Quotes

ACTION

 

“If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs.”  – D. Ambani

“Doing nothing changes nothing.  Doing something changes everything!” – Mo Stegal

“The thing that gets you ready is doing the thing.”  – Jason Oman

CHARACTER

“Nearly all men can stand adversity.  But if you want to really test a man’s character, give him power.”  – Abraham Lincoln

“The promises of this world are, for the most part, vain phantoms.  To confide in one’s self and become something of worth and value is the best and safest course.” – Michaelangelo

LIMITATION

“An Pessimist finds difficulties in opportunity.  An Optimist finds opportunity in difficulty.” – Winston Churchill

“Obstacles are those ugly things you get to see when you take your eyes off your goals.”  – Henry Ford

“A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.”  – Will Durant

“People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own soul.”  – Carl Jung

“If people base their identity on identifying with authority, freedom causes anxiety.  They must then conceal the victim in themselves by resorting to violence against others.”  – Arno Gruen

“Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.” – Shakespeare

“No one can stop the man with the right mental attitude, and nothing can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.” – Thomas Jefferson

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.  It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.”  – Marianne Williamson

“Ninety-nine percent of who you are is invisible and untouchable.” – R. Buckminster Fuller

“I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” – Thomas Jefferson

“There’s no limit to what a man can do, or where he can go, if he doesn’t mind who gets the credit.” – Sign on President Ronald Reagan’s desk

“Of all the things I’ve lost, I miss my mind the most.” – Anonymous

“He’s a real nowhere man, sitting in his nowhere land, making all his nowhere plans for nobody.”  – Lennon-McCartney

“I saw in my soul in a deep dark hole, and then I followed it it…” – Kenny Rogers with The First Edition

“I would never join any club that would have me as a member.” – Groucho Marx

“The basis of optimism is sheer terror.” – Oscar Wilde

“Traditions are the guideposts driven deep in our own subconscious minds.  The most powerful ones are those we can’t even describe, aren’t even aware of.” – Unknown

“The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short.” – Abraham Maslow

“It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” – Sir Edmund Hillary

TRUTH, WISDOM & KNOWLEDGE

“I have sworn upon the altar of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” – Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Benjamin Rush, dated September 23, 1800.

“To name is not to explain…and to recite is not to understand.” – Richard Feynman, physicist

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself – and you are the easiest person to fool.”  – Richard Feynman

“There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

“He who has a ‘why’ to live can bear with almost any ‘how.'” – Friedrich Nietsche

“Education is a series of less egregious lies.”  – Chem Teacher

“Its not what you don’t know that hurts you, its what you know that isn’t so.”  – Mark Twain

“Nothing can be taught that is worth learning.”  – Stuart Wilde

“A belief is not some thought your mind creates.  A belief is a thought that controls your mind.”  – heard on Criminal Minds TV Show

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”  – William Butler Yeats

“Whatever satisfies the Soul is truth.”  – Walt Whitman

“Take a look at how dumb the average person is, then consider that half the population is not even that smart.”  – Old Saying

“I don’t necessarily agree with everything I say.”  - Marshall McLuhan

“I never know how much of what I say is true.”  - Bette Midler

“I am not denying anything I did not say.”   – Brian Mulrooney

“I really didn’t say everything I said.”  – Yogi Berra

“It’s only in the mysterious equations of love can logic and reason truly be found.” – John Nash, accepting the Nobel Prize in Mathematics in 1994

“You must believe in free will.  There is no choice.” – Isaac B. Singer

“There is no logical way to the discovery of these elemental laws.  There is only the way of Intuition, which is helped by a feeling for the order lying behind the appearance.”  – Albert Einstein

“Sometimes we don’t think of creativity, understanding, integration, correlation, and so on as being body functions, but they are!” – Arno Burnier

“To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more.
It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.”
– Wm. Shakespeare (Macbeth, Act 5, scene 5, 19–28)

“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.”
– Wm Shakespeare (As You Like It, Act 2, scene 7, 139–143)

“The heart and brain maintain a continuous 2-way dialogue, each influencing the other’s functioning.  Although it is not well known, the heart sends far more information to the brain than the brain sends to the heart, and the signals the heart sends to the brain can influence perception, emotional processing, and higher cognitive functions.  The heart also generates the strongest rhythmic electromagnetic field in the body, and this actually can be measured in the brain waves of people around us.”  – HeartMath Institute.

WEALTH & PROSPERITY

“For the first time in history it is now possible to take care of everybody at a higher standard of living than any have ever known. Only ten years ago the ‘more with less’ technology reached the point where this could be done. All humanity now has the option to become enduringly successful.”  – R. Buckminster Fuller

Charlie Monger likes to talk about this idea of always inverting. First, let us start with a question: What can you do to make a lot of money in the stock market? Charlie would say to invert the question and ask yourself instead, “If I wanted to lose as much money as possible, what would I do?” Then you simply answer that question…and don’t do it. He also likes to say, “Tell me where I’m going to die and I won’t go there.”

“When someone shares with you something of value, you have an obligation to share it with others.”  – Chinese saying

HAPPINESS

“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to a person or thing.” – Norman Vincent Peale

“Life finds its purpose and fulfillment in the expansion of happiness.” – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

“See the job.  Do the job.  Stay out of misery.” – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

“Today is just a good day in disguise.”  – Paul Venghaus

“Don’t take life too seriously.  You’ll never get out alive.” – Bugs Bunny

SUCCESS & FAILURE

“What you get by achieving a goal isn’t nowhere near as important as who you have to become to achieve it.” – Zig Ziglar

“When it becomes obvious that you cannot reach your goal, don’t adjust your goal.  Adjust the actions you are taking.”  – Confucius

“A goal properly set is halfway reached.”  – Abraham Lincoln

“You are never too old to set another goal or dream another dream.”  – Albert Einstein

“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you.  If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”  – The Gnostic Christ (Dead Seas Scrolls)

“Success has a hundred parents.  Failure is an orphan.” – John R. Ashton

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it.”  – W. C. Fields

“It’s not what you do in life that counts; its what you finish.“  – Katherine Hepburn

“Eighty percent of success is showing up.” – Woody Allen

“If at first you don’t succeed, then skydiving definitely isn’t for you.” – Steven Wright

“If at first you don’t succeed, find out if the loser gets anything.” – Bill Lyon

“One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.” – Andre Gide

“If at first you don’t succeed, failure may be your style.” – Quentin Crisp

“All right men!  Fire at will!!”  – Moe

“Which one is Will?” – Curley

“The person who takes resolution and then works diligently towards its fulfillment is helped and blessed by gods.  He gets easy access to all the means necessary to success, growth and prosperity.” – Atharva Veda

“The hero draws inspiration from the virtue of his ancestors.” – Goethe

“Just do it!” – Nike slogan

“What you get by achieving a goal is nowhere near as important as who you have to become to achieve it.”  – Zig Ziglar

CHANGE

“Either this wallpaper goes, or I do!” – Oscar Wilde, on his deathbed

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” – R. Buckminster Fuller

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.” – Marcel Proust

DECISION

“Our power is in our ability to decide.” – R. Buckminster Fuller

“When making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it advantageous to consider all the pros and cons. In vital matters, however, such as the choice of a mate or a profession, the decision should come from the unconscious, from somewhere within ourselves. In the important decisions of personal life, we should be governed, I think, by the deep inner needs of our nature.” – Sigmund Freud

“All my life, whenever it comes time to make a decision, I make it and forget about it.”  – Harry S. Truman

“We have been sitting idly by most of our lives while we let George run the show in any hit-or-miss way he might choose.”  – Max Freedom Long, discussing the role of his subconscious being (George)

“Resolve, and Thou art free!” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.” – Tony Robbins

BRIGITTE-ISMS

My wife Brigitte is from Germany and is the Ueber-Meisterin of funny sayings and mixed metaphors.  Here is a modest sampling:

“It’s so little, it’s like a drop in a hot bucket.”

“We’ll bridge the cross when we get there!”

“There’s no reason to bite a dead horse…”

“That’s a horse of a different flavor…”

“You can’t just run around Willy-Dilly!”

“I swam with the jelly-fishes…” (she meant sting rays)

“He was sharp as a tick.”

“Let’s get right to the matter… where the tire meets the road!”

“He surely died . . . rigor-omosis had set in!”