If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done. Be sure to stay busy and plant a variety of crops, for you never know which will grow—perhaps they all will.
ECCLESIASTES 1 1:4, 6
Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow up.
RONALD E. OSBORN
Don't find fault. Find a remedy.
HENRY FORD
It takes both rain and sunshine to make a rainbow.
It takes two things to blow down a tree: a heavy wind outside and rot and decay inside. So it is with man. The winds of adversity may cause him to bend, but if he's strong and vigorous within, he will arise and grow to new heights after the storm passes.
Adversity causes some men to break and others to break records.
When the going gets tough, the tough get going.
ROBERT SCHULER
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.
The human spirit can endure a sick body, but who can bear it if the spirit is crushed?
PROVERBS 18:14
Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
REINHOLD NIEBUHR
Bravery is falling but not yielding.
Latin Proverb
The hardest job kids face today is learning good manners without seeing any.
FRED ASTAIRE
Children have more need of models than of critics.
JOSEPH JOUBERT
God provides the nuts, but he does not crack them.
Regardless of circumstances, each man lives in a world of his own making.
JOSEPH MURRAY EMMS
Having served on various committees, I have drawn up a list of rules: Never arrive on time; this stamps you as a beginner. Don't say anything until the meeting is half over; this stamps you as being wise. Be as vague as possible; this avoids irritating the others. When in doubt, suggest that a subcommittee be appointed. Be the first to move for adjournment; this will make you popular; it's what everyone is waiting for.
HARRY CHAPMAN
What better bed than conscience good, to pass the night in sleep.
THOMAS TUSSER
You can't control the length of your life, but you can control its width and depth. You can't control the contour of your face, but you can control its expression. You can't control the weather, but you can control the atmosphere of your mind. Why worry about things you can't control when you can keep yourself busy controlling the things that depend on you?
The emptier the pot, the quicker the boil—watch your temper!
Pay attention and grow wise, for I am giving you good guidance. Don't turn away from my teaching.
PROVERBS 4:1-2
I will teach you wisdom's ways and lead you in straight paths. If you live a life guided by wisdom, you won't limp or stumble as you run.
PROVERBS 4:11-12
Get all the advice and instruction you can, and be wise the rest of your life.
PROVERBS 19:20
Live each day as if it were your last—someday you'll be right.
The clock of life is wound but once,
And no man has the power
To tell when the hands will stop,
At late or early hour.
Now is the only time you own;
Live, love, work with a will
Place no faith in tomorrow;
The clock may then be still.
We make a living by what we get—a life by what we give.
Curious people ask questions; determined people find answers.
The winds of God are always blowing, but you must set the sails.
Storms make oaks take deeper root.
GEORGE SANTAYANA
Correction can help, but encouragement can help far more.
The chances are that you'll never be elected President of the country, write the great American novel, make a million dollars, stop pollution and racial conflict, or save the world. However valid it may be to work at any of these goals, there is another one of higher priority—to be an effective parent.
LANDRUM R. BOLLING
Let every Christian father and mother understand that when the child is three years old, they have done more than half of what they will ever do for his character.
Could I turn back the time machine, I would double the attention I gave my children and go to fewer meetings.
J. D. EPPINGA
In the end, people appreciate frankness more than flattery.
PROVERBS 28:23
So I run straight to the goal with purpose in every step. I am not like a boxer who misses his punches.
THE APOSTLE PAUL, 1 CORINTHIANS 9:26
Aim for the top. There is plenty of room there. There are so few at the top, it's almost lonely.
SAMUEL INSULL
Happiness is not a station to arrive at, but a manner of traveling.
MARGARET LEE RUNBECK
It's never too late to have a happy childhood.
Live today and every day like a man of honor.
CHARLES ELIOT
Anyone can overcome depression. The first step is to simply realize that there is hope.
Humility is remaining teachable.
Stay humble or stumble.
If you have time to lean, you have time to clean.
Anyone who stops learning is old, whether this happens at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps on learning not only remains young, but becomes constantly more valuable regardless of physical capacity.
HARVEY ULLMAN
Lose if you must, but don't lose the lesson.
No one is ever too old to learn, and that may be why all of us keep putting it off.
Be kind to unkind people--they need it the most.
A wise man is mightier than a strong man, and a man of knowledge is more powerful than a strong man.
PROVERBS 24:5
Like the surgeon said—"lt's fifty dollars for cuttin' and a full hundred for knowin' where."
The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.
CHINESE PROVERB USED BY GEN. NORMAN SCHWARZKOPF
AT THE NAVAL ACADEMY GRADUATION, 1991
I have learned that only two things are necessary to keep one's
wife happy. First, let her think she is having her way. And,
second, let her have it.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON
Stand firm for what you know is right
It's wise, as I have found.
The mighty oak was once a nut
That simply held its ground.
AGNES W. THOMAS
They may trip seven times, but each time they will rise again. But one calamity is enough to lay the wicked low.
PROVERBS 24:16
'Twixt optimist and pessimist
The difference is droll;
The optimist sees the doughnut,
The pessimist, the hole.
MCLANDBURGH WILSON
De good Lawd send me troubles
An' I got to wuk 'em out.
But I look aroun' an' see
There's trouble all about.
An' when I see my troubles
I jes look up an' grin
To think of all the troubles
Dat I ain't in.
Long-range purposes keep you from being frustrated by short-term failures.
Those who have a "why" to live, can bear with almost any "how."
VIKTOR FRANKL
One of life's most painful moments comes when we must admit that we didn't do our homework, that we are not prepared.
MERLIN OLSON
The circumstances amid which you live determine your reputation; the truth you believe determines your character.
Reputation is what you are supposed to be; character is what you are.
Sincerity: being yourself in any direction.
It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.
MARK TWAIN
After a speaker had talked loud and long, he asked the audience if there were any questions. A hand shot up. The speaker nodded. "What time is it?" the listener inquired.
Lincoln's road to the White House:
Failed in business in 1831
Defeated for legislature in 1832
Second failure in business in 1833
Suffered a nervous breakdown in 1836
Defeated for speaker in 1838
Defeated for elector in 1840
Defeated for Congress in 1843
Defeated for Senate in 1855
Defeated for vice president in 1856
Defeated for Senate in 1858
Elected president in 1860
Recipe for success: Study while others are sleeping; work while others are loafing; prepare while others are playing; and dream while others are wishing.
WILLIAM A. WARD
It takes twenty years to make an overnight success.
EDDIE CANTOR
Ifyou want to be successful, it's just this simple: Know what you're doing. Love what you're doing. And believe in what you're doing.
O. A. BATTISTA
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.
COLIN L. POWELL
A lot of people owe their success to advice they didn't take.
A wise man is mightier than a strong man, and a man of knowledge is more powerful than a strong man.
PROVERBS 24:5
When God wants to grow a squash He grows it one summer; but when He wants to grow an oak He takes a century.
JAMES A. GARFIELD
Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all-time thing. You don't win once in a while; you don't do things once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.
VINCE LOMBARDI
It's a wise man who lives with money in the bank; it's a fool who dies that way.
FRENCH PROVERB
From the errors of others a wise man corrects his own.
PUBLIUS SYRUS
There are four kinds of people: Those who know not, and know not that they know not. These are foolish. Those who know not, and know they know not. These are the simple, and should be instructed. Those who know, and know not that they know. These are asleep; wake them. Those who know, and know they know. These are the wise; listen to them.
ARAB PHILOSOPHER
Happy the man, and happy he alone,
He who can call today his own;
He who, secure within, can say,
Tomorrow, do your worst,
For I have lived today.
It is but a few short years from diapers to dignity and from dignity to decomposition.
DON HEROLD
A small decision now can change all your tomorrows.
ROBERT SCHULLER
Defer not until tomorrow to be wise, for tomorro's sun for you may never rise.
The worst danger that confronts the younger generation is the example set by the older generation.
From the errors of others a wise man corrects his own.
Publius Syrus