Quotes by Alvin Toffler

“The Law of Raspberry Jam: the wider any culture is spread, the thinner it gets.”

“The next major explosion is going to be when genetics and computers come together. Im talking about an organic computer - about biological substances that can function like a semiconductor.”

“A physicist is an atoms way of knowing about atoms.”

“You simply *must* stop taking advice from other people.”

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

“Knowledge is the most democratic source of power.”

“The illiterate of the future will not be the person who cannot read. It will be the person who does not know how to learn.”

“One of the definitions of sanity is the ability to tell real from unreal. Soon well need a new definition.”

“The future arrives too soon and in the wrong order”

“Most managers were trained to be the thing they most despise -- bureaucrats.”

“Change is not merely necessary to life – it is life.”

“To think that the new economy is over is like somebody in London in 1830 saying the entire industrial revolution is over because some textile manufacturers in Manchester went broke.”

The secret message communicated to most young people today by the society around them is that they are not needed, that the society will run itself quite nicely until they - at some distant point in the future - will take over the reigns. Yet the fact is that the society is not running itself nicely... because the rest of us need all the energy, brains, imagination and talent that young people can bring to bear down on our difficulties. For society to attempt to solve its desperate problems without the full participation of even very young people is imbecile.

Science fiction is held in low regard as a branch of literature, and perhaps it deserves this critical contempt. But if we view it as a kind of sociology of the future, rather than as literature, science fiction has immense value as a mind-stretching force for the creation of the habit of anticipation. Our children should be studying Arthur C. Clarke, William Tenn, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury and Robert Sheckley, not because these writers can tell them about rocket ships and time machines but, more important, because they can lead young minds through an imaginative exploration of the jungle of political, social, psychological, and ethical issues that will confront these children as adults.

You’ve got to think about big things while you’re doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.

Parenthood remains the greatest single preserve of the amateur.

Youve got to think about big things while youre doing small things so that all the small things go in the right direction.

To think that the new economy is over is like somebody in London in 1830 saying the entire industrial revolution is over because some textile manufacturers in Manchester went broke.

The next major explosion is going to be when genetics and computers come together. Im talking about an organic computer - about biological substances that can function like a semiconductor.

You can use all the quantitative data you can get, but you still have to distrust it and use your own intelligence and judgment.