David Williams's Blog, page 10

Quotes about Thinking

Here's the next section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training.


An updated version of the book is newly available as part of my Almost Free Kindle titles both in the UK and in the USA.




Few people think more than two or three times a year. I've made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.
George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright, essayist (1856-1950)



The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them.
Albert Einstein, German physicist (1879-1955)


Of one thing we can be sure. The quality of our life in the future will be determined by the quality of our thinking.
Edward de Bono, Maltese psychologist, author (b. 1933)


No one is thinking if everyone is thinking alike.
George S Patton, US general (1885-1945)


Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.
Walter Lippmann, US newspaper commentator, author (1889-1974)


Thought is action in rehearsal.
Sigmund Freud, Austrian founder of psychoanalysis (1856-1939)


Big thinking precedes great achievement.
Wilferd Arlan Peterson, US poet, author (1900-1995)


Ours is a very fast-moving field. You have to be able to step back from it. Many years ago, I decided to take a week every year and absorb myself in thinking many years ahead. I get colleagues to put together what PhD theses I should read, what products I should play with, what memos I should look at. So, it's been, except for sleeping a little bit, day and night all by myself uninterrupted. Now, because things are moving so fast, I do it twice a year.
Bill Gates, US computer engineer, entrepreneur (b. 1955)


If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you: but if you really make them think, they'll hate you.
Donald Marquis, US newspaper owner, poet, playwright (1878-1937)


All the problems in the world could be settled easily if men were only willing to think. The trouble is that men very often resort to all sorts of devices in order not to think, because thinking is such hard work.
Thomas J Watson, US businessman, founder of IBM (1874-1956)


People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid.
Soren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher (1813-1855)


Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason why so few engage in it.
Henry Ford, US automobile manufacturer, engineer (1863-1947)


Most people would rather die than think: many do.
Bertrand Russell, British philosopher, mathematician (1872-1970)


Few minds wear out; more rust out.
Christian Nestell Bovee, US author, lawyer (1820-1904)


The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working when you get up in the morning, and doesn't stop until you get to the office.
Robert Frost, US poet (1874-1963)


Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about.
Benjamin Wharf, US linguist (1897-1941)


Life does not consist mainly – or even largely – of facts and happenings. It consists mainly of the storm of thoughts that is forever blowing through one's head.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known as Mark Twain, US author (1835-1910)


All the talk about labour flexibility misses the point. It's not ways of working that need to become more flexible, it's ways of thinking.
Simon Caulkin, British journalist


Far from thinking coming after knowledge, knowledge comes on the coat tails of thinking. Therefore, instead of knowledge-centred schools we need thinking-centred schools. This is no luxury, no Utopian vision of erudite and elitist education. These are hard facts about the way learning works.
David Perkins, US psychologist

Quotes about Technology

Here's the next section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training.


An updated version of the book is newly available as part of my Almost Free Kindle titles both in the UK and in the USA.



For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three.
Alice Kahn, US author, journalist

When all else fails, read the instructions.   While modern technology has given people powerful new communication tools, it apparently can do nothing to alter the fact that many people have nothing useful to say. Lee Gomes, US journalist
Conversations are the way knowledge workers discover what they know, share it with colleagues, and in the process create new knowledge for the organisation. The panoply of modern information and communication technology – for example, computers, faxes, email – can help knowledge workers in this process. But all depends upon the quality of the conversations that such technologies support. Alan Webber, US editor, author, presenter (b. 1948) Increasing access to technology improves overall wealth, but also exacerbates inequality, because access benefits the information-rich the most. John Browning, US scientist, author
The most exciting breakthroughs of the 21st century will not occur because of technology but because of an expanding concept of what it means to be human. John Naisbitt & Patricia Aburdene, US futurist authors (Naisbitt b. 1929; Aburdene b. 1968)
Like it or not, we are entering a phase in which the economy is dominated by technology – therefore dominated by increasing returns and by permanent transience instead of equilibrium. W Brian Arthur, Irish economist (b. 1945)

Quotes about Teamwork

Here's the next section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training.


An updated version of the book is newly available as part of my Almost Free Kindle titles both in the UK and in the USA.


Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.
Henry Ford, US automobile manufacturer, engineer (1863-1947)

Teamwork is essential. It allows you to blame someone else.


Upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all.
Alexander the Great, King of Macedon (356-323 BC)


When a blind man carries a lame man, both go forward.
Joseph Stalin, Georgian-born Soviet statesman (1879-1953)


Not even mighty warriors can break a frail arrow when it is multiplied and supported by its fellows. As long as you brothers support one another and render assistance to one another, your enemies can never gain the victory over you. But if you fall away from one another, you can be broken like a frail arrow, one at a time.
Borjigin Temüjin, known as Genghis Khan, founder of the Mongol empire (1162-1227)


A single arrow is easily broken, but not ten in a bundle.
Japanese proverb


When spiders unite they can tie down a lion.
Ethiopian proverb


A paddle here, a paddle there – the canoe stays still.
African proverb


One thing I believe to the fullest is that if you think and achieve as a team, the individual accolades will take care of themselves. Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.
Michael Jordan, US basketball player (b. 1963)


Ask not what your team-mates can do for you. Ask what you can do for your team-mates.
Earvin 'Magic' Johnson, US basketball player (b. 1959)


It's hard to work in groups when you're omnipotent.
Q, character in 'Star Trek: The Next Generation', created by Gene Roddenberry (1921-1991)


There is no limit to what a man can achieve as long as he doesn't care who gets the credit.
Bob Woodruff, US country singer songwriter (b. 1961)


The world is moved along, not only be the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.
Helen Keller, US author, lecturer (1880-1968)


The longer a management team is exposed to the problems of the real world the greater is the need to be prepared for a full range of problems and situations, and to have a team ready to meet them.
Raymond Meredith Belbin, British academic, management researcher (b. 1926)

Quotes about Success

Here's the next section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training.


An updated version of the book is newly available as part of my Almost Free Kindle titles both in the UK and in the USA.



Secrets for success:
1.      Get up early.
2.      Work hard.
3.      Find oil.
J P Getty, US industrialist (1892-1976)

If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
Here is the prime condition of success: having begun on one line, resolve to fight it out on that line, to lead in it, adopt every improvement, have the best machinery, and know the most about it.
Andrew Carnegie, British industrialist, philanthropist (1835-1919)


Success is a great deodorant.
Elizabeth Taylor, British/US actress (1932-2011)


Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.
Napoleon Bonaparte, French soldier, statesman, revolutionary (1769-1821)


Most successes are unhappy. That's why they are successes – they have to reassure themselves about themselves by achieving something that the world will notice.
Agatha Christie, British author (1890-1976)


Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
Herman Cain, US food executive (b. 1945)


Success in highest and noblest form calls for peace of mind and enjoyment and happiness which comes only to the man who has found the work he likes best.
Napoleon Hill, US motivational author, lecturer (1883-1970)


The fact remains that the overwhelming majority of people who have become wealthy have become so thanks to work they found profoundly absorbing. The long term study of people who eventually became wealthy clearly reveals that their 'luck' arose from accidental dedication they had to an area they enjoyed.
Srully Blotnick, US management author, journalist (1941-2004)


 We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like?
Jean Cocteau, French poet, playwright, film director (1889-1963)


Everybody loves success, but they hate successful people.
John McEnroe, US tennis player, sports commentator (b. 1959)


It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.
Gore Vidal, US author, essayist (b. 1925)


Eighty percent of success is showing up.
Allen Stewart Konigsberg, known as Woody Allen, US film actor, director (b. 1935)


I always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific.
Mary Jean 'Lily' Tomlin, US comic actress (b. 1939)


Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit.
Conrad Hilton, US businessman, founder of Hilton Hotels (1887-1979)


Nothing recedes like success.
Walter Winchell, US journalist, broadcaster (1897-1972)


Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success.
Joyce Brothers, US TV personality, psychologist (b. 1927)


To know how to wait is the great secret of success.
Joseph Marie De Maistre, French diplomat, author (1753-1821)

Quotes about Size

Here's the next section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training.


An updated version of the book is newly available as part of my Almost Free Kindle titles both in the UK and in the USA.




Hey, size works against excellence.
Bill Gates, US computer engineer, entrepreneur (b. 1955)


Size isn't everything. The whale is endangered, while the ant continues to do just fine.
Bill Vaughan, US journalist, author (1915-1977)


If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room.
Anita Roddick, British retail executive, founder of The Body Shop (1942-2007)

Anita Roddick


Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.
E F Schumacher, German/British economist (1911-1977)


What we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But if that drop was not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less because of that missing drop. I do not agree with the big way of doing things.
Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, known as Mother Teresa, Albanian charity worker (1910-1997)


It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it.
Steven Wright, US comedian (b. 1955)

Quotes about Selling

Here's the next section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training.


An updated version of the book is newly available as part of my Almost Free Kindle titles both in the UK and in the USA.



If you want to buy from us we speak English, but if you want to sell to us you must speak German.
Helmut Kohl, German statesman (b. 1930)


The merchant has no country.
Thomas Jefferson, US President (1741-1826)


Production minus sales equals scrap.
John Fenton, British sales author, presenter


When we sell products, we don't sell objects, we sell feelings.
Geoff Burch, British management author, presenter (b. 1951)


It's not creative unless it sells.
David Ogilvy, US advertising executive (1911-1919)


Plan the sale when you plan the ad.
Leo Burnett, US advertising executive (1891-1971)


Don't say yes until I finish talking.
Darryl F Zanuck, US film producer, script writer (1902-1979)


Consultants don't come to your business to give you advice – they come to raise an invoice.
Alan Sugar, British entrepreneur, founder of Amstrad (b. 1947)
Lord Sugar


You can't stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.
Winnie the Pooh, character in a book by A A Milne (1882-1956)


Life is pain. Anyone who says differently is selling something.
Westley, character in the film 'The Princess Bride' written by William Goldman (b. 1931)

Quotes about Self-Confidence

Here's the next section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training.


An updated version of the book is newly available as part of my Almost Free Kindle titles both in the UK and in the USA.


For a man to achieve all that's demanded of him he must regard himself as greater than he is.
Johann Wolfgang Goethe, German poet, letter-writer (1749-1832)


And above all things, never think that you're not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. My belief is that in life people will take you at your own reckoning.
Anthony Trollope, British author (1815-1882)


No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Eleanor Roosevelt, US United Nations delegate (1884-1962)


If you are always worried about how you are performing a task, about how others perceive your performance, you will never perform it well. Performance requires forgetting yourself.
Richard Saul Wurman, US architect, author (b. 1935)


The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself – the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us – that's where it's at.
Jesse Owens, US athlete (1913-1980)

Jesse Owens
 

When we examine our self-image we tend to find that it has been formulated by the information we have been given by others about ourselves; the art teacher who continually tells us we will never be a painter; the parent who tells us every day that we are too soft and sensitive; the bully who is praised by his bully father; and so on.
Trevor J Bentley, US facilitator, author


Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Nelson Mandela, South African statesman (b. 1918)


Getting ahead in a difficult profession requires avid faith in yourself. That is why some people with mediocre talent, but with great inner drive, go much further than people with a vastly superior talent.
Sofia Villani Scicolone, known as Sophia Loren, Italian actress (b. 1934)


The real 'haves' are they who can acquire freedom, self-confidence, and even riches without depriving others of them. They acquire all of these by developing and applying their potentialities. On the other hand, the real 'have nots' are they who cannot have aught except by depriving others of it. They can feel free only by diminishing the freedom of others, self-confident by spreading fear and dependence among others, and rich by making others poor.
Eric Hoffer, US philosopher, author, longshoreman (1902-1983)


An individual's self-concept is the core of his personality. It affects every aspect of human behaviour: the ability to learn, the capacity to grow and change. A strong, positive self-image is the best possible preparation for success in life.
Joyce Brothers, US TV personality, psychologist (b. 1927)


Confidence is believing you have something to teach; arrogance is the belief you have nothing to learn.
Dale Dauten, US newspaper columnist (b. 1950)


There are two types of people – those who come into a room and say: 'Well, here I am!' and those who come in and say, 'Well, there you are!'
Frederick L Collins


I can say, 'I am terribly frightened and fear is terrible and awful and it makes me uncomfortable, so I won't do that because it's uncomfortable.' Or I could say, 'Get used to being uncomfortable.' It is uncomfortable doing something that's risky. But so what? Do you want to stagnate and just be comfortable?
Barbra Streisand, US singer, actress (b. 1942)


Be thine own palace, or the world's thy jail.
John Donne, British poet (1572-1631)


Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.
Samuel Johnson, British poet, critic, lexicographer (1709-1784)

Quotes about Rules

Here's the next section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training.


An updated version of the book is newly available as part of my Almost Free Kindle titles both in the UK and in the USA.



Hey, there are no rules here – we're trying to accomplish something.
Thomas Alva Edison, US inventor (1847-1931)



Rule No. 6:
Don't take yourself so goddam' seriously.
There are no other rules.
Benjamin Zander, British conductor, management author (b. 1939)


The fun isn't in the rules, it's in the doing.
David Firth, British management author (b. 1949)


The golden rule is that there are no golden rules.
George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright, essayist (1856-1950)

Quotes about Role Models

Here's the next section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training.


An updated version of the book is newly available as part of my Almost Free Kindle titles both in the UK and in the USA.

 

Lives of great men remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, US poet (1807-1882)


Leaders get out in front and stay there by raising the standards by which they judge themselves – and by which they are willing to be judged.
Frederick Smith, British politician (1872-1930)


The core leadership strategy is simple: be a model. Commit yourself to your own personal mastery. Talking about personal mastery may open people's minds somewhat, but actions always speak louder than words. There's nothing more powerful you can do to encourage others in their quest for personal mastery than to be serious in your own quest.
Peter Senge, US management author, presenter (b. 1947)


Become a role model. Like a good doctor, keep learning. Demonstrate that you are a synthesiser, or better yet a humaniser, rather than merely an analyser or energiser by participating in the interactive dialogue and defining part of your work as the development of people and teams.
Michael Maccoby, US management author, psychologist (b. 1933)


If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.
Confucius, Chinese philosopher, teacher (551-479 BC)

Confucius

Excellence is a better teacher than mediocrity. The lessons of the ordinary are everywhere. Truly profound and original insights are to be found only in studying the exemplary.
Warren Bennis, US academic, management author (b. 1925)


People have more need for models than for critics.
Scott Simmerman, US management consultant (b. 1948)


Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known as Mark Twain, US author (1835-1910)

Quotations about Risk

Here's the next section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training.


An updated version of the book is newly available as part of my Almost Free Kindle titles both in the UK and in the USA.

 

The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.
Cornelius Tacitus, Roman historian (55-120 AD)
If the odds are a million to one against something occurring, chances are 50-50 it will.
People wish to learn to swim and at the same time to keep one foot on the ground. Marcel Proust, French author (1871-1922)
A ship in harbour is safe. But that is not what ships are built for. William Shedd, US author, moralist (1820-1894)
People cannot discover new oceans until they lose sight of the shore. André Gide, French novelist, critic (1869-1951)
Don't play for safety – it's the most dangerous thing in the world. Horace Walpole, British author (1717-1797)
And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more. Erica Jong, US author, poet (b. 1942)
Safe is risky. Gene Pressman, US clothing retailer
To win without risk is to triumph without glory. Pierre Corneille, French playwright (1606-1684)
It is the business of the future to be dangerous. Alfred North Whitehead, British philosopher, mathematician (1861-1947)
What would you attempt if you knew you could not fail? Robert Schuller, US clergyman, author (b. 1926)
There is always a certain risk in being alive, and if you are more alive there is more risk. Henrick Ibsen, Norwegian playwright, poet (1828-1906)
If you play safe in life, you've decided that you don't want to grow any more. Shirley Hufstedler, US lawyer, federal judge (b. 1925)
Be daring, be different, be impractical; be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary. Cecil Beaton, British photographer (1904-1980)
There are risks and costs to a programme of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction. John F Kennedy, US President (1917-1963)
A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain. Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known as Mark Twain, US author (1835-1910)
A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don't need it. Leslie Townes Hope, known as Bob Hope, British/US comedian (1903-2003)