Right Attitudes

Our hours in love have wings; in absence, crutches.
—Colley Cibber (English Playwright)

Everyone is necessarily the hero of his own life story.
—John Barth (American Novelist)

Having a baby is like falling in love again, both with your husband and your child.
—Tina Brown (British-American Journalist, Editor)

I have been extraordinarily lucky. Anyone who pretends that some kind of luck isn’t involved in his success is deluding himself.
—Arthur Hailey (Canadian Novelist)

If we take care of the inches we will not have to worry about the miles.
—Hartley Coleridge (British Poet)

Don’t tell me how hard you work. Tell me how much you get done.
—James J. Ling (American Businessman)

Information is a source of learning. But unless it is organized, processed, and available to the right people in a format for decision making, it is a burden, not a benefit.
—C. William Pollard (American Businessman, Author)

For disorder obstructs: besides, it doth disgust life, distract the appetities, and yield no true relish to the senses.
—Margaret Lucas Cavendish (English Aristocrat, Philosopher, Writer)

We have to recognize accident, i.e., the fact that there is no formula, no ‘principle’, which covers all things; that there is no totality or system of things. And this recognition at once supports a life of ‘responsibility and adventure’ and leads to scientific discovery.
—John Anderson (Scottish Philosopher)

Impartial observers from other planets would consider ours an utterly bizarre enclave if it were populated by birds, defined as flying animals, that nevertheless rarely or never actually flew. They would also be perplexed if they encountered in our seas, lakes, rivers, and ponds, creatures defined as swimmers that never did any swimming. But they would be even more surprised to encounter a species defined as a thinking animal if, in fact, the creature very rarely indulged in actual thinking.
—Steve Allen (American Entertainer)

The best reason for having dreams is that in dreams no reasons are necessary.
—Ashleigh Brilliant (British Cartoonist)

The past, though it cannot be relived, can always be repaired.
—John La Farge (American Artist, Writer)

We live by the Golden Rule. Those who have the gold make the rules.
—Buzzie Bavasi (American Baseball Executive)

Closer than a touch on your skin,
deeper than a breathe you draw in;
stronger than a hurricane wind,
is the dwelling of God within.
—Isaac de Benserade (French Poet, Dramatist)

Heartthrobs are a dime a dozen.
—Brad Pitt (American Actor)

In a culture where the possibility of wealth and the acquisition of things are so defining of success, we end up pursuing things that, even if we are successful, can never deliver what we envisioned they would. The reason riches become such a snare is because we end up evaluating life in mercenary terms and being seen by others in such terms, and life is just not so.
—Ravi Zacharias (Christian Preacher)

The past should be a springboard, not a hammock.
—Ivern Ball (American Writer, Aphorist)

Research serves to make building stones out of stumbling blocks.
—Arthur Dehon Little (American Management Consultant)

As you go along your own road in life, you will, if you aim high enough, also meet resistance … . But no matter how tough the opposition may seem, have courage still—and persevere.
—Madeleine Albright (Czech-born American Diplomat)

A structure becomes architectural, and not sculptural, when its elements no longer have their justification in nature.
—Guillaume Apollinaire (Italian-born French Poet)

What we play is life.
—Louis Armstrong (American Jazz Musician)

Your mind is what makes everything else work.
—Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (American Basketball Player)

The gods made our bodies as well as our souls, is it not so? They give us voices, so we might worship them with song. They give us hands, so we might build them temples. And they give us desire, so we might mate and worship them in that way.
—George R. R. Martin (American Writer)

I’ve met these people, the ones from the glossy magazines. I’ve walked among them. I have seen, firsthand, their callow, empty lives. I have watched them from the shadows when they thought themselves alone. And I can tell you this: I’m afraid there is not one of them who would swap lives with you at gunpoint.
—Neil Gaiman (British Writer)

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)