Right Attitudes

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)

There is no week nor day nor hour when tyranny may not enter upon this country, if the people lose their roughness and spirit of defiance.
—Walt Whitman (American Poet)

I used to be afraid I wouldn’t make enough money; now I’m afraid I won’t make enough difference.
—Bob Goff (American Philanthropist)

A high-school teacher, after all, is a person deputized by the rest of us to explain to the young what sort of world they are living in, and to defend, if possible, the part their elders are playing in it.
—Emile Capouya (American Essayist, Critic, Publisher)

If we were to ask the brain how it would like to be treated, whether shaken at a random, irregular rate, or in a rhythmic, harmonious fashion, we can be sure that the brain, or for that matter the whole body, would prefer the latter.
—Itzhak Bentov (Israeli American Scientist)

When we are no longer able to change a situation … we are challenged to change ourselves.
—Viktor Frankl (Austrian Psychiatrist)

Men simply copied the realities of their hearts when they built prisons.
—Richard Wright (American Novelist, Short-Story Writer)

In marriage, a man becomes slack and selfish, and undergoes a fatty degeneration of his moral being.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (Scottish Novelist)

Your mind is like a muscle. The more you use it, the more it grows.
—Carol Dweck (American Psychologist)

Consistency is a virtue for trains: what we want from a philosopher is insights, whether he comes by them consistently or not.
—Stephen Vizinczey (Hungarian-Canadian Writer)

Everywhere that freedom stirs, let tyrants fear.
—George W. Bush (American Head of State)

A man who makes trouble for others is also making trouble for himself.
—Chinua Achebe (Nigerian Novelist, Poet)

Curiosity is the engine of civilization. If I were to elaborate it would be to say read, read, read, and don’t forget to talk to people, really talk, listening with attention and having conversations, on whatever topic, that are an exchange of thoughts. Keep the reading broad, beyond just the professional. This helps to develop one’s sense of perspective in all matters.
—Peter Cundill (Canadian Investor)

Never expect justice from a vain man; if he has the negative magnanimity not to disparage you, it is the most you can expect.
—Washington Allston (American Artist, Writer)

There is a beauty in discovery. There is mathematics in music, a kinship of science and poetry in the description of nature, and exquisite form in a molecule. Attempts to place different disciplines in different camps are revealed as artificial in the face of the unity of knowledge. All literate men are sustained by the philosopher, the historian, the political analyst, the economist, the scientist, the poet, the artisan and the musician.
—Glenn T. Seaborg (American Chemist)

The dichotomy between selfishness and unselfishness disappears altogether in healthy people because in principle every act is both selfish and unselfish.
—Abraham Maslow (American Psychologist)

Being rich is having money; being wealthy is having time.
—Margaret Wander Bonanno (American Writer)

Often we have no time for our friends but all the time in the world for our enemies.
—Leon Uris (American Writer)

Nobody’s interested in sweetness and light.
—Hedda Hopper (American Actress, Gossip Columnist)

Since I and other beings both,
In wanting happiness, are equal and alike,
What difference is there to distinguish us,
That I should strive to have my bliss alone?
—Shantideva (Indian Buddhist Scholar)

If you have some respect for people as they are, you can be more effective in helping them to become better than they are.
—John W. Gardner (American Activist)

It is the greatest shot of adrenaline to be doing what you’ve wanted to do so badly. You almost feel like you could fly without the plane.
—Charles Lindbergh (American Aviator, Conservationist)

There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can circumvent or hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul.
—Ella Wheeler Wilcox (American Poet, Journalist)

If our senses conveyed the whole truth to us, we would see the Earth as rivers and glaciers of electrons, each speck of dust as a rolling mass of light.
—Paramahansa Yogananda (Indian Hindu Mystic)