For decades I have been a huge fan of quotes. They’re nuggets of wisdom from people far more intelligent than I and can verify this because I didn’t think of them and I didn’t say them. I wish I did.
Voices is simply a curated list of my favorite quotes. They have been very helpful to me over the years and so I thought I’d share them with you; perhaps some of them will strike a chord with you as well.
They come from resources far and wide, and I add to the list from time to time. I also plan to expound on some of them as the basis of some posts in the My Brain and I blog. If I do, they will link to the post.
You may however find an occasional Rudyism in the list which is something I tend to say. Perhaps I said it first, perhaps not, but they are my go-to phrases that I’ve borrowed, tweaked or simply made up myself. They are my truths and so I thought I’d include them in this list just in case they may benefit you. Feel free to steal them and make them your own -ism if you think they can serve you as well.
Enjoy!
Voices of Change
One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth.
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.
Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
As soon as you awaken to the power you have, you begin to flex the muscles of your courage. Then you can dream bravely: letting go of your limiting beliefs and pushing past your fears. You can start to come up with a truly original dream that germinates in your soul and bears fruit in your life.
And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.
One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.
When people are ready to, they change. They never do it before then, and sometimes they die before they get around to it. You can't make them change if they don't want to, just like when they do want to, you can't stop them.
Low self-confidence isn't a life sentence. Self-confidence can be learned, practiced, and mastered--just like any other skill. Once you master it, everything in your life will change for the better.
When you're finished changing, you're finished.
You may delay, but time will not.
Know what's weird? Day by day, nothing seems to change. But pretty soon, everything's different.
Never too old, never too bad, never too late, never too sick to start from scratch once again.
95% of your emotions are determined by the way you talk to yourself as you go throughout your day. The sad fact is that if you do not deliberately and consciously talk to yourself in a positive and constructive way, you will, by default, think about things that will make you unhappy or cause you worry and anxiety. Your mind is like a garden. If you do not deliberately plant flowers and tend carefully, weeds will grow without any encouragement at all.
Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.
t may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.
Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.
If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.
Although it is difficult to pinpoint the physical base or location of awareness, it is perhaps the most precious thing concealed within our brains. And it is something that the individual alone can feel and experience. Each of us cherishes it highly, yet it is private.”
Practically everybody knows what its like to feel anxious, worried, nervous, afraid, uptight, or panicky. Often, anxiety is just a nuisance, but sometimes it can cripple you and prevent you from doing what you really want with your life. But I have some great news for you: You can change the way you feel.
One day you will wonder what was so important that you put off doing the most important things. 'Someday' can be a thief in the night.
Never settle for less than your dreams. Somewhere, sometime, someday, somehow, you'll find them.
All great changes are preceded by chaos.
People will suffer almost anything, as long as it means they don't have to change.
There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.
Life is inherently risky. There is only one big risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is the risk of doing nothing.
Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him.
Some changes look negative on the surface but you will soon realize that space is being created in your life for something new to emerge.
You can’t stop the change. It’s going to happen. It always will.
Do one thing every day that scares you.
All limitations are self-imposed.
If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
You just have to be yourself and go full with confidence and be courageous.
Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it's worth watching.
Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next.
The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn.
Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.
Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature's inexorable imperative.
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
They say misery loves company, but so does mediocrity. Don't let the limiting beliefs of OTHERS limit what's possible for YOU.
It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not.
Most fears of rejection rest on the desire for approval from other people. Don't base your self-esteem on their opinions.
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
We change our behavior when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of changing. Consequences give us the pain that motivates us to change.
“Someday", you said you'd do it yesterday; Yesterday, you said you'll do it today. Today, if you push it to tomorrow, it's likely tomorrow, you'll shift it to "Someday"! Do it now!”
You only have control over three things in your life - the thoughts you think, the images you visualize, and the actions you take (your behavior). How you use these three things determines everything you experience. If you don't like what you are producing and experiencing, you have to change your responses.
Change before you have to.
- Jack Welch, Business Executive
Rejection-and the fear of rejection-is the biggest impediment we face to choosing ourselves.
- James Altucher, Entrepreneur
People can cry much easier than they can change.
Do just once what others say you can't do, and you will never pay attention to their limitations again.
You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.
- Jim Rohn, Entrepreneur, Author
The first place we lose the battle is in our own thinking. If you think it is permanent then it's permanent. If you think you've reached your limits then you have. If you think you will never get well then you won't. You have to change your thinking. You need to see everything that's holding you back, every obstacle, every limitation as only temporary.
History shows us that the people who end up changing the world - the great political, social, scientific, technological, artistic, even sports revolutionaries - are always nuts, until they are right, and then they are geniuses.
- John Eliot, Puritan Missionary
Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.
There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.
We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.
When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.
Chronic self-doubt is a symptom of the core belief, 'I'm not good enough.' We adopt these types of limiting beliefs in response to our family and childhood experiences, and they become rooted in the subconscious... we have the ability to take action to override it.
Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.
- Les Brown, Motivational Speaker
In order to do something you've never done, you've got to become someone you've never been. I think that all of us have great potential within us, but greatness is a choice; it's not our destiny. And in the pursuit of our dreams we are introduced to trials, failures and disappointments, which take us to the door of discovery and greatness.
- Les Brown, Motivational Speaker
That's the risk you take if you change: that people you've been involved with won't like the new you. But other people who do will come along.
Embracing risk is key to succeeding in the bigger game of life. Those who lose aren’t those who have dared greatly and fallen short of the mark. They are those who played so safe that they never lived at all.
Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.
- Martin Luther King, Jr., Minister, Civil Rights Activist
Change of any sort requires courage.
If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.
“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination.
“You are the master of your destiny. You can influence, direct and control your own environment. You can make your life what you want it to be.”2
Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.
I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
- Nelson Mandela, Anti-Apartheid Revolutionary
Change your thoughts and you change your world.
- Norman Vincent Peale, Author
Change the equation from not is it possible to when is it going to happen. And it order for there to break through people have to believe first and foremost in their own mind that something is achievable because if they don't then it's definitely not achievable. If you don't think you can do it, you can't.
- Peter Diamandis, Entrepreneur, Futurist
We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.
You cannot change how someone thinks, but you can give them a tool to use which will lead them to think differently.
- R. Buckminster Fuller, Futurist
There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.
- R. Buckminster Fuller, Futurist
We change whether we like it or not.
We live in a moment of history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is already disappearing.
A tiny change today brings a dramatically different tomorrow.
There are no mistakes. The events we bring upon ourselves, no matter how unpleasant, are necessary in order to learn what we need to learn; whatever steps we take, they're necessary to reach the places we've chosen to go.
Knowing you need to make a change isn't enough. You've got to find the guts to do it.
When the going gets tough, the tough reinvent.
- RuPaul, Television Personality
If you would attain to what you are not yet, you must always be displeased by what you are. For where you are pleased with yourself there you have remained. Keep adding, keep walking, keep advancing.
- Saint Augustine, Philosopher
You have the power in the present moment to change limiting beliefs and consciously plant the seeds for the future of your choosing. As you change your mind, you change your experience.
Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don't need to escape from.
Life is like an ever-shifting kaleidoscope - a slight change, and all patterns alter.
To achieve goals you've never achieved before, you need to start doing things you've never done before.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.
If you are insecure, guess what? The rest of the world is too. Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think.
Nobody ever died of discomfort, yet living in the name of comfort has killed more ideas, more opportunities, more actions, and more growth than everything else combined.
Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.
We shall have no better conditions in the future if we are satisfied with all those which we have at present.
- Thomas Edison, Inventor
Even if you fall on your face, you’re still moving forward.
The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.
When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves.
- Viktor E. Frankl, Psychiatrist, Author
Everything can be taken from a person but one thing - the last of the human freedoms - to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
- Viktor E. Frankl, Psychiatrist, Author
Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.
- William Jennings Bryan, Politician
A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for.
Others can stop you temporarily - you are the only one who can do it permanently.
Voices of the Arts
“Rabbit's clever," said Pooh thoughtfully.
"Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit's clever."
"And he has Brain."
"Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit has Brain."
There was a long silence.
"I suppose," said Pooh, "that that's why he never understands anything.”
- A.A. Milne
Man is a rational animal. He can think up a reason for anything he wants to believe.
And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
A designer has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.
The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.
Know what's weird? Day by day, nothing seems to change. But pretty soon, everything's different.
Trust your own instinct. Your mistakes might as well be your own, instead of someone else's.
Don’t worry about a thing, cause every little thing gonna be all right.
Always remember you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.
Who am I, where have I been, and where am I going?
"Tomorrow stars now."
Think left and think right and think low and think high.
Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!
Chaos is everywhere and artists, to fashion art and live truthfully, have no choice but to invite this unwanted guest right into the studio.
Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things that escape those who dream only by night.
I don't think there's any artist of any value who doesn't doubt what they're doing.
In every triumph there is a lot of try.
Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.
You see things; and you say, Why? But I dream things that never were; and I say, Why not?
‘Come to the edge.' 'We can't. We're afraid.' 'Come to the edge.' 'We can't. We will fall!' 'Come to the edge.' And they came. And he pushed them. And they flew.
Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness.
Someday is not a day of the week.
An opinion should be the result of thought, not a substitute for it.
As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.
The dangers of life are infinite, and among them is safety.
I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that crates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration, I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or dehumanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.
The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.
You can't start worrying about what's going to happen. You get spastic enough worrying about what's happening now.
I"m not getting on. I'm evolving.
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
There's a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.
Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses - especially learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.
The artist sees what others only catch a glimpse of.
I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.
I am my own experiment. I am my own work of art.
- Madonna
In imagination, there's no limitation.
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Do the most important people in you life envision a positive future for you? Do they see great things ahead of you?
The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.
I've had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.
The secret source of humor itself is not joy but sorrow.
Inside every block of stone or marble dwells a beautiful statue; one need only to remove the excess material to reveal the work of art within.
The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.
I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.
Every great and commanding movement in the annals of the world is the triumph of enthusiasm.
Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Be yourself; no base imitator of another, but your best self. There is something which you can do better than another. Listen to the inward voice and bravely obey that. Do the things at which you are great, not what you were never made for.
To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.
All life is an experiment.
If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the universe against me.
There are no mistakes. The events we bring upon ourselves, no matter how unpleasant, are necessary in order to learn what we need to learn; whatever steps we take, they're necessary to reach the places we've chosen to go.
Rule #6: Lighten Up
Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are our own fears.
Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.
Only mediocre people are always at their best.
Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.
Wisdom comes from experience. Experience is often a result of lack of wisdom.
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and try to put things in it.
My future’s so bright I gotta wear shades.
Failure is the condiment that gives success it's flavor.
I don't know what I'm doing, but my incompetence has never stopped my enthusiasm.
Voices of Business & Entrepreneurship
Nobody talks of entrepreneurship as survival, but that's exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking.
Energy and persistence conquer all things.
Today we sailed on.
If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there and worrying. It's the worry that gets you, not the loss of sleep.
When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion.
I want to have fun doing my work. I want the kind of people I can sit over dinner with on a weekend. In my profession you need to be able to trust your people. I want the kind of people I like in my heart-people I can still like when I’m exhausted at 3am.
Being an entrepreneur is like eating glass and staring into the abyss of death.
You take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing, no one to blame.
Choose Well.
Make a job, don’t take a job.
I learned to always take on things I'd never done before. Growth and comfort do not coexist.
One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do.
None of us are as smart as all of us.
– Japanese proverb
Always remember...the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing!
Take our own company as an example: We're living proof, we jump with our own parachutes.
We have 3 rules at Netscape... The first rule is if you see a snake, don't call committees, don't call your buddies, don't form a team, don't get a meeting together, just kill the snake. The second rule is don't go back and play with dead snakes. Too many people waste too much time on decisions that have already been made. And the third rule of snakes is: all opportunities start out looking like snakes.
First Who…then What.
It is no harder to build something great than to build something good. It might be statistically more rare to reach greatness, but it does not require more suffering than perpetuating mediocrity.
Put your best people on your best opportunities. Not on your biggest problems.
I love those who yearn for the impossible.
If you can’t imagine it, you probably will not be able to achieve it.
The learning process can be summarized in the following 5 steps: 1. Observe 2. Act. 3. Evaluate. 4. Readjust. 5. Go back to step 2
You can’t change yesterday. You can’t count on tomorrow. But you can choose what you do today.
In the world today there’s plenty of technology, plenty of entrepreneurs, plenty of money, plenty of venture capital. What’s in short supply is great teams.
When I found that I lacked the knowledge I needed to push forward in a particular area, I’d fine the resource and go learn it.
Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.
There are going to be times when we can’t wait for somebody. Now, you’re either on the bus or off the bus.
Aim to become not the best at what you do but the only person who does what you do.
The wicked leader is he whom the people revile.
The good leader is he whom the people revere.
The great leader is he of whom the people say, we did it ourselves.
- Lao Tzu
I have had all of the disadvantages required for success.
A good rule of thumb for many things in life holds that things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then happen faster than you thought they could.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
We set our own limitations and our own boundaries.
Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn't know it so it goes on flying anyway.
We cannot become what we need to be by re-examining what we are.
Being an entrepreneur isn’t really about starting a business. It’s a way of looking at the world: seeing opportunity where others see obstacles, taking risks when others take refuge.
The first great step of any entrepreneur is to get kicked out of High School.
More persons, on the whole, are humbugged by believing in nothing, than by believing too much.
What should exist? To me, that's the most exciting question imaginable. What do we need that we don't have? How can we realize our potential?
Are you green and growing or ripe and rotting?
- Ray Kroc
You're only as good as the people you hire.
- Ray Kroc
Success is a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don’t quit when you’re tired. You quit when the gorilla is tired.
Keep in mind that neither success nor failure is ever final.
Property may be destroyed and money may lose its purchasing power; but, character, health, knowledge and good judgement will always be in demand under all conditions.
The finest command of language is often shown by saying nothing.
An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew hoping he'll quickly learn how to chew it.
- Roy Ash
High expectations are the key to everything.
Start now. Start where you are. Start with fear. Start with pain. Start with doubt. Start with hands shaking. Start with voice trembling. Just start.
I want kids to think: when I grow up, shall I be a pop star, a footballer, or an entrepreneur?
Motto: CAN I? standing for Constant And Never ending Innovation.
I want to put a ding in the universe.
Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?
The word impossible does not exist for me. I've got a lot of signal flags in my flag bag, but there is not a white one in there. I am going to keep fighting until the day I die - and might keep on fighting afterward ... depends on where I am.
My message to you is: Be courageous! I have lived a long time. I have seen history repeat itself again and again. I have seen many depressions in business. Always America has com on stronger and more prosperous. Be as brave as your fathers before you. Have faith! Go forward!
Many of life's failures are experienced by people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Pretty much everything will come to him who hustles while he waits. I believe that restlessness is discontent, and discontent is merely the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.
Unfortunately, there seems to be far more opportunity out there than ability. We should remember that good fortune often happens when opportunity meets with preparation.
If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.
The great accomplishments of man have resulted from the transmission of ideas and enthusiasm.
The way to succeed is to double your error rate.
Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing.
Voices of Science & Engineering
I never discovered anything with my rational mind.
I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.
The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.
If you don't have a consensus that it's nonsense, you don't have a breakthrough.
Research should be defined as doing something where half of the people think that’s impossible. And half of them think ...eehhhh, maybe that will work. Whenever there’s a breakthrough, a true breakthrough, you can go back and find a time period when the consensus was, well that’s nonsense. So what that means is that a true creative researcher must have confidence in nonsense.
We’re going to the stars. This is so cool.
What I do is I find the fun stuff to experiment with and learn from. Then I go out and find something else to learn from.
The world’s right now in a race between, I think, technology, competence and catastrophe. You just look at the news lately catastrophe is winning. We need more and more kids capable of taking on the challenge in a more complex, more fast-moving world.
What se see depends mainly on what we look for.
If parents pass enthusiasm along to their children, they will leave them an estate of incalculable value.
If we all did the things we are really capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.
Many of life's failures are experienced by people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
My message to you is: Be courageous! I have lived a long time. I have seen history repeat itself again and again. I have seen many depressions in business. Always America has com on stronger and more prosperous. Be as brave as your fathers before you. Have faith! Go forward!
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Pretty much everything will come to him who hustles while he waits. I believe that restlessness is discontent, and discontent is merely the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.
Unfortunately, there seems to be far more opportunity out there than ability. We should remember that good fortune often happens when opportunity meets with preparation.
From his neck down a man is worth a couple of dollars a day, from his neck up he is worth anything that his brain can produce.
Voices of Leadership
As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.
When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion.
I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration, I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they are, they will become worse. If we treat them as they could be, they will become better.
Voices of Learning & Education
Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.
Do not try to satisfy your vanity by teaching a great many things. Awaken people's curiosity. It is enough to open minds; do not overload them. Put there just a spark. If there is some good inflammable stuff, it will catch fire.
Learn something new every day.
If we stand still, we move backward as the world keeps moving forward without us.
The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.
An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.
To be a teacher is to be a prophet. We are not preparing children for the world we have lived in but for a future that we can barely imagine.
From his neck down a man is worth a couple of dollars a day, from his neck up he is worth anything that his brain can produce.
Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.
Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.
Change is the end result of all true learning.
Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.
The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”
I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.
Are you a Tigger or an Eyore?
There are no facts about the future. There are only speculations. There are trends, and we’d be wise to pay attention to them. There are some things, which are desperately urgent and threatening. But, the great hope for the future is we have this extraordinary capacity to imagine alternatives and then to act upon them. And the future will depend, I think, on the degree to which we exercise and apply our imaginations. It’s the one thing that’s taken us this far. It’s the only thing that will take us any further.
I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.
- Socrates
If parents pass enthusiasm along to their children, they will leave them an estate of incalculable value.
Voices of Politics
I will prepare and someday my chance will come.
You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.
You wouldn't worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.
Do one thing every day that scares you.
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
To reach a port we must set sail –
Sail, not tie at anchor.
Sail, not drift.
In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.
To be alive at all involves some risk.
Behind the storm of daily conflict and crisis, the dramatic confrontations, the tumult of political struggle, the poet, the artist, the musician, continues the quiet work of centuries, building bridges of experience between peoples, reminding man of the universality of his feelings and desires and despairs, and reminding him that the forces that unite are deeper than those that divide.
There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.
Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.
Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak.; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
If you're going through hell, keep going.
When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.
Voices of Wit & Wisdom
The most effective way to do it, is to do it.
Wisdom tends to grow in proportion to one's awareness of one's ignorance.
A great many worries can be diminished by realizing the unimportance of the matter which is causing anxiety.
The mind that perceives the limitation is the limitation.
- Buddha
Awesomeness is key.
-Cameron Poe (my 16 year old son)
Blessed are they that laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be entertained.
- Chinese Proverb
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
The Bible itself in Matthew 6:34 says “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.
When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion.
The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.
Security is mostly superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance.
No poem was ever written by a drinker of water.
- Homer, Greek Poet (not Simpson)
An amazing thing, the human brain. Capable of understanding incredibly complex and intricate concepts. Yet at times unable to recognize the obvious and simple.
Yes, risk-taking is inherently failure-prone. Otherwise, it would be called sure-thing-taking.
If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.
Happiness is the absence of unhappiness.
You have to learn to take rejection not as an indication of personal failing but as a wrong address.
Do remember to forget, anger, worry and regret. Love while you have love to give... live while you have life to live.
If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would get done.
Rule number one is, don't sweat the small stuff. Rule number two is, it's all small stuff.
A day of worry is more exhausting than a week of work.
True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.
- Socrates
To move the world we must first move ourselves.
- Socrates
Those who jump to conclusions may go wrong.
There's nothing wrong with being fired.
Be the weird you want to see in the world.
- Unknown
Do not disregard your mistakes.
Money is not meant to be served.
Love your work, then you will find pleasure in mastering it.
Appreciate the many things that make your life so valuable.
Act the part and you will become the part.
Don’t criticize others when you are angry with yourself.
Don’t wait for the ideal time to begin something.
Stay on a clear course.
- Unknown book excerpt
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no point in being a damn fool about it.
Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.
Confidence is going after Moby Dick in a rowboat and taking the tartar sauce with you.
Voices of the Future
The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
- Alan Kay
The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.
We're only at the beginning of what we have to do here.
The world’s right now in a race between, I think, technology, competence and catastrophe. You just look at the news lately catastrophe is winning. We need more and more kids capable of taking on the challenge in a more complex, more fast-moving world.
Depending on the lens that you want to look through, you can predict either optimism or pessimism.
Traditional thinking is all about what is. Future thinking will also need to be about what can be.
Today we are at the fork in the road. Whichever road we select is going to decide the kind of future that we’ll have.
Humans are fully in control. It’s really a matter of creating the kind of world that we want to live in.
The future can be what you make it to be. It is yours to invent. Set a clear vision for the future and go out there and make it happen. Empower yourself, believe in yourself and that's the most critical first step.
There is no such thing as a failed experiment, only experiments with unexpected outcomes.
You have to learn to take rejection not as an indication of personal failing but as a wrong address.
Exponential growth is really quite phenomenal. If I count linearly 1-2-3-4, thirty steps later I’m at thirty. If I count exponentially 2-4-8-16, thirty steps later I’m at a billion. It’s quite a difference. And, our intuition is linear, that’s why people underestimate what’s feasible in long periods of time, because they’re thinking linearly. They’re thinking the current pace of change will just continue the way it is, but it’s actually going to get faster and faster.
We’re in a world where change is the only constant on the landscape.
Voices in Our Head
I can feel guilty about the past, apprehensive about the future but only in the present can I act.
It’s the old adage, is the bottle half full or half empty? Is a challenge an opportunity or a problem? It’s a mindset.
Forgive yourself and be ready to forgive yourself in the future. You're gonna screw up. It's okay.
Optimism and empowerment are very closely linked.
The first and simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind, is curiosity.
Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
The greatest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one.
You can't start worrying about what's going to happen. You get spastic enough worrying about what's happening now.
Don't wish to be normal. Wish to be yourself. To the hilt. Find out what you're best at, and develop it, and hopscotch your weaknesses. Wish to be great at whatever you are.
I've had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.
Passion is what drives us crazy, what makes us do extraordinary things, to discover, to challenge ourselves. Passion is and should always be the heart of courage.
If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the universe against me.
This philosophy of half full, this philosophy of identifying opportunities and pursuing them applies whether you’re in a big company or starting your own company. It applies whether you’re involved in government or politics or the church. It applies in whether you’re an artist or whether you’re a CPA.
Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are our own fears.
Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.
You can essentially choose to be positive or negative. The amount of energy is the same and if you’re positive you can actually accomplish so much more.
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails
If you're going through hell, keep going.
When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.
Voices of Sport
I have no idols. I admire work, dedication and competence.
Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game”― Babe Ruth
You just have to be yourself and go full with confidence and be courageous.
To win, you have to risk loss.
Yes, risk-taking is inherently failure-prone. Otherwise, it would be called sure-thing-taking.
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.
If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough.
Voices of the Unknown
Be the weird you want to see in the world.
- Unknown
Do not disregard your mistakes.
Money is not meant to be served.
Love your work, then you will find pleasure in mastering it.
Appreciate the many things that make your life so valuable.
Act the part and you will become the part.
Don’t criticize others when you are angry with yourself.
Don’t wait for the ideal time to begin something.
Stay on a clear course.
- Unknown book excerpt
Patience. Persistence. Perseverance.
- A very wise person
Luck is what happens when preparation meets with opportunity.
- Another very wise person