Kent Conrad Quotes

One of the reasons that I was so successful at OMB was that I was very good at gaming the system.

Wit must be foiled by wit: cut a diamond with a diamond.

We want to be sure that it is more profitable to play by the rules than it is to game the system.

To get past a rival you have to be smart.

All children have creative power.

Whoever can surprise well must conquer.

Rules and models destroy genius and art.

Find out what the other team wants to do. Then take it away from them.

The minute the law is devised, its evasion is contrived.

Rules are mostly made to be broken and are too often for the lazy to hide behind.

The only way for a man to get ahead is to run faster than the fellow in front of him.

We have a massive system to regulate creativity. A massive system of lawyers regulating creativity as copyright law has expanded in unrecognizable forms, going from a regulation of publishing to a regulation of copying. Law and technology produce, together, a kind of regulation of creativity we've not seen before.

Creativity and innovation always builds on the past. The past always tries to control the creativity that builds upon it. Free societies enable the future by limiting this power of the past. Ours is less and less a free society.

The law is like a string, fixed at both ends but with a great deal of play in it — very loose, the line of the law — so you can stretch it this way or that, rearrange the arc of it so you are nearly always — short of blatant theft or cold-blooded murder — safely on the right side. That's a daunting thing to realize but true.

Any fool can make a rule And any fool will mind it.

By God, we’ve got to get rid of the lawyers.

The NSA has shown, time and time again, it will seize on any wiggle room in the law .

We needed to be uncompromising [with our workforce], to expect 100 percent of our employees to comply 100 percent of the time with complex and ever-changing government mandates. Striving to comply with every law does not mean agreeing with every law. But, even when faced with laws we think are counter-productive, we must first comply. Only then, from a credible position, can we enter into a dialogue with regulatory agencies to demonstrate alternatives that are more beneficial. If these efforts fail, we can then join with others in using education and/or political efforts to change the law

Laws can be evaded and punishment escaped, but an openly transgressed custom brings sure punishment.

Make the law and then find a way around it.

Where the rules of the road are not there, then there’s a tremendous amount of opportunity for entrepreneurs to bring in their innovation and their different way of thinking.

What I'm trying to do is just sing what comes to my body in the context of the song. And if you go by the emotion of the song, it's almost like stepping into a city. Cities have certain customs and rules and laws you can break, and that's what I was doing.

My father would never have lost to Holmes.

I was never the most technical; I was never the best at one aspect at this sport, but what I was always good as was negating people's strengths and putting them in terrible situations where they're uncomfortable.

Wrestling is different from other sports. It is not just about physical strength. It is more of a mind game as during matches we have to read the mind of opponents and outwit them.