R. James Breiding > Quotes

“Lack of entitlement drives small nation’s success: they expect to adapt to outside forces, so they do.”
― R. James Breiding, Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World

“The cost of conflict almost always outweigh the benefit of what is being fought over.”
― R. James Breiding, Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World

“A society where everybody is paddling the same boat at a decent pace will move quicker and more effortlessly than one with a few speedsters and many laggards.”
― R. James Breiding, Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World

“The absence of coal drove Switzerland’s early industrial pioneers to seek alternative power sources, and helped the country later to avoid two of capitalism’s greatest nemeses: organised labour and pollution. Where”
― R. James Breiding, Swiss Made: The Untold Story Behind Switzerland's Success

“Nations do not spontaneously organize themselves to achieve higher Human Development Index rankings or PISA scores, lower CO2 emissions. Food does not fall on their plates, clothes on their backs or roofs over their heads. Well being and progress towards it, is what begs a better explanation.”
― R. James Breiding, Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World

“At the same time, we face unprecedented problems such as pandemics, global warming, aging populations and information distortion caused by social media. These are common problems and thus require shared solutions.”
― R. James Breiding, Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World

“Johann Pestalozzi, a Swiss education reformer, once described teachers as ‘God’s chosen profession’. Teachers are well paid and revered in Swiss society.”
― R. James Breiding, Swiss Made: The Untold Story Behind Switzerland s Success

“The Swiss are known for caution and place great store in predictability, perhaps due to their roots in the mountains where life has always served up many contingencies.”
― R. James Breiding, Swiss Made: The Untold Story Behind Switzerland s Success

“only from their achievement can they earn respect.”
― R. James Breiding, Swiss Made: The Untold Story Behind Switzerland's Success

“Widespread distrust imposes a kind of tax on all forms of economic activity It constricts and raises the cost of transactions.”
― R. James Breiding, Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World

“The “where-to-be-born” index, published by the Economist Intelligence Unit, claims Switzerland is the best country to be born in. For good reasons. The country is ranked second in global competitiveness, first in patent filings per person, second in human development and first in trust in government. It does this with the seventh-highest share of renewable energy as a percentage of total energy.”
― R. James Breiding, Swiss Made: The Untold Story Behind Switzerland s Success

“Potent thinkers such as Einstein, Erasmus, Lenin, and Rousseau lived in Switzerland, but their views and talents were not especially appreciated. As in other countries, they are regarded with suspicion unless and until they prove their worth. But the opportunity has always been there.”
― R. James Breiding, Swiss Made: The Untold Story Behind Switzerland s Success

“the only way to climb the social ladder is through achievement,”
― R. James Breiding, Swiss Made: The Untold Story Behind Switzerland's Success

“In an increasingly knowledge-based world, the nations which can attract and hold the most knowledgeable workers will be the most successful.”
― R. James Breiding

“Switzerland is the closest to what Aristotle, Plato and Socrates had in mind when democracy was conceived. Americans proudly recite Lincoln’s famous democratic battle cry: ‘Government for the people, by the people and of the people, - but in fact this is a better description of the Swiss model.”
― R. James Breiding, Swiss Made: The Untold Story Behind Switzerland s Success

“Previously people worked only to get by and if there was a surplus at the end of their lives it was given to the Catholic Church so there was little need to accumulate wealth and little need for banks. The Protestant Reformation decreed for the first time that the accumulation of wealth was acceptable and a positive sign of hard work and the fulfilment of one’s duty.”
― R. James Breiding, Swiss Made: The Untold Story Behind Switzerland s Success

“The absence of coal drove Switzerland’s early industrial pioneers to seek alternative power sources, and helped the country later to avoid two of capitalism’s greatest nemeses: organised labour and pollution. Where there are mountains there is water, and Switzerland has both in abundance. The Alps capture water and accelerate its movement through countless arteries radiating from its highest points. Almost everywhere, from Aabach in the Zurich Oberland to the Rhine Falls near Neuhausen or”
― R. James Breiding, Swiss Made: The Untold Story Behind Switzerland's Success

“Success in smaller nations tend to be hidden because they lie off piste from the traditional corridor of information traffic stretching from Los Angeles, New York, London, Berlin, Shanghai and Tokyo.”
― R. James Breiding, Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World

“Given the predominance of bad news in the media arising from large nations, many might be surprised that some small, nimble, outperforming countries are doing exceptionally well. Nine of the top ten top ten positions in the United Nations Human Development Index are countries with populations of less than 20 million and seventeen of the top twenty. They took nine out of the top ten spots in IMD’s most recent Global Competitiveness Report. Nine of the ten happiest countries are small, successful nations.”
― R. James Breiding, Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World

“Much of the current debate focuses not on success but on failure. There is a shelf-load of books discussing flawed states such as ‘Why Nations Fail?’, ‘Is Democracy Dying?’ and ‘What’s Killing Liberalism?’. But as Harvard University’s Steven Pinker reminds us, ‘There are so many more ways for things to go wrong than to go right’, making success far more valuable to explain than failure.



Have we not heard enough about failure? After all, history shows that unlike lotteries, progress is usually a matter of finding something which works and reverse-engineering it.”
― R. James Breiding, Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World

“Unlike the top-down American, British, Chinese, and French, German, the Swiss are a bottom-up society.”
― R. James Breiding, Swiss Made: The Untold Story Behind Switzerland s Success

“There are around 740 medical technology manufacturers in Switzerland,”
― R. James Breiding, Swiss Made: The Untold Story Behind Switzerland's Success

“The Swiss were like peasants who went to the market shopping for a ‘social contract’ as though they were trying to buy the cheapest cabbage available. They gave up the least freedom in exchange for the least government”
― R. James Breiding, Swiss Made: The Untold Story Behind Switzerland s Success

“Singapore has found a way to provide cost-effective quality healthcare for its citizens with superior outcomes as 25% the cost of the US and 40% the cost of Europe. Israel has created a start-up ecosystem to rival Silicon Valley. Finland and Singapore consistently rank among the highest in PISA scores although their spending per pupil is among the lowest of OEDC nations. Zwolle, a town in the Netherlands, makes roads out of recycled plastic which are cheaper, last longer and are environmentally friendly. The Dutch pension system is the envy of the world. Swiss citizens passed a law to limit their congress’s ability to impose obligations on future generations, eliminating the moral hazard of elected officials engaging in “buy now, pay later” policy enactments. Ireland, once among the poorest nations in Europe now ranks among its most prosperous. Through its “Citizens Assemblies”, Petri dishes used to form political consensus at the ground level on sensitive matters such as abortion and gay marriage, it has morphed from one of the conservative societies to among the most liberal. New Zealand has just introduced ‘naked vegetables’, requiring produce in supermarkets to be sold without plastic packaging.”
― R. James Breiding, Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World

“measure twice and cut once.) Fourth,”
― R. James Breiding, Swiss Made: The Untold Story Behind Switzerland's Success

“Gaining sway over the world’s treasures is no longer a matter of giant armies and navies but of winning trade battles and global contests for professional talent.”
― R. James Breiding, Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World

“Education experts emphasise the importance of PISA scores; of reading and mathematics. It is also important how a nation educates its children to become good citizens. There is no measure for this, despite its immense value to a well-functioning democracy.

For centuries great thinkers such as David Hume and Adam Smith have argued that greed and self-interest drive economic progress. But new evidence show that citizens of smaller nations place less value on money for its own sake than their counterparts in larger nations.”
― R. James Breiding, Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World

“Who would argue against the simple Swiss moral formula that effort and enterprise should lead to reward, and indulgence and laziness should be shunned? Or against the old adage of ‘living within your means’? This may sound like a cliché, but it is rapidly taking on political sig[1]nificance as governments increasingly choose to live at the expense of future generations. Why can’t teachers be well paid and revered in other societies? Is greater self-reliance better than greater redistribution? Is less government better than more? Are there advantages in deciding issues rather than choosing politicians? Behind these questions are observations that go to the heart of the Swiss system and are available for any nation to consider or benchmark itself against.”
― R. James Breiding, Swiss Made: The Untold Story Behind Switzerland s Success

“New, experimental forms of multilateral organisations are required to come up with novel solutions. Traditional institutions driven by large nations are hamstrung due to: difficulties at home, heavy emphasis on self interest, unwieldy size and sclerotic bureaucracy.”
― R. James Breiding, Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World

“Colombo (in what is now Sri Lanka),”
― R. James Breiding, Swiss Made: The Untold Story Behind Switzerland's Success