. What we think are crises today probably will be no big deal, and we have no idea what will really be crises in the future.

Futures thinking is hard work. Fortunately, you do get better at it with practice. It's worth the effort.

One of my few shortcomings is that I can't predict the future.

Forecasting our futures is built into our psyches because we will soon have to manage that future. We have no choice. No matter how often we fail, we can never stop trying.

Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future.

I have always been fascinated with those who try to look over the horizon and see things that are coming at us.

The further backward we look, the further forward we are likely to see.

I'm always good at seeing five, ten steps ahead. Like, really thinking ahead, you know? Reverse engineering, whatever it is, you know.

It's impossible for us to forecast what's going to happen ten years from now and make a decision today to say what we're going to do.

People often say that it is easier to predict the way things are going to be 10 to 20 years in the future than to predict how it is going to be 3 years from now.

I never quite trust futurists because I think they're kind of telling us what they think our future should be.

Foresight is not about predicting the future, it's about minimizing surprise.

We need to stop, and admit it: we have a prediction problem. We love to predict things—and we aren’t very good at it.

Forecasts may tell you a great deal about the forecaster; they tell you nothing about the future.

How hard it is to project oneself into the future. We are always prone to think of the conditions which are with us today as being permanent conditions.

It's like the more you know the more you know you don't know.

You can always speak with great authority on how well you played today, but never on how you'll play tomorrow.

Uncertainty is the prerequisite to gaining knowledge and frequently the result as well.

The more you know, the more you know you don't know and the more you know that you don't know.

The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.