Quotable Quotes
Page 11
—MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA
Speak not against anyone whose burden you have not weighed yourself.
—MARION BRADLEY
Black Trillium
Puritanism is the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.
—H. L. MENCKEN
This is a do-it-yourself test for paranoia: you know you’ve got it when you can’t think of anything that’s your fault.
—ROBERT M. HUTCHINS
That which we call sin in others is experiment for us.
—RALPH WALDO EMERSON
We all have weaknesses. But I have figured that others have put up with mine so tolerantly that I would be less than fair not to make a reasonable discount for theirs.
—WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE
We are all inclined to judge ourselves by our ideals; others, by their acts.
—HAROLD NICOLSON
Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.
—FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.
—MARK TWAIN
Our faults irritate us most when we see them in others.
—PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH PROVERB
The enthusiastic, to those who are not, are always something of a trial.
—ALBAN GOODIER
There is little room left for wisdom when one is full of judgment.
—MALCOLM HEIN
Nothing in the world is so rare as a person one can always put up with.
—GIACOMO LEOPARDI
When nobody around you seems to measure up, it’s time to check your yardstick.
—BILL LEMLEY
It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.
—ABRAHAM LINCOLN
There are certain small faults that offset great virtues. There are certain great faults that are forgotten in small virtues.
—GRANTLAND RICE WATTS
Accept me as I am—only then will we discover each other.
—FROM FEDERICO FELLINI’S 8 1/2
The less secure a man is, the more likely he is to have extreme prejudices.
—CLINT EASTWOOD
Nothing dies so hard, or rallies so often, as intolerance.
—HENRY WARD BEECHER
Prejudices are the chains forged by ignorance to keep men apart.
—COUNTESS OF BLESSINGTON
Prejudice is a disease characterized by hardening of the categories.
—WILLIAM ARTHUR
A prejudice is a vagrant opinion without visible means of support.
—AMBROSE BIERCE
It is never too late to give up our prejudices.
—HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Every bigot was once a child free of prejudice.
—SISTER MARY DE LOURDES
Too many of our prejudices are like pyramids upside down. They rest on tiny, trivial incidents, but they spread upward and outward until they fill our minds.
—WILLIAM MCCHESNEY MARTIN
STUPIDITY WON’T KILL YOU . . .
Stupidity won’t kill you, but it can make you sweat.
—ENGLISH PROVERB
Ignorance is not bliss—it is oblivion.
—PHILIP WYLIE
I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it.
—EDITH SITWELL
The greatest obstacle to discovering the shape of the earth, the continents and the ocean was not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge.
—DANIEL J. BOORSTIN
The Discoverers
Ignorance is bold, and knowledge reserved.
—THUCYDIDES
The trouble with most folks isn’t so much their ignorance, as knowing so many things that ain’t so.
—JOSH BILLINGS
Sometimes the best way to convince someone he is wrong is to let him have his way.
—RED O’DONNELL
Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.
—WILL ROGERS
Nothing will divide this nation more than ignorance, and nothing can bring us together better than an educated population.
—JOHN SCULLEY
in The Atlantic
Preconceived notions are the locks on the door to wisdom.
—MERRY BROWNE
in National Enquirer
Fears are educated into us and can, if we wish, be educated out.
—KARL A. MENNINGER, MD
The Human Mind
The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell.
—SIMONE WEIL
IF MALICE OR ENVY WERE TANGIBLE . . .
It is never wise to seek or wish for another’s misfortune. If malice or envy were tangible and had a shape, it would be the shape of a boomerang.
—CHARLEY REESE
Spite is never lonely; envy always tags along.
—MIGNON MCLAUGHLIN
Envy is the art of counting the other fellow’s blessings instead of your own.
—HAROLD COFFIN
Do not believe those persons who say they have never been jealous. What they mean is that they have never been in love.
—GERALD BRENAN
Love looks through a telescope; envy, through a microscope.
—JOSH BILLINGS
Jealousy is all the fun you think they had.
—ERICA JONG
I’d never try to learn from someone I didn’t envy at least a little. If I never envied, I’d never learn.
—BETSY COHEN
The Snow White Syndrome
THE CHAINS OF HABIT . . .
The chains of habit are generally too small to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.
—SAMUEL JOHNSON
Good habits are as easy to form as bad ones.
—TIM MCCARVER
Habits are first cobwebs, then cables.
—SPANISH PROVERB
Comfort comes as a guest, lingers to become a host and stays to enslave us.
—LEE S. BICKMORE
Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.
—MARK TWAIN
A habit is a shirt made of iron.
—HAROLD HELFER
Habits are like supervisors that you don’t notice.
—HANNES MESSEMER
We can often endure an extra pound of pain far more easily than we can suffer the withdrawal of an ounce of accustomed pleasure.
—SYDNEY J. HARRIS
Habit, if not resisted, soon becomes necessity.
—ST. AUGUSTINE
It is easy to assume a habit; but when you try to cast it off, it will take skin and all.
—JOSH BILLINGS
A habit is something you can do without thinking—which is why most of us have so many of them.
—FRANK A. CLARK
The best way to break a habit is to drop it.
—LEO AIKMAN
A bad habit never disappears miraculously; it’s an undo-it-yourself project.
—ABIGAIL VAN BUREN
NEVER BE HAUGHTY . . .
Never be haughty to the humble. Never be humble to the haughty.
—JEFFERSON DAVIS
None are so empty as those who are full of themselves.
—BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE
The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.
—RALPH WALDO EMERSON
He who truly knows has no occasion to shout.
—LEONARDO
DA VINCI
The question we do not see when we are young is whether we own pride or are owned by it.
—JOSEPHINE JOHNSON
The Dark Traveler
If you are all wrapped up in yourself, you are overdressed.
—The Wedded Unmother
A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small parcel.
—“Thought for the Day,” BBC Radio
When someone sings his own praises, he always gets the tune too high.
—MARY H. WALDRIP
Vanity is the result of a delusion that someone is paying attention.
—PAUL E. SWEENEY
Oh, for a pin that would puncture pretension!
—ISAAC ASIMOV
Buy Jupiter and Other Stories
Men often mistake notoriety for fame, and would rather be remarked for their vices and follies than not be noticed at all.
—HARRY S. TRUMAN
It is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help.
—JUDITH S. MARTIN
A modest man is usually admired—if people ever hear of him.
—ED HOWE
Lord, where we are wrong, make us willing to change; where we are right, make us easy to live with.
—REV. PETER MARSHALL
The nice thing about egotists is that they don’t talk about other people.
—LUCILLE S. HARPER
The egotist always hurts the one he loves—himself.
—BERNICE PEERS
The only cure for vanity is laughter. And the only fault that’s laughable is vanity.
—HENRI BERGSON
Pride makes some men ridiculous but prevents others from becoming so.
—CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Too great a sense of identity makes a man feel he can do no wrong. And too little does the same.
—DJUNA BARNES
THE VERY ESSENCE OF LEADERSHIP . . .
The very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.
—THEODORE HESBURGH
High sentiments always win in the end. The leaders who offer blood, toil, tears and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic.
—GEORGE ORWELL
Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters
Consensus is the negation of leadership.
—MARGARET THATCHER
You do not lead by hitting people over the head. That’s assault, not leadership.
—DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
Lots of folks confuse bad management with destiny.
—KIN HUBBARD
Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
—GEN. GEORGE S. PATTON JR.
Rules are made for people who aren’t willing to make up their own.
—CHUCK YEAGER AND CHARLES LEERHSEN
Press On!
A leader knows what’s best to do; a manager knows merely how best to do it.
—KEN ADELMAN
Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.
—GEN. H. NORMAN SCHWARZKOPF
A leader who keeps his ear to the ground allows his rear end to become a target.
—ANGIE PAPADAKIS
One measure of leadership is the caliber of people who choose to follow you.
—DENNIS A. PEER
The person who knows how will always have a job. But the person who knows why will be his boss.
—CARL C. WOOD
Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.
—PUBLILIUS SYRUS
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
—RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Knowledge cannot make us all leaders, but it can help us decide which leader to follow.
—Management Digest
Wise are those who learn that the bottom line doesn’t always have to be their top priority.
—WILLIAM ARTHUR WARD
The mark of a true professional is giving more than you get.
—ROBERT KIRBY
Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility.
—PETER DRUCKER
in Fortune
A man who enjoys responsibility usually gets it. A man who merely likes exercising authority usually loses it.
—MALCOLM S. FORBES
Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
—MARK TWAIN
He that would be a leader must be a bridge.
—WELSH PROVERB
Life is like a dog-sled team. If you ain’t the lead dog, the scenery never changes.
—LEWIS GRIZZARD
The speed of the leader determines the rate of the pack.
—WAYNE LUKAS
If you want truly to understand something, try to change it.
—KURT LEWIN
We still think of a powerful man as a born leader and a powerful woman as an anomaly.
—MARGARET ATWOOD
Asking “Who ought to be boss?” is like asking “Who ought to be the tenor in the quartet?” Obviously, the man who can sing tenor.
—HENRY FORD
A great leader is the one who can show people that their self-interest is different from that which they perceived.
—BARNEY FRANK
No person can be a great leader unless he takes genuine joy in the successes of those under him.
—W. A. NANCE
First-rate men hire first-rate men; second-rate men hire third-rate men.
—LEO ROSTEN
It’s easy to make a buck. It’s a lot tougher to make a difference.
—TOM BROKAW
The things we fear most in organizations—fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances—are the primary sources of creativity.
—MARGARET J. WHEATLEY
Leadership and the New Science
Change starts when someone sees the next step.
—WILLIAM DRAYTON
in Esquire
I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep.
—TALLEYRAND
It’s better to be a lion for a day than a sheep all your life.
—SISTER KENNY
WHAT GREAT THING WOULD YOU ATTEMPT . . .
What great thing would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?
—ROBERT H. SCHULLER
Why not upset the apple cart? If you don’t, the apples will rot anyway.
—FRANK A. CLARK
Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.
—ABRAHAM LINCOLN
When a man’s willing and eager, the gods join in.
—AESCHYLUS
Trust in God and do something.
—MARY LYON
Action may not always be happiness, but there is no happiness without action.
—BENJAMIN DISRAELI
There is a close correlation between getting up in the morning and getting up in the world.
—RON DENTINGER
in Chronicle (Dodgerville, Wisconsin)
Noble deeds and hot baths are the best cures for depression.
—DODIE SMITH
I Capture The Castle
My view is that to sit back and let fate play its hand out and never influence it is not the way man was meant to operate.
—JO
HN GLENN
People judge you by your actions, not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold, but so has a hard-boiled egg.
—Good Reading
Let him that would move the world, first move himself.
—SOCRATES
All glory comes from daring to begin.
—EUGENE F. WARE
Everything comes to he who hustles while he waits.
—THOMAS A. EDISON
Well done is better than well said.
—BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.
—HENRY FORD
In life, as in a football game, the principle to follow is: hit the line hard.
—THEODORE ROOSEVELT