Category: Quotes … Thu

If you treat an individual as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Update:
It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him.

~ John Steinbeck

“To boldly go where no man has gone before.”
~ Star Trek

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.”
~ Henry David Thoreau*

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it…Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”
~ Goethe

“Do not yield to misfortunes, but advance more boldly to meet them, as your fortune permits you.”
~ Virgil

“It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly.”

~ Isaac Asimov

“You must play boldly to win.”
~ Arnold Palmer

——————–
A friend of mine once started a company whose name was a play on the word BOLD. That’s the way to live life – boldly.

* This quote is quoted differently on the 43 things site of what people what to do. It reads here as, “Go forth boldly in the direction of your dreams; live the life you’ve imagined.”
Henry David Thoreau on 43 things

“Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.”
~ Douglas MacArthur

“How long should you try? Until.”
~ Jim Rohn

“Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th.”
~ Julie Andrews

“Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other”
~ Walter Elliott

“I keep remembering one of my Guru’s teachings about happiness. She says that people universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will maybe descend upon you like fine weather if you’re fortunate enough. But that’s not how happiness works. Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it. If you don’t, you will leak away your innate contentment. It’s easy enough to pray when you’re in distress but continuing to pray even when your crisis has passed is like a sealing process, helping your soul hold tight to its good attainments.”

~ Liz Gilbert, on “Diligent Joy,” p. 260 of Eat, Pray, Love

“You can’t get anyone to change unless they want to.”

“What’s the point of picking an argument? I’ll still have my views and you’ll still have yours.”

“People who push someone to do something usually just wish someone would push them instead.”

“Forgiveness is the lynchpin of humanity.”

“I don’t spend my energy in battle.”

A colleague of mine from the MAPP program, Margaret Greenberg, is an executive coach and runs a organizational effectiveness consulting practice. She says some absolutely wonderful things! Margaret emphasizes fulfillment and balance in working with individuals and teams. I am big fan of Margaret’s action-based approaches. Some of my favorites of her quotes:

On concrete tasks:

“What’s the point of spending hours on something until you know what the value of it will be?”

On finishing projects and sending them off for comments:

“Get it out the door!”

And others:

“Start with WHO and WHAT you know.”

“We’re human beings, not human doings.”

Update: More Margaret-isms! (4-5-07)

* Our lives go in the direction we tell ourselves.
* What if it were easy?
* Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.

* When all is said and done, more is said than done.
* What would your future self, you 20 years from now, have to say about that?