Knowledge of the human body depends upon knowledge of the whole man.
—Hippocrates on Medicine, 400 B.C.
The first question is whether there is a system.
—Francis Bacon, 1620
Without a system, it would be easy for elements to be omitted and for failure to step in.
—Johann Comenius, 1650
I speak of a system of government.
—Spinoza, Political Treatise, 1677
The center of the world system is unmovable.
—Newton, The System of the World, 1687
Observe how system into system runs ...
—Alexander Pope, 1734
In nature everything depends on everything else.
—Diderot, 1750
The principles of a system, which I shall explain and examine.
—Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, 1776
Star systems, part of still vaster systems.
—Kant, 1790
To catch a system by the tail is like catching a lizard—the whole truth escapes and leaves the tail in your hand.
—Turgenev, 1850
Naturalists arrange species, genera, and families into what is called a Natural System.
—Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1859
Problems that are created by our current level of thinking can't be solved on that same level of thinking.
—Albert Einstein, 1910
In the past, man was first; in the future, the system will be first.
—Frederick Taylor, The Principles of Scientific Management, 1911
Every system is inevitably incomplete: it will contain certain statements that cannot be proved within that system.
—Kurt Goedel, The Incompleteness Theorem, 1930
Systems are man-made organisms.
—Robert Gagne, 1962
Systematic: carrying out a design with thoroughness and regularity.
—Webster's Dictionary, 1982
A snowflake is itself a particular system.
—Paul Davies, The Edge of Infinity, 1990
Questioner: "I'm worried about the tail wagging the dog."
Systems Expert: "The tail is the dog."
—Anonymous