Quotes

Quotes

With Thanks to a fellow IIMBian... Vaidhy

"Silence is the true friend that never betrays." -Confucius

"Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow
Don't walk behind me, I may not lead
Just walk beside me and be my friend."

In the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity. -Albert Einstein

Some men see things as they are and say, "Why ?",
I dream things that never were and say, "Why not ?!". - George Bernard Shaw.

Success doesn't come to you ... you go to it. -Marva Collins

I am never bored anywhere: being bored is an insult to oneself. -Jules Renard

Do not follow where the path may lead.
Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.

I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him. -- Galileo Galilei

Concern should drive us into action and not into a depression. No man is free who cannot control himself. -Pythagoras

There are two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group - there is less competition there. -Indira Gandhi

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe. -Anatole France.

The people who get on in this world are ...
the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want,
and, if they can't find them, ... make them. -George Bernard Shaw

Opportunity rarely knocks on your door. Knock rather on opportunity's door if you ardently wish to enter. --B.C. Forbes

Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think. -Ayn Rand

Never, Never, Never Quit. -Winston Churchill

Success is simply a matter of luck. Ask any failure.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

Always be determined to make a difference. The world is changed by the power of individuals.

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. - Abraham Lincoln

Each problem has hidden in it an opportunity so powerful that it literally dwarfs the problem. The greatest success is to recognize a problem and turn it into an opportunity.

He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever. - Old Chinese saying

He who believes is strong; he who doubts is weak. Strong convictions precede great actions. -J.F. Clark

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. --Buddha

The best executive is the one who has enough sense to pick good people to do what need to be done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.

The great question is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with failure. --Chinese Proverb

The religion that is afraid of science dishonors God and commits suicide. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength. -Corrie ten Boom

This life is yours….
Take the power to choose what you want to do and do it well.
Take the power to love what you want in life and love it honestly.
Take the power to walk in the forest and be a part of nature.
Take the power to control your own life.
no one else can do it for you.
Take the power to make your life happy. - Susan Polis Schutz.

The best and most beautiful things in the world can not be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart. -Helen Keller.

Whether you think you can or think you can't -- you are right. -Henry Ford

True Greatness

A man is as great as the dreams he dreams, as great as the love he bears;
as great as the values he redeems, and the happiness he shares.
A man is as great as the thoughts he thinks, as the worth he has attained;
as the fountains at which his spirits drinks, and the insight he has gained.
A man is as great as the truth he speaks, as great as the help he gives,
as great as the destiny he seeks, as great as the life he lives. - C E Flynn.

It is a funny thing about life;
if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it. -Somerset Maugham.

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find;
knock, and it shall be opened unto you. -Matthew.

The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. -Joseph Addison.

Always remember to forget the things that made you sad,
but never forget to remember the things that made you glad. -Elbert Hubbard.

There is no meaning to life except ...
the meaning man gives to his life by the unfolding of his powers. -Erich Fromm.

Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced. -Soren Kierkegaard.

I was taught at an early age that you make your own life.
You make your own happiness, your own unhappiness.
My philosophy is that what you put out comes back to you. -Cheryl Ladd.

Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly. -St. Francis De Sales.

The Making of Friends.
Life is sweet because of the friends we have made.
And the things which in common we share;
We want to live on, not because of ourselves,
But because of the ones who would care.
It's living and doing for somebody else,
On that all life's splendour depends,
And the joy of it all, when we count it all up,
Is found in the making of friends. -Edgar A Guest.

You can always find the sun within yourself if you will only search. -Maxwell Maltz.

If you can't be a highway, then just be a trail,
If you can't be the sun, be a star,
It isn't by size that you win or you fail
Be the best of whatever you are !. -Douglas Malloch.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. -Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Happiness can not come from without. It must come from within. It is not what we see and touch or that which others do for us which makes us happy; it is that which we think and feel and do, first for the other fellow and then for ourselves. -Helen Keller.

The most wonderful of all things in life, I believe, is the discovery of another human being with whom one's relationship has a glowing depth, beauty, and joy as the years increase. -Sir Hugh Walpole.

"My father always used to say that when you die, if you've got five real friends, then you've had a great life." -Lee Iacocca

"You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you." -Dale Carnegie

"I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.." -Edward Everett

Be braver. You cannot cross a chasm in two small jumps.

When angry, count to four; when very angry, swear. -Mark Twain

We will either find a way, or make one. -Hannibal

Few men during their lifetime come anywhere near exhausting the resources dwelling in them. There are deep wells of strength that are never used. -Richard E. Byrd

Man is born to live and not to prepare to live. -Boris Pasternak

Lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine, but lost time is gone forever. -Samuel Smiles

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals.

The only time you can't afford to fail is the last time you try. -Charles Kettering

The important thing is never to stop questioning. -Albert Einstein

Shun idleness. It is a rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant of metals. -Voltaire

Nothing can resist the human will that will stake even its existence on its stated purpose. -Benjamin Disraeli

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.

There is always free cheese in a mousetrap.

The next best thing to saying a good thing yourself, is to quote one. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions. -Oliver Wendell Holmes

Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it. -Horace

Procrastination is the thief of time. -Edward Young

Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first. - Mark Twain

A thousand mile journey begins with the first step.
Accept the challenges so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory.
It is in the moment of decisions that your destiny is shaped. -Anthony Robbins

Leadership is action, not position.

Mankind's worst enemy is fear of work.

The greater the difficulty the more glory in surmounting it.

Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests. -Epicures

Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired. -Jules Renard

Be glad of life because it gives you a chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at stars. -Henry Van Dyke

Eighty-five percent of life is just showing up -Woody Allen

I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward. -Thomas Edison

Impossible is a word only to be found in the dictionary of fools. -Napoleon

Don't find fault, find a remedy.

Better to face a danger once than be always in fear.

Seek out new things, new people and places to expand the horizons of your world.

The holy passion of Friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money. -Mark Twain

Enthusiasm is the propelling force necessary for climbing the ladder of success.

Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.

The reward of suffering is experience. -Aeschylus

The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavour. -Vincent Lombardi

To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge. -Benjamin Disraeli

The price of greatness is responsibility. -Winston Churchill

Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail. -Charles Kettering

Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no delay, no procrastination; never put off till tomorrow what you can do today. -Earl of Chesterfield

It is much easier to be critical than to be correct. -Benjamin Disraeli

Nothing happens unless you first dream. -Carl Sandburg

Take each day and relish each moment. Take each bad day and work to make it good.

Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought. -Henri Louis Bergson

Honor is a gift a man gives himself.

Trust everybody, but cut the cards. -FINLEY PETER DUNNE

Mighty rivers can easily be leaped at their source.

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. -FDR

Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises. -Demosthenes

To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer.

Those who are serious in ridiculous matters will be ridiculous in serious matters. -Cato The Elder

It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well. -Rene Descartes

A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do. -Walter Gagehot

How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world. -Shakespeare

The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything. -Edward John Phelps

To succeed is nothing - it's an accident. But to feel no doubts about oneself is something very different: it is character. -Marie Leneru

We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.

The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will. -Vince Lombardi

Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great. -RALPH WALDO EMERSON

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor. -Henry David Thoreau

Action without study is fatal. Study without action is futile.

The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them. -Mark Twain

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring, will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time. -T.S. Eliot

Well done is better than well said. -Benjamin Franklin

The scars you acquire while exercising courage will never make you feel inferior. -D.A. Battista

We learn from history that we learn nothing from history. - GeorgeBernard Shaw

Our chief want in life is somebody who will make us do what we can. -Ralph WaldoEmerson

The great man is he that does not lose his child's-heart. -Mencius

Try to learn something about everything and everything about something. -T.H. Huxley

Concern should drive us into action and not into a depression. -Karen Horney

Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him. -Aldous Huxley

One cannot change the past, but one can ruin the present by worrying over the future.

Character is much easier kept than recovered. -Thomas Paine

The speed of the leader determines the rate of the pack.

In long experience I find that a man who trusts nobody is apt to be the kind of man nobody trusts.

Never confuse motion with action. - Ben Franklin

The great end of life is not knowledge but action. -Thomas Huxley

Remember the world is a big place. Even if you're one in a million, that means 1000 people in China look exactly like you.

Vision is the art of seeing the invisible. -Jonathan Swift

The secret of success is constancy to purpose. -Benjamin Disraeli

Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus. -Alexander Graham Bell

Courage is always greatest when blended with meekness; intellectual ability is most admired when it sparkles in the setting of modest self-distrust.

Never does the human soul appear so strong as when it foregoes revenge and dares to forgive any injury.

It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste. -Henry Ford

You can only make others better by being good yourself. -Hugh Hanels

A wise person makes his own decisions, a weak one obeys public opinion. Thinking is like loving and dying. Each of us must do it for himself. -Josiah Royce

The greatest and noblest pleasure which men can have in this world is to discover new truths; and the next is to shake off old prejudices. -Frederick The Great

If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words. -Chinese Proverb

Skill and confidence are an unconquered army. -George Herbert

Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice.

The hardest work in the world is that which should have been done yesterday.

Good actions ennoble us, we are the sons of our own deeds. -Miguel de Servantes

It is a descending stream of pure activity which is the dynamic force of the universe. -Kabbalah

Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering - and it's all over much too soon. -Woody Allen

Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action. -Benjamin Disraeli

If not controlled, work flows to the competent person until he is submerged.

No method nor discipline can supersede the necessity of being forever on the alert. -Henry Thoreau

No enemy is worse than bad advice. -Sophocles

The reward of a thing well done is to have done it. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort. -Franklin Roosevelt

History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon. -Napoleon Bonaparte

There is one thing stronger than all the armies of the world, and that is an idea whose time has come. -Victor Hugo

The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. -J. Martin Kohe

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. -Galileo Galilei

We lift ourselves by our thought, we climb upon our vision of ourselves. -Orison Swett Marden

I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them. -Isaac Asamov.

The greatest homage we can pay truth is to use it. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

What's a man's first duty? The answer's brief: To be himself. -Henrik Ibsen

A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love. -Basil

Where there is no vision, the people perish. -Proverbs 29:18

Successful leaders have the courage to take action where others hesitate.

When you're worrying about tomorrow, you rob yourself of today. Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. -Oliver Goldsmith

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. -Thomas Edison

The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are. -John Burroughs

Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed. -Storm Jameson

Every situation, properly perceived, becomes an opportunity. -Helen Schucman

He that never thinks never can be wise. -Samuel Johnson

He that lies down with dogs shall rise up with fleas. -Latin Proverb

All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom; justice; honor; duty; mercy; hope. -Winston Churchill

Think wrongly, if you please, but in all cases think for yourself. - Doris Leasing

We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. - Aesop

Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices - just recognize them. --Edward R. Murrow

As human beings, we are endowed with freedom of choice, and we cannot shuffle off our responsibility upon the shoulders of God or nature. We must shoulder it ourselves. It is up to us. --A. J. Toynbee

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. --ElmerLetterman

No problem can stand the assault of sustained thinking. –Voltaire

Forgive thyself little, and others much. --Leighton

To be great is to be misunderstood. --Ralph Waldo Emerson

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. --Henry David Thoreau

The man who rolls up his sleeves seldom loses his shirt. –Thomas Cowan

He who loses wealth loses much; he who loses a friend loses more; but he who loses courage loses all. --Cervantes

Nothing can add more power to your life than concentrating all your energies on a limited set of targets. --Nido Qubein

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Real knowledge is to know the extent of ones ignorance. --Confucius

The greatest mistake a man can make is to be afraid of making one. --Elbert Hubbard

The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way. –Dale Carnegie

Analysis kills spontaneity. --Henri-Frederic Amiel

Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried.

All truth goes through 3 steps: First, it is ridiculed; Second, it is violently opposed; Third, it is accepted as self-evident. –Arthur Schopenhauer

Success is never final, and failure is never fatal; it's courage that counts.

Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared. --Eddie Rickenbacher

Instead of pointing a finger, why not hold out a hand.

To accomplish great things we must first dream, then visualize, then plan... believe.... act! --Alfred A. Montapert

He who can, does. He who cannot, preaches. -- George Bernard Shaw

When a man comes to me for advice, I find out the kind of advice he wants, and I give it to him. --Josh Billings

Put an end once and for all to this discussion of what a good man should be, and be one. --Marcus Aurelius

A misty morning does not signify a cloudy day. -Ancient Proverb

There is something that is much more scarce, something rarer than ability. It is the ability to recognize ability. --Robert Half

Progress always involves risk; you can't steal second base and keep your foot on first. --Frederick Wilcox

Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly. --St. Francis De Sales

Failure is success if we learn from it. --Malcolm Forbes

Cherish your yesterdays; dream your tomorrows; but live your todays.

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society. -- Mark Twain

Unknown Success doesn't come to you ... you go to it. --Mavra Collins

I am ready to meet my maker. Whether my maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter. -Winston Churchill

Doubt whom you will, but never yourself. 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

Nothing strengthens the judgement and quickens the conscience like individual responsibility. --Elizabeth Cady Stanton

In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can. --Michael Korda

A compromise is the art of dividing a cake in such a way that everyone believes he has the biggest piece. -- Ludwig Erhard

Travel can be one of the most rewarding forms of introspection.

Pray as if it were up to God, but work as if it were up to you.

Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow. --RalphWaldo Emerson

Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them you will reach your destiny. --Carl Schurz

Be such a man, and live such a life, that if every man were such as you, and every life a life like yours, this earth would be God's Paradise. --Phillips Brooks

The more you use your brain, the more brain you will have to use. --George A. Dorsey

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. Only the mediocre are always at their best. -- Jean Giraudoux

Study the past, if you would divine the future. -- Confucius

Governments tend not to solve problems, only rearrange them.

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of. --Benjamin Franklin

To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else. –Emily Dickinson
There is a growing suspicion that what the world needs now is a religion that will cover the other six days of the week.

The worst bankrupt in the world is the person who had lost his enthusiasm. --H.W. Arnold

Giant goals produce giant motivation. –Anthony Robbins

We don't need more strength or more ability or greater opportunity. What we need is to use what we have. --Basil Walsh

First secure an independent income, then practice virtue. – Greek saying

Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish. --Euripides

Never turn down a job because you think it is to small; you don't know where it can lead. --Julia Morgan

Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight. --Marcus Aurelius

I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability.-- Oscar Wilde

If you don't invest very much, then defeat doesn't hurt very much and winning is not very exciting. --Dick Vermeil

Enjoy present pleasures in such a way as not to injure future ones. --Seneca

I always view problems as opportunities in work clothes. --Henry Kaiser

Seeing much, suffering much, and studying much, are the three pillars of learning. --Benjamin Disraeli

Failures are divided into two classes - those who thought and never did, and those who did and never thought. --John Charles Salak

The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them. --George Bernard Shaw

Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects. -- Will Rogers

Remember that happiness is as contagious as gloom. It should be the first duty of those who are happy to let others know of their gladness. --Maurice Maeterlinck

I disapprove of what you say, but I defend to the death your right to say it. -- Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire

Many receive advice. Only the wise profit from it. -- Syrus

It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.. -- Voltaire

Some people dream of worthy accomplishments, while others stay awake and do them.

Ingenuity plus courage plus work equals miracles.

Failure is not the worst thing in the world. The very worst is not to try. The harder you work the luckier you get. --Gary Player

The wise man must remember that while he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the future.

Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible and achieves the impossible.

What I do is important because I am paying a day of my life for it.

What I accomplish must be worthwhile because the price is high. A good goal is like a strenuous exercise -- it makes you stretch. --Mary Kay Ash

The unexamined life is not worth living. --Socrates

All glory comes from daring to begin. --Eugene Ware

When two people in a business always agree, one of them is unnecessary.

I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day. --Frank Sinatra

Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure. --Ambrose Bierce

Reality is an illusion that occurs due to the lack of alcohol -Anonymous

Work is the curse of the drinking classes.-Oscar Wilde

When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading. --Henny Youngman

When we drink, we get drunk.
When we get drunk, we fall asleep.
When we fall asleep, we commit no sin.
When we commit no sin, we go to heaven.
Sooooo, let's all get drunk, and go to heaven... --Brian O'Rourke

Conserve water. Drink Beer.-Anonymous

# Experience is the worst teacher . It always gives the test first and the instructions afterwards.
# Team work is essential. It always allows you to blame someone else.
# When hammering a nail, you will never hit your finger if you hold the hammer with both the hands.
# A man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of some one to blame it on.
# If at first you don't succeed, redefine the sucsess.
# Any fool can paint a picture. But it takes wise people to be able to sell it .
# One difference between the man and the machine is that the machine is quiet when well oiled.
# Trouble being punctual is that people think that you have nothing more important to do.
# Don't worry about what other people are thinking about you. They are too busy worrying over what you are thinking about them.
# If all you have is a hammer, every thing looks like a nail.