Illusion is the dust the devil throws in the eyes of the foolish.
—Minna Antrim (American Writer, Epigrammist)
Nothing succeeds like the appearance of success.
—Christopher Lasch (American Historian)
Having more than you need can be a liability masquerading as an advantage, and no sense of “enough” can look like ambition but often leads you over the edge.
—Morgan Housel (American Financial Journalist, Investor)
It is easy to fool yourself. It is more difficult to fool the people you work for. It is still more difficult to fool the people you work with. And it is almost impossible to fool the people who work under your direction.
—Harry Bates Thayer (American Business Executive)
Crash programs fail because they are based on theory that, with nine women pregnant, you can get a baby in a month.
—Wernher von Braun (American Engineer)
I don’t pity any man who does hard work worth doing. I admire him. I pity the creature who does not work, at whichever end of the social scale he may regard himself as being.
—Theodore Roosevelt (American Head of State)
As universal a practice as lying is, and as easy a one as it seems, I do not remember to have heard three good lies in all my conversation.
—Jonathan Swift (Irish Satirist)
Pursue not a victory too far. He hath conquered well that hath made his enemy fly; thou mayest beat him to a desperate resistance, which may ruin thee.
—George Herbert (Welsh Anglican Poet)
True originality consists not in a new manner but in a new vision.
—Edith Wharton (American Novelist, Short-story Writer)
It isn’t the mountain ahead that wears you out; it’s the grain of sand in your shoe.
—Robert W. Service (Canadian Poet)