Take the initiative. Go to work, and above all co-operate…

Take the initiative. Go to work, and above all co-operate and don’t hold back on one another or try to gain at the expense of another. Any success in such lopsidedness will be increasingly short-lived. These are the synergetic rules that evolution is employing and trying to make clear to us. They are not man-made laws. They are the infinitely accommodative laws of the intellectual integrity governing universe.

Sourced, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth (1963)

Other Buckminster Fuller Quotes

I think it’s absolutely touch-and-go whether we’re going to make it. But the point is, for me to tell you that you have an option is not to be optimistic… Time and again, of course I am running into millions who don’t know we have the option, because it’s invisible, and I feel I have tremendous responsibility. So when people ask me to come and talk to them, I do my best to let them know they do have the option. Of course they’re pessimistic, not knowing that. - View Quote Details on I think it’s absolutely touch-and-go whether we’re going to make…
Every time man makes a new experiment he always learns more. He cannot learn less. He may learn that what he thought was true was not true. By the elimination of a false premise, his basic capital wealth which in his given lifetime is disembarrassed of further preoccupation with considerations of how to employ a worthless time-consuming hypothesis. Freeing his time for its more effective exploratory investment is to give man increased wealth. - View Quote Details on Every time man makes a new experiment he always learns…
Humans have always unknowingly affected all Universe by every act and thought they articulate or even consider…. Realistic, comprehensively responsible, omni-system-considerate, unselfish thinking on the part of humans does absolutely affect human destiny. - View Quote Details on Humans have always unknowingly affected all Universe by every act…
Integrity of the individual is what we’re being judged for and if we are not passing that examination, we don’t really have the guts, we’ll blow ourselves up. It will be all over. I think it’s all the difference in the world. - View Quote Details on Integrity of the individual is what we’re being judged for…
Politicians are always realistically maneuvering for the next election. They are obsolete as fundamental problem-solvers. - View Quote Details on Politicians are always realistically maneuvering for the next election. They…
I never try to tell anybody else what to do, number one. And number two, I think that’s what the individual is all about. Each one of us has something to contribute. This really depends on each one doing their own thinking, but not following any kind of rule that I can give out, any command. We’re all on the frontier, we’re all in a great mystery — incredibly mysterious. Each one possesses exactly what each one is working out, and what each one works out relates to their particular set of circumstances of any one day, or any one place around the world. - View Quote Details on I never try to tell anybody else what to do,…
It is not for me to change you. The question is, how can I be of service to you without diminishing your degrees of freedom? - View Quote Details on It is not for me to change you. The question…
The courage to cooperate or initiate are based entirely on the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth as the divine mind within you tells you the truth is. It really does require a courage and a self-disciplining to go along with that truth. - View Quote Details on The courage to cooperate or initiate are based entirely on…
Synergy is the only word in our language which identifies the meaning for which it stands. Since the word is unknown to the average public, as I have already pointed out, it is not at all surprising that synergy has not been included in the economic accounting of our wealth transactions or in assessing our common wealth capabilities. - View Quote Details on Synergy is the only word in our language which identifies…
Dare to be naïve. - View Quote Details on Dare to be naïve.