Right Attitudes

I’d rather be a failure at something I love than a success at something I hate.
—George Burns (American Comedian)

There is nothing keeps longer than a middling fortune, and nothing melts away sooner than a great one. Poverty treads on the heels of great and unexpected riches.
—Jean de La Bruyere (French Author)

There are three marks of a superior man; being virtuous, he is free from anxiety; being wise, he is free from perplexity; being brave, he is free from fear.
—Confucius (Chinese Philosopher)

You are strong because you are imperfect. You are wise because you have doubts.
—Clementine Churchill (British Humanitarian)

Men, in general, seem to employ their reason to justify prejudices, which they have imbibed, they can scarcely trace how, rather than to root them out. The mind must be strong that resolutely forms its own principles; for a kind of intellectual cowardice prevails which makes many men shrink from the task, or only do it by halves.
—Mary Wollstonecraft (English Writer, Feminist)

Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere.
—Ronald Reagan (American Head of State)

Reductionism is a dirty word, and a kind of ‘holistier than thou’ self-righteousness has become fashionable.
—Richard Dawkins (British Ethologist, Atheist)

The highest result of education is tolerance. Long ago men fought and died for their faith; but it took ages to teach them the other kind of courage,—the courage to recognize the faiths of their brethren and their rights of conscience. Tolerance is the first principal of community; it is the spirit which conserves the best that all men think.
—Helen Keller (American Author)

Love thy neighbor as thyself because you are your neighbor. It is illusion that makes you think that your neighbor is someone other than yourself.
—Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (Indian Philosopher, Political Leader)

Charity is really self-interest masquerading under the form of altruism.
—Anthony de Mello (Indian-born American Theologian)

It is our job to make women unhappy with what they have.
—B. Earl Puckett (American Businessperson)

Politeness is the slow poison of collaboration.
—Edwin H. Land (American Inventor)

An enlightened person raises the level of the consciousness of the entire community.
—Phyllis Theroux (American Journalist, Author)

Costs do not exist to be calculated. Costs exist to be reduced.
—Taiichi Ohno (Japanese Manufacturing Engineer)

The key to the behavior of subjects lies not in pent-up anger or aggression, but in the nature of their relationship to authority. They have given themselves to the authority; they see themselves as instruments for the execution of his wishes; once so defined, they are unable to break free.
—Stanley Milgram (American Psychologist)

There is no one envious enough to harm another that is not first a torment to himself.
—Augustine of Hippo (Roman-African Christian Philosopher)

Labor to keep alive that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience.
—George Washington (American Head of State)

I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning.
—J. B. Priestley (British Novelist, Playwright, Essayist)

Jealousy is not at all low, but it catches us humbled and bowed down, at first sight. For it is the only suffering that we endure without ever becoming used to it.
—Colette (French Novelist, Performer)

Hard to put things right. You don’t often get that chance. Sometimes all you can do is not get caught.
—Donna Tartt (American Novelist)

Stealing isn’t so easy, often it’s hard work, otherwise we’d all be doing it.
—Elfriede Jelinek (Austrian Author)

Rashness is the faithful but unhappy parent of misfortune.
—Thomas Fuller (English Cleric, Historian)

You should look into a mirror: if you look fine, do fine things; if you look ugly, correct by nobility the defect of your nature.
—Bias of Priene (Greek Orator)

When you visualized a man or woman carefully, you could always begin to feel pity—that was a quality God’s image carried with it. When you saw the lines at the corners of the eyes, the shape of the mouth, how the hair grew, it was impossible to hate. Hate was just a failure of imagination.
—Graham Greene (British Novelist)