Right Attitudes

Knowledge is the true organ of sight, not the eyes.
—The Panchatantra (Indian Collection of Fables)

Durability is part of what makes a great athlete.
—Bill Russell (American Basketball Champion)

All technology should be assumed guilty until proven innocent.
—David Brower (American Environmentalist)

A person’s worth is contingent upon who he is, not upon what he does, or how much he has. The worth of a person, or a thing, or an idea, is in being, not in doing, not in having.
—Alice Mary Hilton (British-American Academic)

The future? Like unwritten books and unborn children, you don’t talk about it.
—Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (German Baritone)

A king who trusts no man is weak.
—Patricia Briggs (American Writer)

Money alone cannot build character or transform evil into good. It cries for full partnership with leaders of character and good will who value good tools in the creation and enlargement of life for Man.
—Sebastian S. Kresge (American Businessman)

Unfortunately in this kind of work, where you are trying to determine relationships based upon past behavior, the almost invariable experience is that by the time you have had a long enough period to give you sufficient confidence in your form of measurement, just then new conditions supersede and the measurement is no longer dependable for the future.
—Benjamin Graham (American Investor)

Doing one’s duty, however small, in an unattached manner gives rise to the awakening of self-awareness.
—Sathya Sai Baba (Indian Hindu Religious Leader)

I believe in prayer. It’s the best way we have to draw strength from heaven.
—Josephine Baker (American Dancer, Campaigner)

He is great who can do what he wishes; he is wise who wishes to do what he can.
—August Wilhelm Iffland (German Actor, Playwright)

A good picture is equivalent to a good deed.
—Vincent van Gogh (Dutch Painter)

The closer the bird is to the surface of the water, the firmer and more inelastic is the uplift of the rising air. The bird appears to almost feel the surface with the tip of its weather wing.
—Lawrence Hargrave (Australian Aviation Pioneer)

Being a gentleman is the number one priority, the chief question integral to our national life.
—Edward A. Fox ((b.1936) American Businessman)

We can ask ourselves daily what we have done to make the world a better place, to make someone smile, to help someone to feel more secure, etc. It’s the simple things which have the greatest effect. We must never underestimate the strength of a smile or act of kindness.
—Leo Buscaglia (American Motivational Speaker)

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.
—Helen Keller (American Author)

It is ridiculous ever to forget that you and your business are each implanted in the society of the moment…. We cannot ignore the world of our time. We had better understand it.
—J. Irwin Miller (American Industrialist)

In a profound sense every man has two halves to his being; he is not one person so much as two persons trying to act in unison. I believe that in the heart of each human being there is something which I can only describe as a “child of darkness” who is equal and complementary to the more obvious “child of light”.
—Laurens van der Post (South African Explorer, Writer)

Youth is something very new: twenty years ago no one mentioned it.
—Coco Chanel (French Fashion Designer)

Keep on beginning and failing. Each time you fail, start all over gain, and you will grow stronger until have accomplished a purpose – not the one you began with perhaps, but one you’ll be glad to remember.
—Anne Sullivan Macy (American Educator)

The little I knew about my own self wouldn’t have filled a thimble!
—Alice Walker (American Novelist, Activist)

Inaction is bad leadership, but it can feel safer than action because to act is to open yourself up to criticism.
—Jeffrey Immelt (American Businessperson)

All natural objects … all forms, colours, and scents … are types of some spiritual truth or existence.
—Charles Kingsley (English Clergyman)

Remember that pain has this most excellent quality: if prolonged it cannot be severe, and if severe it cannot be prolonged.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (Roman Stoic Philosopher)