Lewis D. Eigen Quotes

All policy is a matter of gains and losses, upsides and downsides.

Europe has a lot of problems when there are sudden decisions to take.

Countries are very reluctant to impose short term pain for long term gain.

Analysts can choose the problems that they want to study whereas the statesman’s problems are imposed on him.

In any decision for action, when you have to make up your mind what to do, there is always a 'should' involved, and this cannot be worked out from, 'If I do this, what will happen?' alone.

If people are going to do things which have certain consequences that they would rather avoid, they should do whatever they need to avoid the consequences.

If the political will is there, we can solve anything.

I tremendously enjoy getting involved in a troubled situation and straightening it out... My interest would be if there was a situation that came up, and I thought I could do something with and the price was right, I would be interested.

If we learned anything from the depression we will not allow ourselves to run around in new circles of futile discussion and debate, always postponing the day of decision.

We all have an obligation to move beyond anecdotes.

How can we decide matters of public policy when we cannot understand them?

Public policy must lead and not merely react.

To be a policy eunuch is just not a viable option in this day and age.

The earlier you start to solve a problem, the less draconian the solution needs to be.

It is axiomatic in politics that the earlier one addresses a problem, the more the alternatives and the easier the solutions.

Competing pressures tempt one to believe that an issue deferred is a problem avoided. More often it is a crisis invited.

The statesman must weigh the rewards of success against the penalties of failure. And he is permitted only one guess.

If I have written too polemically, it is only because of the passionate concern that we consider because it is too late whether we truly know what we are doing.

Unfortunately, this country requires body bags before it will act...

The resolution to avoid evil is seldom framed till the evil is so far advanced as to make avoidance impossible.

The costs of not doing these things dwarf the costs of doing them. The problem is that people don’t think about ‘Oh you saved my life’ and they don’t say thank you for that—and they don’t want to spend any money for the possibility of saving their life unless they are actually facing something. What government should be about is leading from the front and explaining … that people don’t want to spend any money, but … it costs more money to not do it... New York City’s average life expectancy is three years longer than any place else in America.

Denial is a not a long term strategy.

A great many decisions just can’t be made with confidence because the data just doesn’t exist …. [however] just because we don’t have the information doesn’t mean that we can’t get it.

To delay action until there Is one hundred percent certainty Is always to postpone political action forever.

Legislation is a matter of more or less intelligent improvisation aiming at palliating conditions by means of patchwork policies.