We must start with scientific fundamentals, and that means with…

We must start with scientific fundamentals, and that means with the data of experiments and not with assumed axioms predicated only upon the misleading nature of that which only superficially seems to be obvious. It is the consensus of great scientists that science is the attempt to set in order the facts of experience.

Sourced, Synergetics: Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking (1975)

Other Buckminster Fuller Quotes

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…
All of humanity now has the option to “make it” successfully and sustainably, by virtue of our having minds, discovering principles and being able to employ these principles to do more with less. - View Quote Details on All of humanity now has the option to “make it”…
I find the audiences very excited. But then they come and say to me, “Your optimism has brushed off on me. I didn’t know we had an option. I feel so much better.” They say, “Your optimism.” And I am not optimistic or pessimistic. I feel that optimism and pessimism are very unbalanced. I am a very hard engineer. I am a mechanic. I am a sailor. I am an air pilot. I don’t tell people I can get you across the ocean with my ship unless I know what I’m talking about. - View Quote Details on I find the audiences very excited. But then they come…
The question of integrity will get finer and finer and more delicate and more beautiful. - View Quote Details on The question of integrity will get finer and finer and…
on first priority / in design consideration / is the full realization / of individual potential / in order to reach the second derivative– / full realization for all individuals - View Quote Details on on first priority / in design consideration / is the…
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. - View Quote Details on Take the initiative. Go to work, and above all co-operate…
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…
I have to say, I think that we are in some kind of final examination as to whether human beings now, with this capability to acquire information and to communicate, whether we’re really qualified to take on the responsibility we’re designed to be entrusted with. And this is not a matter of an examination of the types of governments, nothing to do with politics, nothing to do with economic systems. It has to do with the individual. Does the individual have the courage to really go along with the truth? - View Quote Details on I have to say, I think that we are in…
“Those whom God hath joined together let no one put asunder.” To Anne Hewlett Fuller on this, our 63rd Wedding Anniversary and my 85 Birthday—July 12, 1980 - View Quote Details on “Those whom God hath joined together let no one put…
I do know that technologically humanity now has the opportunity, for the first time in its history, to operate our planet in such a manner as to support and accommodate all humanity at a substantially more advanced standard of living than any humans have ever experienced. - View Quote Details on I do know that technologically humanity now has the opportunity,…