David Williams's Blog, page 12

Quotes on Presentation

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.


It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known as Mark Twain, US author (1835-1910)


I can never remember being afraid of an audience. If the audience could do better, they'd be up here on stage and I'd be out there watching them.
Ethel Merman, US singer, actress (1909-1984)

Ethel Merman

It's all right to have butterflies in your stomach. Just get them to fly in formation.
Rob Gilbert, Australian academic, sociologist


If I went back to college again, I'd concentrate on two areas: learning to write and to speak before an audience. Nothing in life is more important than the ability to communicate effectively.
Gerald Ford, US President (1913-2006)


No one can say just how long a message should be, but you rarely hear complaints about a speech being too short. The amateur worries about what he is going to put in his speech. The expert worries about what he should take out. An artistic performance is concentrated, has a central focus.
Edgar Dale, US media guru (1900-1985)

Quotes about Predictions

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.



Prediction is extremely difficult. Especially about the future.
Niels Bohr, Danish physicist (1885-1962)


Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for further development.
Sextus Julius Frontinus, Roman engineer (40-103 AD)


Everything that can be invented has been invented.
Charles Duell, US director of Patents Office (1850-1920)


What, sir, would you make a ship sail against the wind and currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck? I pray you excuse me. I have no time to listen to such nonsense.
Napoleon Bonaparte, French soldier, statesman, revolutionary (1769-1821)


Rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia.
Dionysius Lardner, British scientist (1793-1859)


This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.
Western Union internal memo (1876)


The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys.
William Preece, British chief engineer of the Post Office (1834-1913)


Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.
William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, British physicist (1824-1907)


While theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and financially I consider it an impossibility, a development of which we need waste little time dreaming.
Lee DeForest, US inventor (1873-1961)


We must not be misled to our own detriment to assume that the untried machine can displace the proved and tried horse.
John K Herr, US general (1878-1955)


There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom.
Robert Millikan, US physicist, Nobel Prize winner (1868-1953)


Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?
H M Warner, Polish/US Hollywood producer (1881-1953)


The talking picture will not supplant the regular silent motion picture.
Thomas Alva Edison, US inventor (1847-1931)
Thomas Edison

The phonograph is not of any commercial value.
Thomas Alva Edison, US inventor (1847-1931)


I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.
Thomas J Watson, US businessman, founder of IBM (1874-1956)


Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.
Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science (1949)


It would appear that we have reached the limits of what is possible to achieve with computer technology, although one should be careful with such statements, as they tend to sound pretty silly in five years.
John Van Neumann, US mathematician (1903-1957)


There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.
Kenneth Harry Olsen, US executive, President of Digital Equipment (1926-2011)


We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.
Decca Recording Company, rejecting the Beatles (1962)


The concept is interesting and well-informed, but in order to earn better than a 'C', the idea must be feasible.
Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express.)


So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built some of the parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'
Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computer Inc (b. 1955)

Quotes about Power

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.



Being in power is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't.
Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister (b. 1925)

Margaret Thatcher (stuff of my nightmares)

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
Abraham Lincoln, US President (1809-1865)


It's not a question of how much power you can hoard for yourself, but how much you can give away.
Benjamin Zander, British conductor, management presenter (b. 1939)


He who has great power should use it lightly.
Seneca, Roman philosopher, statesman, author (3 BC-65 AD)


Never underestimate the power of the powerless.
David Williams, British author, presenter (b. 1950)

Quotes about Possibility

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.


Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet, letter-writer (1749-1832)

Anything is possible if you don't know what you're talking about.   There is no person living who isn't capable of doing more than he thinks he can do. Henry Ford, US automobile manufacturer, engineer (1863-1947)
First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do. Epictetus, Greek philosopher (55-135 AD)
I only speak to the 'A' in people and I set as the goal the maximum capacity that people have. I settle for no less. I make myself a relentless architect of the possibilities of human beings. Benjamin Zander, British conductor, management presenter (b. 1939)
To find in ourselves what makes life worth living is a risky business, for it means that once we know we must seek it. It also means that without it life will be valueless. Marsha Sinetar, US management author
It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow. Bob Goddard, US physicist, rocketry pioneer (1882-1945)
You wake up in the morning, and your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours of unmanufactured tissue of the universe of life! It is yours. It is the most precious of possessions. No one can take it from you. And no one receives more or less than you receive. Arnold Bennett, British novelist (1867-1913)
I am inclined by nature to be optimistic about the capacity of a person to rise higher than he or she has thought possible once interest and ambition are aroused. Dwight D Eisenhower, US President, general (1890-1969)
Things are only impossible until they're not. Captain Jean-Luc Picard, character in 'Star Trek: The Next Generation', created by Gene Roddenberry (1921-1991)
If an elderly but distinguished scientist says that something is possible he is almost certainly right, but if he says that it is impossible he is very probably wrong. Arthur C Clarke, British author (1917-2008)
What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us. Ralph Waldo Emerson, US essayist, poet (1803-1882)
Of course we all have our limits, but how can you possibly find your boundaries unless you explore as far and as wide as you possibly can? I would rather fail in an attempt at something new and uncharted than safely succeed in a repeat of something I have done. Aaron E Hotchner, US author (b. 1920)
If someone says 'can't', that shows you what to do. John Cage, US composer (1912-1992)
Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstance. Bruce Barton, US author, advertising executive (1886-1967)

Quotes about Planning

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 are leaping a ravine, the moment of takeoff is a bad time for considering alternative strategies.
John Cleese, British actor, author (b. 1939)





Plans are useless, but planning is essential.
Dwight D Eisenhower, US President, general (1890-1969)


Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.
Henry Ford, US automobile manufacturer, engineer (1863-1947)


Chance favours only the prepared mind.
Louis Pasteur, French chemist, microbiologist (1822-1895)


Organisation can never be a substitute for initiative and judgement.
Louis Brandeis, US supreme court justice (1856-1941)


Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
John Lennon, British pop musician, co-founder of The Beatles (1940-1980)

Quotes about Passion

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.



Only passion, great passion, can elevate the human soul to achieve great things.
Denis Diderot, French philosopher (1713-1784)


We may affirm absolutely that nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, German philosopher (1770-1831)


I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.
Joseph Campbell, US author, editor (1904-1987)


One person with a belief is equal to a force of 99 who have only interests.
John Stuart Mill, British philosopher, economist (1806-1873)
John Stuart Mill

Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
Kahlil Gibran, Lebanese philosopher, author, poet (1883-1931)


Champions aren't made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep in them – a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have the skill, and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.
Muhammad Ali, US heavyweight boxing champion (b. 1942)


There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the infinite passion of life.
Federico Fellini, Italian film director (1920-1993)

Quotes about Paperwork

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.



Report writing, like motor-car driving and love-making, is one of those activities which almost every Englishman thinks he can do well without instruction. The results of course are usually abominable.
Tom Margerison, US photographer


What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure. Samuel Johnson, British poet, critic, lexicographer (1709-1784)
Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank piece of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead. Gene Fowler, US journalist, biographer (1890-1960)
Having imagination, it takes you an hour to write a paragraph that, if you were unimaginative, would take you only a minute. Or you might not write the paragraph at all. Franklin P Adams, US journalist, poet, radio personality (1881-1960)
How do I know what I think until I see what I say? E M Forster, British author (1879-1970)

Reading at the wedding

Never mind the Royal Wedding; my 33-year-old daughter was married last week at Gretna Green. She asked me if I would read something for her as part of the ceremony, and of course I said I would. Yet despite an extensive search I could find nothing suitable among the published work I knew.  

It's not that I was being picky; I had a particular problem in choosing what to read. You see, for ten years my daughter was married to a man we all loved, Robbie, and they had  a boy and girl together. Everything was fine until a little over two years ago, quite unexpectedly, Robbie died of a rapid virulent cancer.
We all think it's great that Joni has now found a new love in her life. The children adore him, and last week they acted respectively as seven-year-old best man and nine-year-old bridesmaid at our tiny ceremony – they even had short speeches to make, which they performed immaculately. My problem was that I wanted to acknowledge the past, and particularly Robbie, in the reading without it becoming maudlin or distracting from the present joyful occasion. I felt I needed to write something of my own. 
Photographs are important to our family. My wife, especially, likes to take pictures of our get-togethers and celebrations, and these are prominent around our house and our daughter's – in regular frames and digital frames, in albums, and on the home screens of our laptop computers. We all like to see Robbie's smiling face popping up, here and there, among the other family images. Pictures, then, became the theme for my poem, my way of having Robbie there without sadness, and my way of marrying the past, present and future. 
Pictures is only three short verses, and there were only ten people in the room when I read it, but I have never been so nervous, at least until I saw my daughter's face light up with the recognition of what I was aiming for with the poem. I grew more confident once I knew I'd won her approval, and my reading ended in the warmth of fond appreciation. What I didn't know at the time was that she had secretly compiled an album of pictures to chronicle the year that had passed since she met her new husband - an illustrated journal of their relationship to date which she presented him at the wedding meal; this made my poem seem more appropriate and poignant.
Pictures was written for this very particular special occasion, but I'd like to think there is something universally applicable in what it has to say, and I hope it appeals to others outside our family circle.

Pictures These days of our lives are framed in pictures;holidays, babies, celebrations,for recollection in tranquillity,for 'What year was this?', 'Oh, look at you';for remembrance, when people go. 
This day of our lives we'll frame in pictures;red dress, white dress, prettiness;boys wrapped in silk ties and sly grins;our happiness set free andcaptured in pictures for  
Those days, those quiet dayswhen we lay them in their place beside the others,and on our knees retrace the long line of our lives.

Quotes about Pace

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 first man gets the oyster, the second man gets the shell.Andrew Carnegie, British industrialist, philanthropist (1835-1919)


Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.
Donald Marquis, US newspaper owner, poet, playwright (1878-1937)


Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.
Will Rogers, US actor, humorist (1879-1935)


We live in an age when pizza gets to your home before the police.
Jeff Marder, US humorist, TV presenter (b. 1961)


If everything's under control, you're going too slow.
Mario Andretti, Italian racing driver (b. 1940)


The speed of the boss is the speed of the team.
Lee Iacocca, US automotive executive (b. 1924)


There is more to life than increasing its speed.
Mahatma Gandhi, Indian nationalist leader (1869-1948)


The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.
Harry Emerson Fosdick, US clergyman, author (1878-1969)

Quotes about Opportunity

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 opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.
Milton Berlinger, known as Milton Berle, US actor (1908-2002)


Ability is nothing without opportunity.
Napoleon Bonaparte, French soldier, statesman, revolutionary (1769-1821)
Napoleon Bonaparte

When one door closes, another opens, but we often look so long and regretfully upon the closed door, we do not see the ones which open for us.
Alexander Graham Bell, British inventor (1847-1922)


There is no security on this earth, there is only opportunity.
Douglas McArthur, US general (1880-1964)


Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas Alva Edison, US inventor (1847-1931)


When written in Chinese, the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.
John F Kennedy, US President (1917-1963)


We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities.
Walt Kelly, US satirist (1913-1973)


The untalented are more at ease in a society that gives them valid alibis for not achieving than in one where opportunities are abundant.Eric Hoffer, US philosopher, author, longshoreman (1902-1983)