If
you would be remembered, do one thing superbly well.
- Saunders Norvell
Don't
try to master too many things.
- William McKinley
Whenever
you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, "Certainly I can!"
Then get busy and find out how to do it.
- Theodore Roosevelt
Whenever
it is in any way possible, every boy and girl should chose as his life work some
occupation which he should like to do anyhow, even if he did not need the money.
- William Lyon Phelps
Don't
choose a profession just for money. Choose
a profession a you would choose a wife—for love and for money.
- Advice quoted by John Huston
Find
out what you like doing best and get someone to pay you for doing it.
- Katherine Whitehorn
When
you follow your bliss…doors will open where you would not have thought there
would be doors, and where there wouldn’t be a door for anyone else.
- Joseph Campbell (1904-1987), mythologist and educator
Measure
a thousand times and cut once.
- Turkish proverb
You
have to really want to change to make
a change.
- Nicholas Pratt
You
have to do things differently to get different results.
- Nicholas Pratt
Keep
constantly in mind in how many things you yourself have witnessed changes
already. The universe is change,
life is understanding.
- Marcus Aurelius
All
conditions, good or bad, are temporary.
People
can change but rarely do.
- Nicholas Pratt
Never
change a winning game; always change a losing one.
- Bill Tilden (1893-1953), tennis player
Change your
thoughts and you change your world.
- Norman Vincent Peale
A man's character is his fate.
- Heraclitus
The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him
absolutely no good.
- Ann Landers
The
true test of civilization is, not the census, nor the size of cities, nor the
crops but the kind of man that the country turns out.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sow
a thought, reap an act;
Sow
an act, reap a habit;
Sow
a habit, reap a character:
Sow
a character, reap a destiny.
- Anonymous
What
you want to be eventually, that you must be every day; and by and by the quality
of your deeds will get down into your soul.
- Frank Crane
Character
is like a tree and reputation like its shadow.
The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.
- Abraham Lincoln
A
truly successful personality knows how to overcome the past, use the present,
and prepare for the future—but unless we can first surmount the past, we
cannot effectively cope with either the present or the future.
- Sydney J. Harris
Be more concerned with your character than your
reputation. Your character is what
you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are.
- John Wooden
You
must give some time to your fellow men. Even
if it's a little thing, do something for others—something for which you get no
pay but the privilege of doing it.
- Albert Schweitzer
He
only judges right who weighs, compares
And,
in the sternest sentence which his voice
Pronounces,
ne'er abandons charity.
- William Wordsworth
Charm:
the quality in others that makes us more satisfied with ourselves.
-
Henri Frédéric Amiel (1821-1881), philosopher
and writer.
The
meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if
there is any reaction, both are transformed.
-
Carl Gustav Jung. Modern Man in Search of a Soul, (1933)
We
are our choices.
- Jean-Paul Sarte (1905-1980), philosopher,
writer, and critic
Look
at your choices, pick the best one, then go to work with all your heart.
- Pat Riley, pro basketball coach
Cleanliness
and order are not matters of instinct; they are matters of education, and like
most great things—mathematics and classics—you must cultivate a taste for
them.
- Benjamin Disraeli
If
you start to take Vienna—take Vienna.
- Napoleon Bonapart
To
fight out a war, you must believe something and want something with all your
might. So must you do to carry
anything else to an end worth reaching. More
than that, you must be willing to commit yourself to a course, perhaps a long
and hard one, without being able to foresee exactly where you will come out.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Once
I ran across the following statement: “In golf and in life, it’s the
follow-through that makes the difference.”
It’s not only a true statement in golf, however, it really is true in
real life situations. Whether or
not we follow through on our ideas, our goals, or our intentions is what really
makes the difference. If we don’t
follow through on our ideas, they became only wishes, and wishes by themselves
don’t do anything.
- Don Essig, Motivational Minutes, Career
Press, Inc.
The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't
being said.
- Peter F. Drucker
Think
like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.
- William Butler Yeates
Put
it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it,
picturesquely so they will remember it and, above all, accurately so they will
be guided by its light.
- Joseph Pulitzer
I
attribute the little I know to my not having been ashamed to ask for information
and to my rule of conversing with all descriptions of men on those topics that
form their own peculiar professions and pursuits.
- John Locke
The
truly expressive man doesn’t speak with his hands. He speaks with his heart.
- Marilyn Vos Savant
Associate
yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation for 'tis
better to be alone than in bad company.
- George Washington
Be
very circumspect in the choice of thy company.
In the society of thine equals thou shalt enjoy more pleasure; in the
society of thy superiors thou shalt find more profit. To be the best in the company is the way to grow worse; the
best means to grow better is to be the worst there.
- Francis Quarles
Better
fare hard with good men than feast it with bad.
- Thomas Fuller
The
most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part . . .
The essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.
- Baron Pierre de Coubertin
Always
imitate the behavior of the winners when you lose.
- Anonymous
The
only competition worthy of a wise man is with himself.
- Washington Allston
Learn
how to pay compliments. Start with
the members of your family, and you will find it will become easier later in
life to compliment others. It's a
great asset.
- Letitia Baldrige
Don't
tell a woman she's pretty; tell her there's no other woman like her, and all
roads will be open to you.
- Jules Renard
The
best way to turn a woman's head is to tell her she has a beautiful profile.
- Sacha Guitry
Concentration
is my motto—first honesty, then industry, then concentration.
- Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919)
If
you would be pungent, be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams—the
more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.
- Robert Southey
- William Strunk
As
reporters we were supposed to tell the news as succinctly and objectively as
possible. But it's not always
appropriate for novelist or a playwright or an advertising copywriter, a public
relations specialist or a consumer affairs professional.
For the job of the novelist and the playwright is to entertain and our
job in corporate communications is to convince, and, if necessary, proselytize.
To entertain and to convince you
need more than clarity. You need
eloquence.
You need flair. You
need the whole gamut of words and sentence structures—the involved and the complex as well as the bare bones simple.
- Melvin J. Grayson
Be
neither too remote nor too familiar.
- Charles, Prince of Wales
Be
civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.
- Benjamin Franklin
It
is best to act with confidence, no matter how little right you have to it.
-
Lillian Hellman (1907-1984), playwright
Never
let the fear of striking out get in your way.
- George Herman ("Babe") Ruth
You've
got to take the initiative and play your
game. In a decisive set, confidence
is the difference.
- Chris Evert
Nobody can make you feel inferior without your
consent.
Labor
to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called
conscience.
- George Washington
In
the midst of all the doubts which we have discussed for four thousand years in
four thousand ways, the safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience.
With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear of death.
- Voltaire
Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can
never be know but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world
looking at you, and act accordingly.
- Thomas
Jefferson
Win
hearts, and you have all men's hands and purses.
- William Cecil Burleight
Among
those who stand, do not sit;
among those who sit, do not stand.
Among
those who laugh, do not weep.
among those who weep, do not laugh.
- Jewish proverb
The
best armor is to keep out of range.
- Italian proverb
Whoever
battles with monsters had better see that it does not turn him into a monster.
And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back at you.
- Friedrich Nietzche
Above
all things, never be afraid. The
enemy who forces you to retreat is himself afraid of you at that very moment.
- Andre Maurois
Don't
hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never
hit soft!
Keep
your broken arm inside your sleeve.
- Chinese proverb
Enjoy
your own life without comparing it with that of another.
Do
not despise your situation; in it you must act, suffer and conquer.
From every point on earth we are equally near to heaven and to the
infinite.
Reflect
on your present blessings, of which every man has many, not on your past
misfortunes, of which all men have some.
- Charles Dickens
Be
content with your lot; one cannot be first in everything.
- Aesop
He
who is content with little has everything.
Take
as many half minutes as you can get, but never talk more than half a minute
without pausing and giving others an opportunity to strike in.
One of the best rules in conversation is, never to say a thing which any
of the company can reasonably wish had been left unsaid.
- Jonathan Swift
Don't
keep jingling in the course of your conversation any intellectual money you may
have.
- Joseph Farrell
Trumpet
in a herd of elephants; crow in the company of cocks; bleat in a flock of goats.
- Malayan proverb
Remember
that what you believe will depend very much on what you are.
- Noah Porter
Consult
your friend on all things, especially on those which respect yourself.
His counsel may then be useful when your own self-love might impair your
judgment.
- Seneca
Never
take the advice of someone who has not had your kind of trouble.
- Siney J. Harris
Never
trust the advice of a man in difficulties.
- Aesop
Do
not offer advice which has not been seasoned by your own performance.
- Henry S. Haskins
Never
give advice unless asked.
A
man's feet should be planted in his country, but his eyes should survey the
world.
-
George Santayana
Patriotism is your
conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in
it.
- George Bernhard Shaw
Before
you run in double harness, look well to the other horse.
- Ovid
You
don't really know a person until you live with him, not just sleep with him . .
. . I staunchly believe no two people should get married until they have lived
together. The young people have it
right.
- Doris Day
Pick
a man for his human qualities, his values, his compatibility with you, rather
than what he represents in status, power, or good looks.
Courage
is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment
that something else is more important than fear.
- Ambrose Redmoon
One
ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from
it. If you do that, you will double
the danger. But if you meet it
promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half.
Never run away from anything. Never!
- Sir Winston Churchill
You
cannot run away from a weakness; you must sometime fight it out or perish.
And
if that be so, why not now, and where you stand?
- Robert Louis Stevenson
You
have got to have courage. I don't
care how good a man is, if he is timid, his value is limited.
The timid will not amount to very much in this world.
I want to see a good man ready to smite with the sword.
I want to see him able to hold his own in active life against the forces
of evil.
- Theodore Roosevelt
Like
love, courage is no joking matter. If
it yields once, it will have to yield again, and again.
The same difficulty will have to be conquered later on, and it would have
been better to get it over with.
- Baltasar Gracian
Courage
is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.
- Mark Twain
Without
courage, all other virtues lose their meaning.
- Winston Churchill
Whatever
you do, you need courage. Whatever
course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong.
There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your
critics are right. To map out a
course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that
a soldier needs. Peace has its
victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), philosopher
and writer
When
you are in Rome live in the Roman style; when you are elsewhere live as they
live elsewhere.
- Saint Ambrose, advice to Saint Augustine
Conduct
thyself in life as at a banquet. If
a plate is offered thee, extend thy hand and take it moderately; if it is to be
withdrawn, do not detain it. If it
come to thy side, make not thy desire loudly known, but wait patiently until it
be offered thee.
- Epictetus
In
the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative original thinker
unless you can also sell what you create. Management
cannot be expected to recognize a good idea unless it is presented to them by a
good salesman.
- David M. Ogilvy
Creativity
can solve almost any problem. The
creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything.
- George Lois
Whatever
creativity is, it is in part a solution to a problem.
- Brian Aldiss (b. 1925), British science fiction writer. Bury My Heart at W. H. Smith’s,“Apéritif” (1990).
To
accomplish things there must first be an idea that the thing is possible.
Then the watchword must be try, and keep on trying with enthusiasm and a
thorough belief in your ability to succeed.
If you are convinced that a certain thing can be done, never mind what
the world says to the contrary; experiment, never give up.
Forget
the word “disappointment.” Failures,
so called, are but fingerposts pointing out the right direction to those who are
willing to learn.
- Thomas Edison
There’s
a sucker born every minute.
-
Phineas T. Barnum (attributed to) (1810–91), U.S. showman.
Reprove
thy friend privately; commend him publicly.
- Solon
Rest
satisfied with doing well, and leave others to talk of you as they please.
- Pythgoras
Copyright 2002 by Pratt Systems. All rights reserved worldwide.