Archives for August 2018

A conservative believes nothing should be done for the first time.
—Lynwood L. Giacomini (American Publisher, Bibliophile)

We have too many people who live without working, and we have altogether too many who work without living.
—Charles Reynolds Brown (American Congregational Clergyman, Educator)

To withdraw is not to run away, and to stay is no wise action when there is more reason to fear than to hope. ‘Tis the part of a wise man to keep himself today for tomorrow, and not venture all his eggs in one basket.
—Miguel de Cervantes (Spanish Novelist)

Be open to learning new lessons even if they contradict the lessons you learned yesterday.
—Ellen DeGeneres (American Comedian, Television Host)

You have two choices. You can keep running and hiding and blaming the world for your problems, or you can stand up for yourself and decide to be somebody important.
—Sidney Sheldon (American Novelist, Screenwriter)

The greater your capacity to love, the greater your capacity to feel the pain.
—Jennifer Aniston (American Actress)

The advice that sounds the best in the short run is always the most dangerous in the long run.
—Jason Zweig (American Personal Finance Columnist)

You must pray that the way be long, full of adventures and experiences.
—Constantine P. Cavafy (Egyptian Greek Poet, Journalist, Civil Servant)

Character is built into the spiritual fabric of personality hour by hour, day by day, year by year in much the same deliberate way that physical health is built into the body.
—E. Lamar Kincaid (American Protestant Minister)

It’s essentially impossible to become successful or well off doing a job that is described and measured by someone else. The only chance our country (your country, depends where you live), your economy and most of all, your family has to get ahead is this: make up new rules. People who make up new rules continue to be in very short supply.
—Seth Godin (American Entrepreneur)

Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one.
—Oscar Wilde (Irish Poet)

If a man loves the labor of his trade, apart from any question of success or fame, the gods have called him.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (Scottish Novelist)

For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.
—Nelson Mandela (South African Political leader)

No matter who you are, no matter what you did, no matter where you’ve come from, you can always change, become a better version of yourself.
—Madonna (American Pop Singer, Actress)

Seek those who find your road agreeable, your personality and mind stimulating, your philosophy acceptable, and your experiences helpful. Let those who do not, seek their own kind.
—Henri Fabre (French Aviator)

Some people regret that they have poor memories. Alas! It is much more difficult to forget.
—Dorothee Luzy Dotinville (French Dancer, Actress)

All those who suffer in the world do so because of their desire for their own happiness. All those happy in the world are so because of their desire for the happiness of others.
—Shantideva (Indian Buddhist Scholar)

The meaning of the living words that come out of the experiences of great hearts can never be exhausted by any one system of logical interpretation. They have to be endlessly explained by the commentaries of individual lives, and they gain an added mystery in each new revelation.
—Rabindranath Tagore (Indian Hindu Polymath)

An excuse is a lie guarded.
—Jonathan Swift (Irish Satirist)

When the fight begins within himself, a man’s worth something.
—Robert Browning (English Poet)

When the creations of a genius collide with the mind of a layman, and produce an empty sound, there is little doubt as to which is at fault.
—Salvador Dali (Spanish Painter)

Work performed with higher knowledge or skill, capacity or ambition, usually brings a correspondingly higher reward.
—Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya (Indian Engineer)

We pay attention with respect and interest, not in order to manipulate, but to understand what is true. And seeing what is true, the heart becomes free.
—Jack Kornfield (American Buddhist Teacher, Author)

Men resist randomness, [stock] markets resist prophecy.
—Maggie Mahar (American Journalist, Author)

The first idea that the child must acquire, in order to be actively disciplined, is that of the difference between good and evil; and the task of the educator lies in seeing that the child does not confound good with immobility, and evil with activity.
—Maria Montessori (Italian Physician, Educator)

We differ, blind and seeing, one from another, not in our senses, but in the use we make of them, in the imagination and courage with which we seek wisdom beyond the senses.
—Helen Keller (American Author)

It is not God that is worshipped but the group or authority that claims to speak in His name. Sin becomes disobedience to authority not violation of integrity.
—Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (Indian Philosopher, Political Leader)

Let the motive be in the deed and not in the event. Be not one whose motive for action is the hope of reward.
—The Bhagavad Gita (Hindu Scripture)

There is room enough in human life to crowd almost every art and science in it. If we pass “no day without a line”—visit no place without the company of a book—we may with ease fill libraries, or empty them of their contents. The more we do, the more busy we are, the more leisure we have.
—William Hazlitt (English Essayist)

Man is more interesting than men. God made him and not them in his image. Each one is more precious than all.
—Andre Gide (French Novelist)

Greater the challenge, greater has been the achievements.
—Dhirubhai Ambani (Indian Businessperson)

Expertise is great, but it has a bad side effect: It tends to create the inability to accept new ideas.
—Dean Williams (Australian Leadership Consultant)

You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him.
—Leo Aikman (American Columnist, Humorist)

The man who enters a library is in the best society this world affords; the good and the great welcome him, surround him, and humbly ask to be allowed to become his servants.
—Andrew Carnegie (Scottish-American Industrialist, Philanthropist)

You need to try to do the impossible, to anticipate the unexpected. And when the unexpected happens, you should double the efforts to make order from the disorder it creates in your life. The motto I’m advocating is—Let chaos reign, then rein chaos. Does that mean that you shouldn’t plan? Not at all. You need to plan the way a fire department plans. It cannot anticipate fires, so it has to shape a flexible organization that is capable of responding to unpredictable events.
—Andrew Grove (Hungarian-born American Businessperson)

In expert tennis, 80% of the points are won, while in amateur tennis, 80% are lost. The same is true for wrestling, chess, and investing: Beginners should focus on avoiding mistakes, experts on making great moves.
—Eric Falkenstein (American Economist, Investor)

The most positive men are the most credulous, since they most believe themselves, and advise most with their falsest flatterer and worst enemy,—their own self-love.
—Alexander Pope (English Poet)

A person with a flexible schedule and average resources will be happier than a rich person who has everything except a flexible schedule. Step one in your search for happiness is to continually work toward having control of your schedule.
—Scott Adams (American Cartoonist)

Charity begins at home and justice begins next door.
—Charles Dickens (English Novelist)

Timing the [stock] market is a fool’s game, whereas time in the market is your greatest natural advantage.
—Nick Murray (American Financial Consultant, Author)

To whom much has been given, much is expected.
—The Holy Bible (Scripture in the Christian Faith)

Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides.
—Margaret Thatcher (British Head of State)

Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.
—Voltaire (French Philosopher)

While praying, listen to the words very carefully. When your heart is attentive, your entire being enters your prayer without your having to force it.
—Nachman of Breslov (Ukrainian Jewish Religions Leader)

Changing your mind is one of the most difficult things we do. It is far easier to fool yourself into believing a falsehood than admit a mistake.
—Morgan Housel (American Financial Journalist, Investor)

Life is too short to be little. Man is never so manly as when he feels deeply, acts boldly, and expresses himself with frankness and with fervor.
—Benjamin Disraeli (British Head of State)

No man ever got very high by pulling other people down. The intelligent merchant does not knock his competitors. The sensible worker does not knock those who work with him. Don’t knock your friends. Don’t knock your enemies. Don’t knock yourself.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (British Poet)

Happiness is a state of which you are unconscious, of which you are not aware. The moment you are aware that you are happy, you cease to be happy. You want to be consciously happy: the moment you are consciously happy, happiness is gone.
—Jiddu Krishnamurti (Indian Philosopher)

I have seen what a laugh can do. It can transform almost unbearable tears into something bearable, even hopeful.
—Bob Hope (British-born American Comedian, Film Actor)

If we get everything that we want, we will soon want nothing that we get.
—Vernon Luchies (American Clergyman)

There is great comfort and inspiration in the feeling of close human relationships and its bearing on our mutual fortunes – a powerful force, to overcome the “tough breaks” which are certain to come to most of us from time to time.
—Walt Disney (American Entrepreneur)

Not only is there a right to be happy, there is a duty to be happy. So much sadness exists in the world that we are all under obligation to contribute as much joy as lies within our powers.
—John Sutherland Bonnell (American Preacher)

Man is not only a contributory creature, but a total creature; he does not only make one, but he is all; he is not a piece of the world, but the world itself; and next to the glory of God, the reason why there is a world.
—John Donne (English Poet, Cleric)

There’s a difference between tough-mindedness and meanness.
—Jeffrey Immelt (American Businessperson)

Devotion must not be like the flood of the rainy season in which all get washed away. Devotion should be like the river that retains water even in the hottest season.
—Kabir (Indian Mystic)

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

Enduring setbacks while maintaining the ability to show others the way to go forward is a true test of leadership.
—Nitin Nohria (Indian-American Academic)

Loving someone is setting them free, letting them go.
—Kate Winslet (English Actress)

Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.
—Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (Persian Muslim Mystic)