Mike > Mike's Quotes

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“No one learns as much about a subject as one who is forced to teach it.”
― Peter Drucker

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
― Mark Twain

“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”
― Winston S. Churchill

“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, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were 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.”
― Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles"

“Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well.”
― Mark Twain

“There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of life.
" Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget, that until the day God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these two words, 'Wait and Hope.”
― Alexandre Dumas

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
― Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't

“no man who is resolved to make the most of himself can spare time for personal contention, still less can he afford to take the consequences, including the vitiation of his temper and the loss of self control, yield to larger things to which you show no more than equal rights, and yield to lesser ones though clearly your own, better give your path to a dog, than be bitten by him in contesting for the right, not even killing the dog, will cure the bite”
― Abraham Lincoln

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes.”
― Charles R. Swindoll

“Vocation” comes from the Latin vocare (to call) and means the work a man is called to by God.

There are all different kinds of voices calling you to all different kinds of work, and the problem is to find out which is the voice of God rather than of society, say, or the superego, or self-interest.

The kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work (a) that you need to do and (b) that the world needs to have done. If you find your work rewarding, you have presumably met requirement (a), but if your work does not benefit others, the chances are you have missed requirement (b).

On the other hand, if your work does benefit others, you have probably met requirement (b), but if most of the time you are unhappy with it, the chances are you have not only bypassed (a) but probably aren’t helping your customers much either.

Neither the hair shirt nor the soft berth will do. The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s hunger meet.”
― Frederick Buechner

“When men climb on a great mountain together the rope between them is more than a mere physical aid to the ascent; it is a symbol of the spirit of the enterprise. It is a symbol of men banded together in a common effort of will and strength, not against an imagined foeman of the instant but against their only true enemies; inertia, cowardice, greed, ignorance and all weaknesses of the spirit.”
― Charles S Houston

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.”
― Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack

“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“When you're testing to see how deep water is, never use two feet.”
― Ben Franklin

“Trouble knocked at the door, but, hearing laughter, hurried away”
― Benjamin Franklin

“For the want of a nail the shoe was lost,
For the want of a shoe the horse was lost,
For the want of a horse the rider was lost,
For the want of a rider the battle was lost,
For the want of a battle the kingdom was lost,
And all for the want of a horseshoe-nail.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“If a man could have half of his wishes, he would double his troubles.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Speak ill of no man, but speak all the good you know of everybody.”
― Ben Franklin

“Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one's self.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry