Quotable Quotes
There's a great power in words if you don't hitch too many of them together - Josh Billings
Words inspire us to action. They focus our thoughts, unite us as we work towards a common goal, give us pause for thought, make us laugh and help us reflect on what we have already done.
I use quotes in workshops and presentations as well as in my books.
Here are about five dozen that I've used over the years.
I hope you get as much use out of them as I and my clients have.
Some are famous and everyone knows them, some are less so and some will be new to you because they are either my own words or those of clients that I and their colleagues found inspiring, interesting, amusing or they are words that summed up exactly where they were, where they wanted to get to or what they wanted to achieve.
Click here to download a pdf of the quotes
The world makes way for those who know where they’re going – and helps those who want to get there
Modified comment by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Tell the wind and the fire where to stop, don’t tell me
Madame Defarge, A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
Goals work when you do
It’s not just your head that’s in the game – your heart and your guts are in there, too
I have nothing to declare but my genius
Oscar Wilde
Good ideas are like beards – a man cannot have one until he grows up
Voltaire
Originality is nothing but judicious imitation
Voltaire
Know what you aspire to and nothing will be the small stuff you’re told not to sweat
For 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 battle was lost
For the want of a battle the kingdom was lost
And all for the want of a nail
Richard III lost the Battle of Bosworth because his horse threw a shoe and went lame. The result was that the Tudor dynasty began so - Sweat the small stuff!
Great aches from little toe corns grow
Benny Hill (Sweat the small stuff)
Goals don’t run themselves unless, like a truck, they’re headed downhill
Dare mighty things, even though checkered with failure, rather than to rank with those grey souls that know neither victory nor defeat
President Theodore Roosevelt
Shoot for the moon – you’ll miss your foot
Youthful ambition is the last refuge of an elderly failure
Modified comment by Oscar Wilde
The secret of success is constancy to purpose
Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli
To achieve happiness we should make sure we are never without an important goal
Earl Nightingale
Begin at the beginning and carry on until you reach the end and then stop
The White Rabbit in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
If your head and your heart are moving in the right direction you needn’t worry about your feet
Be the best not the biggest - biggest will happen
Great minds have great purposes
Washington Irving
Any fool can have a goal; how many have set out in search of the Holy Grail?
Set valid goals and avoid being a fool
Well done is better than well said
Benjamin Franklin
You gotta do the ‘do’
When you determine what you want you have made the most important decision in your life. You have to know what you want in order to attain it
Douglas Lurtan
Think of your forefathers! Think of your prosperity?
John Quincy Adams
Begin with the end in mind
Steven Covey
Men, their rights and nothing more. Women, their rights and nothing less
Susan B. Anthony
Men have their infancy, teams have their infancy. Infancy must not last
Modified comment by Sir John Bolingbroke
Nothing will be attained if all possible objections must first be overcome
Pursue worthy aims
Solon
Genius begins with identifying oneself with a great principle
Modified comment by George Hegel
The business of our team is business
Modified comment by President Calvin Coolidge
Everything bows to success
Victor Hugo
Set positive goals and clarify your expectations
Steve Strasser
Long-range goals overcome short-term failures
If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs
And blaming it on you.
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting, too
Rudyard Kipling
Know your chosen outcomes but set goals about your performances
SMARTER Goals build unity of purpose and clarity of direction
Goal-setting is important; goal-doing is essential
Whether you believe you can or whether you believe you can’t you’re probably right
Henry Ford
Your End Goal might be far off but your next step is very close
End Goal – Performance Goal – Process Goal – Key Task – Next Step
Sow Thoughts and reap Ideas. Sow Ideas and reap Actions. Sow Actions and reap Habits. Sow Habits and reap Your Destiny. Your Destiny is not out there waiting for you to find it; you drag it along behind you every day until you finally notice it
Someone with a burning ambition is seldom fired
“I want to develop a way to purify milk.”
Louis Pasteur
“I want to develop a way to purify milk but”
Howard Mesmer
When was the last time you drank a pint of mesmerized milk?
A man’s reach should exceed his grasp or what is Heaven for?
Robert Browning
If you decide to settle for second that will be the best you’ll ever get
President John F. Kennedy
The first two letters of GOAL are GO
A goal properly set is halfway reached
Making mistakes is human
Making the same mistake twice Is stupid – it’s a waste of time, effort and money
We are star-stuff harvesting starlight
Carl Sagan
I will be good
Queen Victoria on her accession
What worked?
What could have worked better?
What have we learned?
What will we do next time?
The Achievement Sequence
If you can dream it you can do it
Those who can, do
Those who cannot, teach
Those who cannot teach, teach others how to teach
And those who cannot even do that tell the world that they are consultants
“Business first, pleasure afterwards” as King Richard III said when he stabbed the other king in the Tower, before he smothered the princes
Sam Weller, The Pickwick Papers - Charles Dickens
It is easier to be critical than it is to be correct
Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli
All generalizations are dangerous – even this one
Alexandre Dumas (fils)
Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits
Thomas Edison
Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration
Thomas Edison
I didn’t fail a thousand times to invent the electric light bulb, I merely found a thousand ways to make it better
Thomas Edison (there, actually, 6000 experiments in all)
When you’re down in the mouth, think of Jonah – he came out alright
Thomas Edison
A man is willing to die for an idea until the idea becomes clear to him
Paul Eldridge
Avoid being like the cock who believes the sun rises merely to hear him crow
Modified comment by George Eliot
In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence
Laurence J. Peter (The Peter Principle)
There's a great power in words if you don't hitch too many of them together - Josh Billings
Words inspire us to action. They focus our thoughts, unite us as we work towards a common goal, give us pause for thought, make us laugh and help us reflect on what we have already done.
I use quotes in workshops and presentations as well as in my books.
Here are about five dozen that I've used over the years.
I hope you get as much use out of them as I and my clients have.
Some are famous and everyone knows them, some are less so and some will be new to you because they are either my own words or those of clients that I and their colleagues found inspiring, interesting, amusing or they are words that summed up exactly where they were, where they wanted to get to or what they wanted to achieve.
Click here to download a pdf of the quotes
The world makes way for those who know where they’re going – and helps those who want to get there
Modified comment by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Tell the wind and the fire where to stop, don’t tell me
Madame Defarge, A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
Goals work when you do
It’s not just your head that’s in the game – your heart and your guts are in there, too
I have nothing to declare but my genius
Oscar Wilde
Good ideas are like beards – a man cannot have one until he grows up
Voltaire
Originality is nothing but judicious imitation
Voltaire
Know what you aspire to and nothing will be the small stuff you’re told not to sweat
For 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 battle was lost
For the want of a battle the kingdom was lost
And all for the want of a nail
Richard III lost the Battle of Bosworth because his horse threw a shoe and went lame. The result was that the Tudor dynasty began so - Sweat the small stuff!
Great aches from little toe corns grow
Benny Hill (Sweat the small stuff)
Goals don’t run themselves unless, like a truck, they’re headed downhill
Dare mighty things, even though checkered with failure, rather than to rank with those grey souls that know neither victory nor defeat
President Theodore Roosevelt
Shoot for the moon – you’ll miss your foot
Youthful ambition is the last refuge of an elderly failure
Modified comment by Oscar Wilde
The secret of success is constancy to purpose
Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli
To achieve happiness we should make sure we are never without an important goal
Earl Nightingale
Begin at the beginning and carry on until you reach the end and then stop
The White Rabbit in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
If your head and your heart are moving in the right direction you needn’t worry about your feet
Be the best not the biggest - biggest will happen
Great minds have great purposes
Washington Irving
Any fool can have a goal; how many have set out in search of the Holy Grail?
Set valid goals and avoid being a fool
Well done is better than well said
Benjamin Franklin
You gotta do the ‘do’
When you determine what you want you have made the most important decision in your life. You have to know what you want in order to attain it
Douglas Lurtan
Think of your forefathers! Think of your prosperity?
John Quincy Adams
Begin with the end in mind
Steven Covey
Men, their rights and nothing more. Women, their rights and nothing less
Susan B. Anthony
Men have their infancy, teams have their infancy. Infancy must not last
Modified comment by Sir John Bolingbroke
Nothing will be attained if all possible objections must first be overcome
Pursue worthy aims
Solon
Genius begins with identifying oneself with a great principle
Modified comment by George Hegel
The business of our team is business
Modified comment by President Calvin Coolidge
Everything bows to success
Victor Hugo
Set positive goals and clarify your expectations
Steve Strasser
Long-range goals overcome short-term failures
If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs
And blaming it on you.
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting, too
Rudyard Kipling
Know your chosen outcomes but set goals about your performances
SMARTER Goals build unity of purpose and clarity of direction
Goal-setting is important; goal-doing is essential
Whether you believe you can or whether you believe you can’t you’re probably right
Henry Ford
Your End Goal might be far off but your next step is very close
End Goal – Performance Goal – Process Goal – Key Task – Next Step
Sow Thoughts and reap Ideas. Sow Ideas and reap Actions. Sow Actions and reap Habits. Sow Habits and reap Your Destiny. Your Destiny is not out there waiting for you to find it; you drag it along behind you every day until you finally notice it
Someone with a burning ambition is seldom fired
“I want to develop a way to purify milk.”
Louis Pasteur
“I want to develop a way to purify milk but”
Howard Mesmer
When was the last time you drank a pint of mesmerized milk?
A man’s reach should exceed his grasp or what is Heaven for?
Robert Browning
If you decide to settle for second that will be the best you’ll ever get
President John F. Kennedy
The first two letters of GOAL are GO
A goal properly set is halfway reached
Making mistakes is human
Making the same mistake twice Is stupid – it’s a waste of time, effort and money
We are star-stuff harvesting starlight
Carl Sagan
I will be good
Queen Victoria on her accession
What worked?
What could have worked better?
What have we learned?
What will we do next time?
The Achievement Sequence
If you can dream it you can do it
Those who can, do
Those who cannot, teach
Those who cannot teach, teach others how to teach
And those who cannot even do that tell the world that they are consultants
“Business first, pleasure afterwards” as King Richard III said when he stabbed the other king in the Tower, before he smothered the princes
Sam Weller, The Pickwick Papers - Charles Dickens
It is easier to be critical than it is to be correct
Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli
All generalizations are dangerous – even this one
Alexandre Dumas (fils)
Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits
Thomas Edison
Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration
Thomas Edison
I didn’t fail a thousand times to invent the electric light bulb, I merely found a thousand ways to make it better
Thomas Edison (there, actually, 6000 experiments in all)
When you’re down in the mouth, think of Jonah – he came out alright
Thomas Edison
A man is willing to die for an idea until the idea becomes clear to him
Paul Eldridge
Avoid being like the cock who believes the sun rises merely to hear him crow
Modified comment by George Eliot
In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence
Laurence J. Peter (The Peter Principle)