There comes a time when one must stop suggesting and evaluating new so — Robert E. Machol

"We have discovered in this past decade that thinking, and decision, are not solely the province of the metaphysicist, but are appropriate subjects for scientific inquiry."

"[Systems should be classified] on the basis of the types of inputs with which they must cope."

"Every large-scale system is an . The automatic factory, the vehicular-traffic system, any military system- in the design of all these systems, primary attention should be given to the flow of information about the elements of the system."

"If the assumptions are wrong, the conclusions arent likely to be very good."

"Scientists possess healthy skepticism. They realize that youve got to know the answer before you measure it."

"[This set of inputs [can be defined] as 1) input which is always the same or is of many types, 2) input which occurs periodically (or very infrequently), and 3) input which does or does not seek to destroy the system. Their rationale for developing the classification was to aid in the definition of steps to be followed in order to find the] solution of the problem of a large-scale or complex system."