Insightful and timeless quotations

Perfect Perspective
"It’s great to have gray hair. Ask anyone who’s bald."
-- Rodney Dangerfield
Perserverence Pays
"The rewards for those who persevere far exceed the pain that precedes the victory."
--Karen Bliss Livingston
Fulfilled Happiness
"Happiness is mostly a byproduct of doing what makes us feel fulfilled."
--Benjamin Spock
Living Dangerously
"When a man knows how to live dangerously, he is not afraid to die. When he is not afraid to die, he is, strangely, free to live."
--- William O. Douglas
War's Balance
"You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war."
-- Albert Einstein
Humor's Path
"A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on the road."
--Henry Ward Beecher
Opportuny Lost
"The follies which a man regrets most in his life are those which he didn’t commit when he had the opportunity."
--- Helen Rowland
Age of Laughter
"You don't stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing."
--Michael Pritchard
Judge of Character
"You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him."
-- James D. Miles
A Great Society
"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in."
--- Greek Proverb
Time Flies
"The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot."
--Michael Altshuler
Quality Faults
"It is not for our faults that we are disliked and even hated, but for our qualities."
-- Bernard Berenson
Old v. Wise
"Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late."
-- Benjamin Franklin
Perspectives
"No endeavor that is worthwhile is simple in prospect; if it is right, it will be simple in retrospect."
-- William Teller
Make A Life
"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."
-- Winston Churchill
Attitude's Effect
"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but its effect will make it worth the effort."
--Jeffrey Fry
A Life of Trust
"You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you don't trust enough."
--Frank Crane
Committee's Dead End
"A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled."
--Sir Barnett Cocks
Watch What You Do
"As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do."
---- Andrew Carnegie
Curiosity's Cure?
"The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity."
--Dorothy Parker
Life of Miracles
"Life is full of miracles, but they’re not always the ones we pray for."
--- Eve Arden
Dream The Future
"There is nothing like a dream to create the future."
--Victor Hugo
Rare Opportunity
"Opportunity is rare, and a wise man will never let it go by him."
--Bayard Taylor
When To Talk
"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something."
--Plato
Dare To Fail
"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly."
--Robert F. Kennedy
Skill Set
"Every expert began as an amateur."
-- Jeffrey Fry
Crowd Control
"Business today consists in persuading crowds."
--T. S. Eliot
God's In the Effort
"God doesn't require us to succeed; he only requires that you try."
--Mother Teresa
Luck Factor
"Of course I believe in luck. How otherwise to explain the success of some people you detest?"
--Jean Cocteau
Power to Change
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."
--Charles Darwin
Fear of Power
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure."
--Marianne Williamson
Risk Taker
"If you're not a risk taker, you should get the hell out of business."
--Ray Kroc
Make Yourself Useful
"You can render to humanity no greater service than to make the most of yourself."
--- Wallace Whattles
Built to Win
"Winning is something that builds physically and mentally every day that you train and every night that you dream."
--Emmitt Smith
The Scent of Victory
"Winning is like a deodorant. It covers up a lot that stinks."
--Doc Rivers
The Door of Happiness
"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us."
--Helen Keller
Life Undone
"A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing."
-- George Bernard Shaw
History in the Making
"The main thing is to make history, not to write it."
--Otto von Bismarck
Fear and Undertanding
"Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood."
--Marie Curie
Conviction
"A man convinced against his will, stands opposed ever still. A man convinced he is right, gives the effort twice the fight."
-- Jeffrey Fry
Think You Can
"If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can't, you're right."
--Henry Ford
Time Sink
"A committee is a group that keeps the minutes and loses hours."
--Milton Berle
Happiness Moves
"Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action."
--Benjamin Disraeli
Busy Makes Better
"Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it."
--Henry David Thoreau
Half Life
"The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents, and the second half by our children."
--Clarence Darrow
Biased Man
"Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true."
--Francis Bacon
Our Inner Limits
"We must learn our limits. We are all something, but none of us are everything."
--Blaise Pascal
The Sign of Success
"Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, "Make me feel important."
--Mary Kay Ash
A Man's Value
"Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value."
--Albert Einstein
Escape the Outdated
"The difficulty does not lie in finding new ideas, but in escaping the long outdated belief in old ones."
-- Jeffrey Fry
Short and Sweet
"A short saying often contains much wisdom."
--Sophocles
Pick Battles
"Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win."
--Jonathan Kozol
Genius Inspired
"Inspiration and genius -- one and the same."
--Victor Hugo
Wealth In Intelligence
"Do not be fooled into believing that because a man is rich he is necessarily smart. There is ample proof to the contrary."
--Julius Rosenwald
Never Tried
"It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed."
--Theodore Roosevelt
Blind Faith
"Some things have to be believed to be seen."
--Ralph Hodgson
Speed Bumps
"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal."
--Henry Ford
Immortality
"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work, I want to achieve it through not dying."
--Woody Allen
Ability's Opportunity
"Ability is of little account without opportunity."
-- Nepoleon Bonaparte
Brain Focus
"Concentration is the ability to think about absolutely nothing when it is absolutely necessary."
--Ray Knight
Creativity Unchained
"Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties."
--Erich Fromm
Hard as Diamonds
"Diamonds are only lumps of coal that stuck at it no matter how much heat or pressure they faced."
--Jeffrey Fry
Your Consent
"Remember no one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
--Eleanor Roosevelt
Mistaken Name
"Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes."
--Oscar Wilde
Tenacity's Voracity
"Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity."
--Louis Pasteur
Risky Business
"Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash."
--George S. Patton
What We Remember
"We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
--Martin Luther King Jr.
Humorless People
"A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs -- jolted by every pebble in the road."
--Henry Ward Beecher
Education's Aim
"The great aim of education is not knowledge but action."
--Herbert Spencer
Just Do It
"Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."
--John Wooden
Excellence in Failure
"Reward excellent Failures; punish mediocre Successes."
-- Phil Daniels
Moment of Decision
"In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing."
--Theodore Roosevelt
Curiousity's Relativity
"Curiosity is more important than knowledge."
-- Albert Einstein
An Unselfish Effort
"The unselfish effort to bring cheer to others will be the beginning of a happier life for ourselves."
--Helen Keller
How We Know Our Friends
"In prosperity our friends know us; in adversity we know our friends."
--John Churton Collins
False Hopes
"The greatest derangement of the mind is to believe in something because one wishes it to be so."
--Rene Dubos
Learn the Fool
"To learn, sometimes you have to feel the fool."
-- Jeffrey Fry
The Canvas of Life
"Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint you can on it."
--Danny Kaye
Happiness' Point of View
"The greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances."
--Martha Washington
Leadership's Direction
"The real leader has no need to lead -- he is content to point the way."
--Henry Miller
The Price of Quality
"I have always believed that quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten."
--Stanley Marcus
Businesses Beating Heart
"You have to have your heart in the business and the business in your heart."
--Thomas J. Watson
Facts Ignored
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."
--Aldous Huxley
A Rich Heart
"It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich according to what he is, not according to what he has."
--Henry Ward Beecher
Born To Succeed
"Men are born to succeed, not fail."
--Henry David Thoreau
Details
"Trifles make perfection, and prefection is no trifle."
--Michelangelo
Integrity Rules
"Integrity has no need of rules."
--Albert Camus
Composed Enthusiast
"The world belongs to the Enthusiast who keeps cool."
--William McFee
The Ideal Distance
"Idealism increases in direct proportion to one's distance from the problem."
--John Galsworthy
Insight's Value
"A moment's insight is sometimes worth a life's experience."
--Oliver Wendell Holmes
Uncommon Sense
"I read. I study. I examine. I listen. I reflect, and out of all this I try to form an idea into which I put as much common sense as I can."
-- Marquis de Lafayette
Experimental Life
"Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
True Happiness
"Unless we think of others and do something for them, we miss one of the greatest sources of happiness."
--Ray Lyman Wilbur
Character Revealed
"Entrepreneurship does not build character; it reveals character."
-- Jeffrey Fry
Fool's Prophet
"Jesters do often prove prophets."
--William Shakespeare
Perfection's Progress
"Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time."
--Voltaire
Labor Lost
"Learning without thought is labor lost."
--Confucius
Thanksgiving Frequency
"Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow."
--Edward Sandford Martin
Great Deeds
"All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning."
--Albert Camus
Well Done
"The reward of a thing well done, is to have done it."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
Know Best
"The things we know best are the things we haven't been taught."
--Marquis de Vauvenargues
What is Luck?
"There is no thing known as bad luck. There is luck, or no luck at all."
-- Jeffrey Fry
Success' Parentage
"Success has many fathers. Failure is an orphan."
-- Unknown
Attention to Detail
"Paying attention to simple little things that most men neglect makes a few men rich."
--Henry Ford
Shared Insterests
"The shortest and best way to make your fortune is to let people see clearly that it is in their interests to promote yours."
-- Jean de La Bruyère
Believe In Great Things
"To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe."
--Anatole France
Benefit Others
"An effort made for the happiness of others lifts us above ourselves."
--Lydia Child
Perservere to Victory
"Victory belongs to the most persevering."
--Napoleon Bonaparte
Life Expansive
"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."
--Anais Nin
Lead By Asking
"Leadership begins by asking how you can make things better?"
-- Jeffrey Fry
Impossible Fun
"It's kind of fun to do the impossible."
--Walt Disney
Real Change
"Diapers and politicians need to be changed for the same reason."
--Anonymous
Scoring Business
"Business is a good game, lots of competition and a minimum of rules. You keep score with money."
-- Nolan Bushnell
Motivation Management
"Management is nothing more than motivating other people."
--Lee Iacocca
First Class
"Once you have gone first class, everything else is coach."
-- Jeffrey Fry
The Art of Living
"The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he's always doing both."
--James Michener
A Mule's Kick
"There is no education in the second kick of a mule."
--Proverb

Don't Say, Do
"When all is said and done, more is said than done."
-- Hilary Johns
Good Things
"Most of the good things civilization has achieved are the result of somebody's seeing, in his mind's eye, how to do something better, or make something better."
--Cason J. Callaway
Explain Why
"You can spend an hour explaining how to slice a lemon--if you first explain why it is important to know."
--Ken Futch
Age Discovered
"You discover you are old when your regrets replace your dreams."
-- Jeffrey Fry
Excellence Known
"Excellence in any undertaking can be found in details that most people barely notice, but those who know know."
-- Gene Griessman
Opportunities' Perspective
"Opportunities always look bigger going than coming."
-- Proverb
Ability's Demand
"Ability will never catch up with the demand for it."
--Malcolm Forbes
Where The Sun Shines
"Just when you think the sun shines out of your butt, all you have is an illuminated landing area."
--Nolan Bushnell
Worth The Fight?
"These are called trinkets, I know...It is trinkets these soldiers fight for."
-- Napoleon Bonaparte
Truly Whole
"Until he has been part of a cause larger than himself, no man is truly whole."
-- Richard M. Nixon
Hell And Beyond
"When you are going through hell, keep going."
-- Winston Churchill
Greatest Compliment
"The greatest compliment you can receive is being counted on."
-- John Maxwell
Personal Attitude
"A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes."
--Hugh Downs
Resolve to Perform
"Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve."
--Benjamin Franklin
Imagination's Importance
"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
--Albert Einstein
Life: Purpose & Meaning
"The purpose of life is to discover your gift. The meaning of life is to give it away."
-- David Viscott
Face Change
"Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced."
-- James Arthur Baldwin
Future Empires
"The empires of the future are the empires of the mind."
--Winston Churchill
Life Backwards & Forwards
"Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards."
--Soren Kierkegaard
Inflated Worth
“It is unfortunate we can't buy many business executives for what they are worth and sell them for what they think they are worth.”
-- Malcolm Forbes
Opportunity's Clothes
"Problems are only opportunities in work clothes."
--Henry J. Kaiser
Unexpected Success
"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."
-- Henry David Thoreau
Experience's Perspective
"Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him."
--Aldous Huxley
A True Measure
"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good."
--Ann Landers
Failure Avoided
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
--Thomas Edison
Leaders Extrodinaire
"Great leadership makes ordinary people into extraordinary people."
-- Jeffrey Fry
Success in Numbers
"Few people are successful unless a lot of other people want them to be."
-- Charlie Brower
Entrepreneur's Ante
"You don't deserve to be called an entrepreneur unless you've mortgaged your house to the business."
--Edward S. (Ted) Rogers
Financing's Trail
"Financing is the art of passing currency from hand to hand until it finally disappears."
--Robert Sarnoff
Think It First
"Discovery consists of seeing what everybody else has seen and thinking what nobody has thought."
--Albert Szent Gyorgyi
Discover New Lands
"One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time."
--Andre Gide
Success & Failure
"Success represents the 1% of your work that results from the 99% that is called failure."
--Soichiro Honda
The Expense of Poverty
"Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor."
--James Baldwin
Conformist's Bane
"No one can possibly achieve any real and lasting success or get rich in business by being a conformist."
--J. Paul Getty
Need to Know
"All education amounts to is knowing how to find out what you need to know."
-- Dr. Robert Engass
Happiness' Heartbeat
"Happiness never lays its finger on its pulse."
--Adam Smith
Dream's Lifespan
"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today."
--James Dean
The Right Customers
"Though the customer is always right, there are some customers you do not want."
-- Jeffrey Fry
Obstacles Measure the Man
"Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed."
--Booker T. Washington
Determination's Difference
"The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person's determination."
--Tommy Lasorda
The Greatest Ability
"I believe the greatest ability to possess is the ability to find, develop, and promote abilities in other people."
-- Jeffrey Fry
Buy In
“People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.”
– John Maxwell
Exclusive Knowledge
"The secret of business is to know something that nobody else knows."
--Aristotle Onassis
Do or Do Not
"Do ... or do not. There is no try."
-- Yoda
Lost Time
"Lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine, but lost time is gone forever."
--Samuel Smiles
What Not How
"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity."
--George S. Patton Jr.
Catch Bricks
"A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him."
--David Brinkley
Persistent People
"Persistent people begin their success where others end in failure."
--Edward Eggleston
Preparation for Success
"Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success."
--Henry Ford
Energy and Presistence
"Energy and persistence conquer all things."
--Benjamin Franklin
Growing Up
"Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional."
-- Bobby Orbach
Marturity
"You can only be young once. But you can always be immature."
--Dave Barry
Keep Going
"Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. The desire and ability to press on has and always will solve the problems of the human race and divide those who achieve from those who might have been."
-- Jeffrey Fry
Manners Matter
"Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being."
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Unseen Potential
"We don't know who we are until we see what we can do."
--Martha Grimes
Beyond Yourself
"True happiness comes when you give your best in something beyond yourself."
-- Jeffrey Fry
Silence
"Silence gives consent, or a horrible feeling that nobody's listening."
--Franklin P. Jones
A Job Begun
"It's a job that's never started that takes the longest to finish."
--J.R.R. Tolkien
Watch and Learn
"You can observe a lot just by watching."
--Yogi Berra
Show and Tell
"Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I will learn. Involve me and I will understand."
-- Confucius
Marketing Mastered
"Marketing takes a day to learn, but a lifetime to master."
-- Phil Kotler
Don't Interrupt Doers
"The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it."
--Chinese Proverb
Destiny Achieved
"Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved."
--William Jennings Bryan
Life Outlasted
"The great use of life is to spend it on something that will outlast it."
--James Truslow Adams
Opportunity Rises
"Opportunity arises when a seemingly impossible task is met with an improbable solution."
-- Jeffrey Fry
Love Triumphant
"Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence."
--H.L. Mencken
A Different Road
"People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost."
--H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
A Handful of Change
"Never doubt that a handful of committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
--Margaret Mead
Ability and Character
"Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there."
-- John Wooden
Oppotunist's Sandwich
Message"An Opportunist can hand out baloney disguised as food for thought."
-- Karl Wagner
Opportunitiy's Overalls
"Opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."
-- Thomas Alva Edison
Perpetual Optimism
"Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier."
-- Colin Powell
Keep on Trying
"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all."
--Dale Carnegie
Looking at Difficutly
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist see the opportunity in every difficulty."
-- Winston Churchill
Liberty's Dangers
"The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding."
-- Lois D. Brandeis
Perception is Reality
"Change your thoughts and you change your world."
--Norman Vincent Peale
Vison and Action
"Vision without action is merely a dream, action without vision is merely passing time, but vision with action can change the world"
-- Nelson Mandela
Decorum
"When you're wrong, admit it. When you're right, shut up."
-- Ogden Nash
Vision Does Not Count
"Vision is not enough, it must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs."
--Vaclav Havel
Political Choices
"Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable."
-- J. K. Galbraith
Life's Requirements
"We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about."
-- Albert Einstein
Invent the Future
"Don't worry about what anybody else is going to do. The best way to predict the future is to invent it."
-- Alan Kay
Walk the Talk
"The essence of a culture is in its performance, not its proclamations."
-- Andrew Vachss
Core Leadership
"There is nothing more inspiring and stimulating than being in the company of optimists. It is the core of true leadership."
-- Thomas Joyce
Price of Security
"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security."
-- Benjamin Franklin
Great Attempts
"The great are they who attempt the difficult things lesser men avoid."
-- Indian Proverb
Luck Counts
"Those who have succeeded at anything and don't mention luck are kidding themselves."
--Larry King
Character Counts
“The ultimate measure of a person is not where they stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where they stand at times of challenge and controversy."
-- Martin Luther King
Future Investments
"Those who are unwilling to invest in the future haven't earned one."
--H.W. Lewis
Solve Problems
"Too often we give our children answers to remember rather than problems to solve."
--Roger Lewin
Portal to Success
"Confidence is the hinge on the door to success."
--Mary O'Hare Dumas
Find Talented People
“I find my chances for success improve when I associate with a few talented people as opposed to a plethora of mediocre ones.”
-- Jeffrey Fry
Enjoy Wealth
"Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it."
--Benjamin Franklin
Sharp Focus
"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."
--Mark Twain
Glory in Rising
"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."
--Confucius
Fuzzy Logic
“There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept."
--Ansel Adams
Earth's Owners
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."
--Native American Proverb
Better Done
“Well done is better than well said."
--Benjamin Franklin
Ideas Need Action
“An idea not coupled with action will never get any bigger than the brain cell it occupied."
--Arnold Glasow
Find It
“I do not seek, I find."
--Pablo Picasso
Balanced Thought
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
--Aristotle
Proof In The Imagination
“What is now proved was once only imagined."
--William Blake
Keep It Up
“He conquers who endures."
--Persius
Stay With The Problem
“It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer."
--Albert Einstein
Perserverance's Fine Line
“The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't."
--Henry Ward Beecher
Green Grass
"The grass may look greener on the other side, but it's just as hard to cut.”
-- Little Richard
Keep on Walking
“If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking."
--Buddhist Saying
Human Differentiation
“What differentiates humans from all other creatures is the deep and unquenching desire to be appreciated.”
-- Jeffrey Fry
Real Humility
“Real humility is to know the extent of one's arrogance.”
-- Winston Hodge
Play Big
“Playing small doesn't serve the world in any way.”
-- Nelson Mandela
Short and Steady
“Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another."
--Walter Elliott
Rise After the Failure
“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
Destiny is Internal
“No matter who you are, no matter what you aspire to, no matter what you have attempted in the past, the way you feel about yourself now will determine the outcome of anything that you do.”
--Ray Shapley, Sr.
One's Own Ignorance
“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance."
--Confucius
A Mind Stretched
“Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions."
--Oliver Wendell Holmes
Learning Counts
“It's what you learn after you know it all that counts."
--John Wooden
Schooling's Not Education
“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
-Mark Twain
Distaster's Opportunity
“I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity."
--John Davidson Rockefeller, Sr.
Hope On A Feeling
“Hope is the feeling you have that the feeling you have isn't permanent."
--Jean Kerr
Supreme Happiness
“The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved - loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves."
--Victor Hugo
Good From Bad Judgement
“Good judgment comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgment."
--Rita Mae Brown
High Aspirations Small Needs
“Keep high aspirations, moderate expectations, and small needs."
--William Howard Stein
No Good Contract
“There is no such thing as a good contract when dealing with a bad man.”
-- Mark Murdock
Invincible Determination
“An invincible determination can accomplish almost anything and in this lies the great distinction between great men and little men."
--Dr. Thomas Fuller
Change Thyself
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."
--Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy
Vitality Restarts
“Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over."
--F. Scott Fitzgerald
No Time Like Today
“A year from now you may wish you had started today."
--Karen Lamb
Self Waste
“We cannot waste time. We can only waste ourselves."
--George M. Adams
Maybes
“For all the sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are "It might have been!"”
-- William Wordsworth
Life's Fear
“Fear not that life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning."
--John Henry Cardinal Newman
Life's Years
“And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."
--Abraham Lincoln
Use Time Wisely
“Don't be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of."
--Charles Richards
Optimist v. Pessimist
“An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves."
--Bill Vaughan
Character Has No Price
” He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has."
--Henry Ward Beecher
Smiles are Ageless
“Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been."
--Mark Twain
A Path with No Obstacles
“If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere."
--Frank A. Clark
Strength
“I ask not for a lighter burden, but for broader shoulders."
--Jewish Proverb
Perfection
“The closest to perfection a person ever comes is when he fills out a job application form."
--Stanley J. Randall
Balanced
Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are."
--Chinese Proverb
What is Really Important
“If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles."
--Doug Larson
A New System
“It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new system. For the Initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who would gain by the new.”
--Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, 1513
Soul of Friendship
“What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies."
--Aristotle
Success in Your Child's Eyes
"You can use most any measure when you're speaking of success.
You can measure it in a fancy home, expensive car or dress.
But the measure of your real success is one you cannot spend—
It's the way your child describes you when talking to a friend."
-- Martin Baxbaum
Wisdom Conquers Fear
“To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom."
--Bertrand Russell
Lead with Dreams
"A true leader follows the dreams of those he leads."
--Douglas Whatley
Point the Way
“The real leader has no need to lead - he is content to point the way."
--Henry Miller
Fear & Courage
“Keep your fears to yourself but share your courage with others."
--Robert Louis Stevenson
Leaders' Vision
“Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of the odds against them."
--Robert Jarvik
Leaders' Balance
“A good leader is a person who takes a little more than his share of the blame and a little less than his share of the credit."
--John C. Maxwell
Leaders Make Leaders
“Leaders don't create followers, they create more leaders."
--Tom Peters
Leadership Floats
”A leader is a dealer in hope."
--Napoleon Bonaparte
Foolish Grief
“It is foolish to tear one's hair in grief, as though sorrow would be made less by baldness."
--Cicero
Lead By Example
“You can't lead anyone else further than you have gone yourself."
--Gene Mauch
Kings and Pawns
“After the game, the king and the pawn go into the same box.”
—Italian proverb
Sharpen Your Ax
“If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I ’d spend six sharpening my ax.”
—Abraham Lincoln
You Fail Alone
“There is no feeling quite so lonely as failure.”
-- Jeffrey Fry
Try, Try, Try
“You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try."
-- Beverly Sills
You Can't Please Everyone
“I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is to try to please everyone."
--Bill Cosby
Enthusiastic Failure
"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm."
--Winston Churchill
Luck Happens
“Those who have succeeded at anything and don't mention luck are kidding themselves."
--Larry King
Dare to Achieve
“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly."
--Robert Francis Kennedy
Failure Equals Success
“If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate."
--Thomas John Watson, Sr.
What Matters
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
--Dr. Seuss
Originality
“You were born an original. Don't die a copy."
--John Mason
Lincoln on Being Human
“Human action can be modified to some extent, but human nature cannot be changed."
--Abraham Lincoln
Fear or Faith
"Fear and faith cannot survive at the same time, so sustain and choose faith."
-- Jim Ledoux
Despair's Antidote
“Action is the antidote to despair."
--Joan Baez
Do Good in Bad Times
“It is not so important what deeds we do when times are good, but what good we do in bad times.”
-- Jeffrey Fry
Success Waits for No Man
“I couldn't wait for success... so I went ahead without it."
--Jonathan Winters
Commitment's Magic
"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now."
~Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
The Lazy Man
“If you have a difficult task, give it to a lazy man, he will find an easier way of doing it.”
--Mark Twain
Show Your Benefits
“Unless you can demonstrate your benefits, all you are left to compete with is price.”
-- Jeffrey Fry
Success' Aim
“Don't aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally."
--David Frost
Zen Destiny
“No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place."
--Zen
Diplomacy
“Diplomacy is the ability to tell someone to go to hell and have them look forward to going there.”
--Unknown
Seek Wisdom
“Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought."
--Matsuo Basho
The Strong Forgive
"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."
--Mahatma Gandhi
Forgiveness
"Forgiveness is a funny thing. It warms the heart and cools the sting."
--William Arthur Ward
Compound Interest
"Compound interest is the greatest mathematical discovery of all time."
--Albert Einstein
Life Planning
“We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us."
--Joseph Campbell
A Big Difference
"Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference."
--Winston Churchill
Excellence's Attitude
"Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude."
--Ralph Marston
Motivation
"It's so hard when I have to, and so easy when I want to."
--Annie Gottlier
Create Your Future
"The best way to predict your future is to create it."
--Peter Drucker
On The Return
"To know the road ahead, ask those coming back."
--Chinese Proverb
No Compromises
"Don't compromise yourself. You're all you've got."
--Janis Joplin
False Value
"Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are."
--Malcolm S. Forbes
Astound Yourself
"If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves."
--Thomas Alva Edison
A Risk Too Far
"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."
--T.S. Eliot
Responsibility
"A new position of responsibility will usually show a man to be a far stronger creature than was supposed."
--William James
Failed to Do
"Rarely do you regret what you have done nearly as much as what you have failed to do."
-- Jeffrey Fry
Read The Writing
"Most of us can read the writing on the wall; we just assume it's addressed to someone else."
--Ivern Ball
The Places You'll Go
"If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else."
--Lawrence J. Peter
Vision in Action
"Vision without action is a daydream. Action with without vision is a nightmare."
--Japanese Proverb
I'd Rather Win
"What I have learned from defeat is that I would rather win."
-- Bill Darnall
Victory & Defeat
"From victory we learn little, from defeat - everything."
-- Jeffrey Fry
Dream the Future
"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."
--Eleanor Roosevelt
Feel Your Best
"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen, nor touched...but are felt in the heart."
--Helen Keller
Be Different
"If you cannot differentiate something, or when you do differentiate it, it makes no difference, then it's just noise. Differentiate!"
-- Mark Twain
Poor Eyesite
"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."
--Mark Twain
Perception
"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see."
--Henry David Thoreau
Do Not Rush Nature
"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished."
--Lao Tzu
Indefatigable
"The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me."
--Ayn Rand
Entice Opportunity
"If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door."
--Milton Berle
A Risk Too Far
"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."
--T.S. Eliot
Remedy
"Don't find fault. Find a remedy."
--Henry Ford
Movement Matters
"Be not afraid of going slowly; be afraid only of standing still."
--Chinese Proverb
Wisdom Finds Opportunities
"A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds."
--Francis Bacon
Step on Blocks
"One of the secrets of life is to make stepping stones out of stumbling blocks."
--Jack Penn
What Can't Be Done
"I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can't be done."
--Henry Ford
The Right Direction
"If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking."
--Buddhist Saying
Second Winds
"Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second."
--William James
Unlearned Education
"Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned."
--Mark Twain
Mind Warped
"Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions."
--Oliver Wendell Holmes
Reluctently Taught
"I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught."
--Winston Churchill
Learning Advances Us
"Learning is like rowing upstream: not to advance is to drop back."
--Chinese Proverb
Thouhts to Destiny
"Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny."
--Tryon Edwards
Getting (un)Even
"Keeping score of old scores and scars, getting even and one-upping, always makes you less than you are."
--Malcolm Stevenson Forbes
Hope Floats
"Hope is the feeling you have that the feeling you have isn't permanent."
--Jean Kerr
Resolution for Success
"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to success is more important than any one thing."
-- Abraham Lincoln
Opinion and Thought
"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."
--John F. Kennedy
The Good Fight
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith
--2 Timothy 4:7
Pessimist versus Optimist
"A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties."
--Harry Truman
Motivational Leadership
"Leadership: the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it."
--Dwight D. Eisenhower
Measured Life
“Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
--Unknown
Solitude
"You will never be alone if you like the person you are with when you are by yourself."
--Jeffrey Fry
Judgement
"Good judgment comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgment."
--Rita Mae Brown
Proportion
"Keep high aspirations, moderate expectations, and small needs."
--William Howard Stein
Not From Concentrate
"Concentration is the ability to think about absolutely nothing when it is absolutely necessary."
--Ray Knight
Determination
"The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in determination."
--Tommy Lasorda
Vitality Renews
"Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over."
--F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Wise are Happy
"Wisdom is the most important part of happiness."
--Sophocles
Happiness is Life
"Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence."
--Aristotle
Center Your Thoughts
"You can't have a better tomorrow if you are thinking about yesterday all the time."
--Charles F. Kettering
Waste Not with Laughter
"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter."
--e. e. cummings
Friends Fend Off Failure
“No one is ever a Failure when he has Friends.”
--Unknown
Share Knowledge
"If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it."
-- Margaret Fuller
Don't Think, Be Happy
"Happiness is never stopping to think if you are."
--Palmer Sondreal
Be Happy
"If only we'd stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time."
--Edith Wharton
Certain in Misery
"Most people would rather be certain they're miserable, than risk being happy."
--Robert Anthony
Broad Shoulders
"I ask not for a lighter burden, but for broader shoulders."
--Jewish Proverb
Do Right
"Always do right. This will gratify some people, and astound the rest."
-- Mark Twain
The Assault of Laughter
"Against the assault of Laughter, nothing can stand."
-- Mark Twain
Money is Not Happiness
"Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of its filling a vacuum, it makes one."
-- Benjamin Franklin
Sympathy's Dividends
"The more sympathy you give, the less you need."
--Malcolm S. Forbes
Kindness Happens
"Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness."
--Seneca
Do Your Best
"If a man had done his best, what else is there?"
--General George S. Patton
How to Succeed
"Rather fail by honor than succeed by fraud."
--Sophocles
Fools Speak
“Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.”
--Abraham Lincoln
Value of Money
"If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow some."
-- Benjamin Franklin
Accountability
“Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you and act accordingly.”
- Thomas Jefferson
More Pain More Gain
"The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it."
--Epicurus
Kindness
"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle."
--Plato
Self-made Man
"There is no such thing as a self-made man. You will reach your goals only with the help of others."
--George Shinn
Experience Happens
"Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a man does with what happens to him."
--Aldous Huxley
Life and Living
"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."
--Winston Churchill
Knowledge versus Wisdom
"Knowledge is learning something every day. Wisdom is letting go of something every day."
--Zen Saying
What We Find Useful
"Children are our most valuable natural resource."
--Herbert Hoover
Sail Away
"You cannot discover new oceans, unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore."
-- Old Greek Proverb
There You Are
"And remember, no matter where you go, there you are."
--Confucius
Live Bravely
"Sometimes even to live is an act of courage."
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Courage Can Wisper
"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow."
--Mary Anne Radmacher
Courage Can Stand or Sit
"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
--Winston Churchill
Einstein's Value Formula
"Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value."
--Albert Einstein
A Universal Language
"Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see."
--Mark Twain
Giving of Self
"You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give."
--Kahlil Gibran
True Bravery
"Bravery is when a man walks into a battle he is not sure of winning."
--Jeffrey Fry
Change's Inertia
"If you want to truly understand something, try to change it."
--Kurt Lewin
Attitude's Altitude
"The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude."
--William James
Courage Conquers
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."
--Winston Churchill
The Happy Hearth
"He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home."
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Thought Makes Us So
"We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world."
--Buddha
Show Courage
"Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others."
--Robert Louis Stevenson
Possibilities
"It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow."
--Robert Hutchings Goddard
Love & Work
"Find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life!"
---Confucius
The Bounce Back
"I don't measure a man's success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom."
--George S. Patton
Alternatives
"If the wind will not serve, take to the oars."
--Latin Proverb
The Mark of Trust
"Don't trust anyone who doesn't contradict themselves"
--Holly Jane Cundiff
What You Don't Know
"I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
--Pablo Picasso
Mistakes Make A Man
"The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything."
--John Edward Phelps
The Soul of Character
"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired and success achieved."
--Helen Keller
Integrity Thins
"Integrity is like oxygen. The higher you go, the less there is of it."
--Paul Dickson
Life's Mettle
"As a blacksmith uses heat to harden iron, so should a trial by fire strengthen one’s mettle."
-- Jeffrey Fry
Life's Possibilities
Anything in life is possible if you make it happen. And it's never too late.
--Jack La Lanne
Character's Test
"The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don't know what to do."
--John Holt
The Greater Teacher
"Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity a greater."
--William Hazlitt
Speak or Listen
"It is the province of knowledge to speak and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen."
--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Wisdom's Profit
"All receive advice. Only the wise profit from it."
--Syrus
Wisdom's Companion
"Patience is the companion of wisdom."
--Saint Augustine
Modest Wisdom
"It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err."
--Mahatma Gandhi
Knowledge and Wisdom
"Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life."
--Immanuel Kant
Fill Your Mind
"Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one."
--Malcolm S. Forbes
Balancing Thought
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
--Aristotle
Happiness Is Not A Destination
"Remember that happiness is a way of travel -- not a destination."
--Roy M. Goodman
Wealth in Service
"Wealth, like happiness, is never attained when sought after directly. It comes as a by-product of providing a useful service."
--Henry Ford
Wealth & Wisdom
"Wisdom outweighs any wealth."
--Sophocles
Fool's Criticism
"Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain, and most fools do."
--Benjamin Franklin
Belief Makes It So
"Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is."
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Believe in Your Success
"Belief in oneself is one of the most important bricks in building any successful venture."
--Lydia M. Child
Live Life
"Live out of your imagination, not your history."
--Stephen Covey
Luck's Mother
"Diligence is the mother of good luck."
--Benjamin Franklin
Life's a Turtle
Life is like a turtle; you only make progress when you stick your neck out.
-- Unknown
Are You Experienced?
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace."
--Jimi Hendrix
Make People Better Than You
"The ultimate leader is one who is willing to develop people to the point that they eventually surpass him or her in knowledge and ability."
--Fred A. Manske Jr.
Be All You Can Be
"We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are."
--Max Depree
The Art of Teaching
"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge."
--Albert Einstein
Peace at Home
"He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home."
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Pursuit of Knowledge
"Of all human pursuits the pursuit of wisdom is the most perfect, the most sublime, the most profitable, the most delightful."
--St. Thomas Aquinas
Invention's Motivator
"If necessity is the Mother of Invention, then dissatisfaction must be its Father."
-- Jeffrey Fry
Honesty
"Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom."
-- Thomas Jefferson
Wisdom
"Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late."
-- Felix Frankfurter
Change
"Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change."
-- Confucius
Cleverness
"You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions."
-- Mahfouz Naguib
Universal Equine Equatation
"In the history of the man, there has been and always will be more horses' asses than horses."
-- Jeffrey Fry
Strength & Courage
"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength; loving someone deeply gives you courage."
-- Lao-Tzu
Meaning of Life
"Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful."
-- Joshua J. Marine
Laugh at Yourself
"Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is."
-- Sir Francis Bacon
Measure of a Man
“The ultimate measure of a man (person) is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his way of life for the welfare of others. In dangerous valleys and hazardous pathways, he will lift some bruised and beaten brother or sister to a higher and more noble life.”
-- Martin Luther King
Win-Win
"Relationships of trust depend on our willingness to look not only to our own interests, but also the interests of others."
--Peter Farquharson
Friends & Enemies
"If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; succeed anyway."
-- Mother Theresa
Leadership Matters
"Every endeavor, no matter how large or small, rises and falls on leadership."
--Jeffrey Fry
Great Spirits
"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."
--Albert Einstein
Human Spirit
"Man never made any material as resilient as the human spirit."
-- Bern Williams
How to Live
"When a man knows how to live dangerously, he is not afraid to die. When he is not afraid to die, he is, strangely, free to live."
--- William O. Douglas
See the Impossible
"Only those who can see the invisible, can do the impossible."
-- Jeffrey Fry