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Assembly Line Quotes

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Assembly Line Quotes

“Henry Ford introduced the assembly line, which was efficient but also a highly controlling device. There was a problem with the assembly line. It’s so onerous that people dropped out. They couldn’t stand it. They had to hire almost a thousand workers to see if they could get one hundred to stay on.”

WorkCapitalismEfficiencyMonotonyAssembly LineControlling
Book:Consequences of Capitalism: Manufacturing Discontent and Resistance
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“They had chains which they fastened about the leg of the nearest hog, and the other end of the chain they hooked into one of the rings upon the wheel. So, as the wheel turned, a hog was suddenly jerked off his feet and borne aloft. At the same instant the ear was assailed by a most terrifying shriek; the visitors started in alarm, the women turned pale and shrank back. The shriek was followed by another, louder and yet more agonizing--for once started upon that journey, the hog never came back; at the top of the wheel he was shunted off upon a trolley and went sailing down the room. And meantime another was swung up, and then another, and another, until there was a double line of them, each dangling by a foot and kicking in frenzy--and squealing. The uproar was appalling, perilous to the ear-drums; one feared there was too much sound for the room to hold--that the walls must give way or the ceiling crack. There were high squeals and low squeals, grunts, and wails of agony; there would come a momentary lull, and then a fresh outburst, louder than ever, surging up to a deafening climax. It was too much for some of the visitors--the men would look at each other, laughing nervously, and the women would stand with hands clenched, and the blood rushing to their faces, and the tears starting in their eyes. Meantime, heedless of all these things, the men upon the floor were going about their work. Neither squeals of hogs nor tears of visitors made any difference to them; one by one they hooked up the hogs, and one by one with a swift stroke they slit their throats. There was a long line of hogs, with squeals and life-blood ebbing away together; until at last each started again, and vanished with a splash into a huge vat of boiling water. It was all so very businesslike that one watched it fascinated. It was pork-making by machinery, pork-making by applied mathematics. And yet somehow the most matter-of-fact person could not help thinking of the hogs; they were so innocent, they came so very trustingly; and they were so very human in their protests--and so perfectly within their rights! They had done nothing to deserve it; and it was adding insult to injury, as the thing was done here, swinging them up in this cold-blooded, impersonal way, without a pretence at apology, without the homage of a tear. Now and then a visitor wept, to be sure; but this slaughtering-machine ran on, visitors or no visitors. It was like some horrible crime committed in a dungeon, all unseen and unheeded, buried out of sight and of memory.”

PorkFactory FarmingAssembly LineMeat IndustrySlaughterhouse
Book:The Jungle
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“Rivera’s admiration for Stalin was equaled only by his admiration for Henry Ford. By the 1920s and ‘30s, nearly every industrial country in Europe and Latin America, as well as the Soviet Union, had adopted Ford’s engineering and manufacturing methods: his highly efficient assembly line to increase production and reduce the cost of automobiles, so that the working class could at least afford to own a car; his total control over all the manufacturing and production processes by concentrating them all in one place, from the gathering of raw materials to orchestrating the final assembly; and his integration, training, and absolute control of the workforce. Kahn, the architect of Ford’s factories, subsequently constructed hundreds of factories on the model of the Rouge complex in Dearborn, Michigan, which was the epicenter of Ford’s industrial acumen as well as a world-wide symbol of future technology. Such achievements led Rivera to regard Detroit’s industry as the means of transforming the proletariat to take the reins of economic production.”

EconomicsSocialismCommunismProductionStalinAssembly LineIndustrialismAutomobilesDiego RiveraHenry Ford
Author:Linda Downs
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“Network news accustoms audiences to assertion not argument. Over time, it reinforces the notion that politics is about visceral identification and apposition, not complex problems and their solutions. ... sound bites aren't very helpful. They can tell a voter what a candidate believes, but not why. And many issues are too complex to be freeze dried into a slogan and a smile. ... What's lost in a world in which everything's an ad? Perhaps the country that created the assembly line has simply found a more efficient way to do politics.”

WorldWayBelieveCountryProblemFoundPoliticsLostSoundLinesAudienceIssuesNewsSolutionsArgumentComplexesNotionCandidatesHelpfulVotersBitesAdsEfficientSlogansAssemblyAssertionFreezeIdentificationVisceralSound BitesAssembly LineComplex Problems
Author:Kathleen Hall Jamieson
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“Through its prohibition on birth control, the Church has suggested that the only right way to have children is through biological reproduction: a kind of forced labor culminating in the production of another soul for God. What kind of a God stands like Lee Iacocca at the end of an assembly line, driving his workers with a greedy 'More! More!' while the automobiles pile up in showrooms and on freeways and in used-car lots and finally junkyards, his only satisfaction the gross production figures at the end of every quarter?”

WayKindChildrenSoulEndsUsedGrowthChurchLinesCarFiguresBirthLaborWorkersSatisfactionProductionsDrivingQuartersRight WayGreedyGrossAutomobileAssemblyProhibitionReproductionBirth ControlFreewaysPopulation GrowthAssembly LineUsed CarJunkyardShowroom
Author:Nancy Mairs
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“The way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous 10,000…. Now our food is coming from enormous assembly lines where the animals and the workers are being abused, and the food has become much more dangerous in ways that are deliberately hidden from us. This isn’t just about what we’re eating. It’s about what we’re allowed to say. What we’re allowed to know.”

KnowsWayYearsLastsLinesAnimalDangerousChangedEatingWorkersEnormousAssemblyAssembly Line
Author:Eric Schlosser
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“And above all, above all, honest work must be rewarded by a fair and just tax system. The tax system today does not reward hard work: it penalizes it. Inherited or invested wealth frequently multiplies itself while paying no taxes at all. But wages on the assembly line or in farming the land, these hard-earned dollars are taxed to the very last penny.”

DoeHardTodayLastsLinesWealthLandHonestHard WorkTaxesFairsDollarsRewardsWorking ItWagesFarmingPenniesAssemblyAssembly LineTax SystemHonest Work
Author:George McGovern
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“One of the most intensely unlikeable figures of the twentieth century, fanatical anti-Semite, enemy of labour unions and proud recipient of medals from Nazi Germany, where Hitler held him in veneration, Henry Ford was also an employer who paid his workers more than his competitors, an innovator who pioneered the assembly line and a visionary whose part in the creation of the twentieth century was so great that Aldous Huxley, in his Brave New World, prefigured a society whose calendar was divided into BF and AF-Before Ford and After Ford.”

WorldLinesEnemyCenturyFiguresCreationProudPaidBraveUnionsWorkersGermanyLabourDividedNew WorldNaziCompetitorsMedalEmployersTwentieth CenturyVisionariesAssemblyCalendarsInnovatorsNazi GermanyVenerationBrave New WorldHuxleyAssembly Line
Author:Stephen Fry
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“[T]here's a good reason to stay pessimistic about deficits as far as the eye can see. It's called the 'news' media. Legislators who want to get re-elected will clearly want to avoid any spending decision that will create bad national publicity, and our news media, the manufacturers of bad national publicity, will send crying victims down the assembly line at the slightest thought of a social spending cut or freeze. Exhibit A is Sen. Jim Bunning.”

WantReasonEyeSocialLinesDecisionCuttingMediaCryNewsVictimSpendingDeficitPublicityAssemblyExhibitsFreezePessimisticLegislatorsNews MediaAssembly LineSpending CutsReason To Stay
Author:L. Brent Bozell, Jr.
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“I think in certain ways sex work has been romanticized. I can only speak from my experience, but what surprised me about escorting was how boring it mostly is. it seemed like an assembly line process of cleaning my apartment, dressing up, making awkward small talk, having mundane mechanical sex, making more awkward small talk, and then closing the door after them. There's also a lot of frustration and annoyance with it that I feel isn't discussed (a lot of flaky potential clients for instance.)”

ThinkingWayFeelsHas BeensI CanCertainSpeakSexProcessLinesDoorsBoringInstanceFrustrationAwkwardApartmentClientsCleaningDressingsClosingMundaneAssemblyDressing UpAnnoyanceSex WorkSmall TalkAssembly LineEscorting
Author:Marie Calloway
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“There is no one "root of all evil" in software development. Design is hard in many ways. People tend to underestimate the intellectual and practical difficulties involved in building a significant system involving software. It is not and will not be reduced to a simple mechanical "assembly line" process. Creativity, engineering principles, and evolutionary change are needed to create a satisfactory large system.”

PeopleWayHardEvilProcessLinesSimplePrinciplesCreativityDesignBuildingDevelopmentNeededInvolvedIntellectualRootsDifficultySignificantPracticalsSoftwareEngineeringUnderestimateAssemblyInvolvingSoftware DevelopmentAssembly Line
Author:Bjarne Stroustrup
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“Chanting doesn't stop you from being creative or productive. It actually helps you concentrate. I think this would make a great sketch for television: imagine all the workers on the Ford assembly line in Detroit, all of them chanting Hare Krishna Hare Krishna while bolting on the wheels. Now that would be wonderful. It might help out the auto industry, and probably there would be more decent cars too.”

ThinkingHelpingMightWould BeLinesCreativeImagineWonderfulCarTelevisionIndustryWorkersDecentWheelsProductiveBe CreativeAssemblyKrishnaDetroitHaresChantingAssembly LineAuto IndustryHare Krishna
Author:George Harrison
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“I'm not explaining this right. What happened was this. There were these beautiful feelings and loose little pleasures inside me. And this woman was something like an assembly line for my soul. I run these little pieces of myself through her and I come out complete. Now do you follow me?”

LittlesSoulFeelingsRunningBeautifulLinesPleasurePiecesHappenedMy SoulExplainingAssemblyFollow MeAssembly Line
Book:The Ballad of the Sad Café
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“You weren't an accident. You weren't mass produced. You aren't an assembly-line product. You were deliberately planned, specifically gifted, and lovingly positioned on the earth by the Master Craftsman.”

EarthSuccessLinesPositiveMastersProductsConfidenceMassEncouragementAccidentsSelf ConfidenceGiftedAssemblyCraftsmanDeliberationGod Has A PlanAssembly LineLife Is A Gift
Book:Let the Journey Begin: God's Roadmap for New Beginnings
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“I'm partly somebody else trying to fit in and say the right things and do the right thing and be in the right place and wear what everybody else is wearing. Sometimes I think we're all trying to be shadows of each other, trying to buy the same records and everything even if we don't like them. Kids are like robots, off an assembly line, and I don't want to be a robot!”

IfsThinkingWantTryingSometimesKidsLinesRecordsFitShadowRight ThingRobotsRight PlaceAssemblyAssembly LineTrying To Fit In
Author:Beatrice Sparks
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“Historical fact: People stopped being people in 1913. That was the year Henry Ford put his cars on rollers and made his workers adopt the speed of the assembly line. At first, workers rebelled. They quit in droves, unable to accustom their bodies to the new pace of the age. Since then, however, the adaptation has been passed down: we've all inherited it to some degree, so that we plug right into joy-sticks and remotes, to repetitive motions of a hundred kinds.”

PeopleYearsFirstsKindHas BeensMadeFactsBodyAgeJoyLinesCarDegreesHundredHistoricalSticksWorkersSpeedQuittingPaceAdaptationAssemblyPlugsRepetitiveAssembly LineHistorical Facts
Author:Jeffrey Eugenides
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“How lovely." The old lady sighed. "An office romance. I always wanted an office romance. Of course I never really had a job, which made the situation more challenging. Oh, I worked on an assembly line during World War II, but there weren't very many men around and as my husband was off serving his country, an office romance would have been unpatriotic, don't you think?--Mrs. Ford”

ThinkingMenWorldHas BeensMadeWarCountryWantedJobsRomanceCoursesChallengesLinesSituationHusbandOfficeLovelyWar Of The WorldsServingMy HusbandWorld War IiAssemblyOld LadyAssembly LineUnpatriotic
Book:Susan Mallery The Buchanan Series Complete Collection: Delicious\Irresistible\Sizzling\Tempting
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“We can say without exaggeration that the present national ambition of the United States is unemployment. People live for quitting time, for weekends, for vacations, and for retirement; moreover, this ambition seems to be classless, as true in the executive suites as on the assembly lines. One works not because the work is necessary, valuable, useful to a desirable end, or because one loves to do it, but only to be able to quit - a condition that a saner time would regard as infernal, a condemnation.”

PeopleEndsStatesSeemsAbleLinesUnitedUnited StatesConditionsAmbitionRegardValuableQuittingExecutivesRetirementWeekendVacationUnemploymentDesirableOne LoveAssemblyExaggerationCondemnationAssembly Line
Book:Bringing It to the Table: On Farming and Food
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“The world is not checking in with us to see what skills we've picked up, what idea we've concocted, what dreams we carry in our hearts. When a job opens, whether it's in the chorus line or on the assembly line, it goes to the person standing there. It goes to the eager beaver the boss sees when he looks up from his work: the pint-sized kid standing at the basketball court on the playground waiting for one of the older boys to head home. "Hey, kid, wanna play?"”

WorldBelieveLooksHeartPersonsIdeasPlayHomeDreamKidsJobsWaitingLinesBoysSkillsBasketballStandingCourtHeyLook UpBelieve In YourselfBossAssemblyChorusPlaygroundsStanding TherePintsBeaversAssembly LineBasketball CourtChorus LineEager Beaver
Book:Now, Let Me Tell You What I Really Think
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“We have always underestimated the cell...The entire cell can be viewed as a factory that contains an elaborate network of interlocking assembly lines, each of which is composed of a set of large protein machines...Why do we call [them] machines? Precisely because, like machines invented by humans to deal efficiently with the macroscopic world, these protein assemblies contain highly coordinated moving parts.”

WorldHumansMovingLinesDealsEvolutionMachinesCellsFactoriesAssemblyProteinUnderestimatedAssembly LineMoving Parts
Author:Bruce Alberts
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“There's two or three kids out there trying to make good music, and the rest of them sound like it's been strained through some kind of white toast or something. It all sounds just too neat and perfect, with no surprise to it at all. No story, no nothing. It's like building cars, like an assembly line. It doesn't sound like anything that came from a guitar.”

TryingKindTwoStoriesKidsThreeSoundLinesWhitePerfectCarBuildingSurpriseGuitarSongwritingAssemblyNeatToastsAssembly Line
Author:Merle Haggard
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“The bottom line is more tax money is going to be needed. Just how much will be the primary issue on the agenda when Congressional leaders meet with the President later today, Wednesday, May the 9th, 1990. And good morning, welcome to Today. It’s a Wednesday morning, a day when the budget picture, frankly, seems gloomier than ever. It now seems the time has come to pay the fiddler for our costly dance of the Reagan years.”

YearsMaySeemsTodayPresidentLinesPayLeaderMorningIssuesNeededTaxesBottomWelcomePrimariesBudgetsAgendasBottom LineWednesdayAssembly LineFiddlersWednesday Morning
Author:Bryant Gumbel
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“It's like these people are programmed by Karl Rove. What he wants is to have liberal critics ridicule Bush because he says 'nucular' and 'misunderestimate' and talks with a probably fake Texas accent and so on, because then can come back with the big propaganda apparatus saying, 'See, those elite liberals who run the world and are sitting around drinking French wine and eating quiche don't understand us ordinary guys'; regular guys like the guy working on the assembly line and George Bush, who is going back to his ranch to cut brush.”

PeopleWorldWantBigsRunningGuyLinesCuttingEatingOrdinarySittingWineDrinkingCriticsStupidityPropagandaFakeTexasElitesAccentsBrushesRidiculeAssemblySitting AroundAssembly LineFrench WineQuiche
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“There is nothing antithetical in American history, culture, or traditions to teamwork. Teams were important in America's history - wagon trains conquered the West, men working together on the assembly line in American industry conquered the world, a successful national strategy and a lot of teamwork put an American on the moon first (and thus fare, last). But American mythology extols only the individual...In America, halls of fame exist for almost every conceivable activity, but nowhere do Americans raise monuments in praise of teamwork.”

MenWorldFirstsImportantTogetherLastsAmericaCultureIndividualLinesSuccessfulTeamIndustryActivityFameMoonTraditionPraiseRaisesStrategyTrainWestMythologyWorking TogetherHallsTeamworkCollaborationAmerican HistoryMonumentAssemblyWagonsHall Of FameAssembly Line
Author:Lester Thurow
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