Archive for category: Goals

Step by step you get ahead but not necessarily in fast spurts.

Charlie Munger – Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (b. 1924)

People often say motivation doesn’t last. Neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.

Zig Ziglar – American author, motivational speaker and entrepreneur (1926-2012), Quotations book 2014

You can either follow a paint-by-numbers-kit approach to life and stay within the accepted lines or you can decide you want to create a masterpiece.

James C. “Jim” Collins – American business consultant, author and academic (b. 1958)

Failing to plan is planning to fail.

Benjamin Franklin – American politician, writer and scientist (1706-1790)

I will not follow where the path may lead, but I will go where there is no path, and I will leave a trail.

Muriel Strode – American poet (1875-1964), from “My Little Book of Prayer” (1904)

A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a deadline.

Harvey Mackay – American entrepreneur and author of the 2005 New York Times’ N° 1 bestseller “Swim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive” (b. 1932), Quotations book 2013

Children’s games should be seen as their most serious-minded activity.

Michel de Montaigne – French writer and philosopher (1533-1592)

No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.

Warren Buffett – American value investor, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (b. 1930)

Only when you have made peace within yourself will you be able to make peace in the world.

Simcha Bunim Bonhart of Peshischa – Polish Hassidic rabbi (1765-1827), Quotations book 2018

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise men of old; seek what they sought.

Matsuo Basho – Japanese poet (1644-1694)

A ship in the harbour is safe… But that’s not what the ships were made for.

Wisdom – Quotations book 2002

When I look back on my life nowadays, which I sometimes do, what strikes me most forcibly about it is that what seemed at the time most significant and seductive, seems now most futile and absurd. For instance, success in all of its various guises, being known and being praised, ostensible pleasures, like acquiring money … going to and fro in the world and up and down it like Satan. … In retrospect all these exercises in self-gratification seem pure fantasy, what Pascal called “licking the earth.” They are diversions designed to distract our attention from the true purpose of our existence in this world, which is, quite simply, to look for God, and, in looking, to find him, and having found him, to love him, thereby establishing a harmonious relationship with his purposes for his creation..

Malcolm Muggeridge – English writer (1903-1990)

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.

wisdom – Quotations book 2018

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.

wisdom

He who endeavours to ascend to the highest place, rises by degrees or steps, and not by leaps.

Qui summum locum ascendere nititur, gradibus vel passibus non autem saltibus elevatur.

Pope Gregory I – aka Gregory the Great, Roman theologian, , 590-604 Holy Father, one of the four Latin doctors of the Church(etwa 540-604), from his letter to Mellitus (Epistel XI, 56, 18.7.601), Quotations book 2019

Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.

wisdom, falsely attributed to Mark Twain – born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, American writer (1835-1910), could not be verified by the Mark Twain Museum

A goal is a dream with a deadline.

Napoleon Hill – American writer: “Think And Grow Rich” (1883-1970), Quotations book 2020

1. Be true to yourself.
2. Make each day your masterpiece.
3. Help others.
4. Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
5. Make friendship a fine art.
6. Build a shelter against a rainy day.
7. Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.

John Hugh Wooden – American farmer (1882-1950), father of the legendary basketball player and coach John Wooden (1910-2010), whom he gave these lines upon graduation from grammar school, which Wooden kept in his wallet a life Long, Quotations book 2017

Every artist was first an amateur.

Ralph Waldo Emerson – American writer (1803-1882), from “Letters and Social Aims”, chapter 7: “Progress of Culture” (1875)

Be brave and take risks. Nothing can replace experience.

motivation – Quotations book 2022

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

attributed to Mark Twain – born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, American writer, (1835-1910), Quotations book 2008

Opportunities do not float like clouds in the sky. They are attached to people. If you’re looking for an opportunity, you’re really looking for a person.

Reid G. Hoffman – American entrepreneur, co-founder LinkedIn (b. 1967), Quotations book 2019

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous “yes”.

“Now,” said the professor, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things: your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions. If everything else was lost and only the golf balls remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. The sand is everything else – the small stuff.”

“If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life.

If you spend your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Play with your children. Take time to get a medical checkup. Take your spouse out to dinner. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”

symbolic story – Quotations book 2016

If you really want something you will find a way.
If you don’t you will find an excuse.

Arabic proverb – Quotations book 2018

We must constantly build dykes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.

Martin Luther King jr. – American civil rights activist and pastor, Nobel Peace Prize 1964 (1929-1968), in his essay “The Strength to Love” (1963)

If I wanted you to understand it, I would have explained it better.

Johan Cruyff – Dutch football player and coach (1947-2016)

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for a bird to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.

C. S. Lewis – British writer (1898-1963), from “Mere Christianity” (1952), Quotations book 2016

’Become free to be yourself’. Trying to copy others won’t help who you were meant to be. What’s wrong with being that genuine and capable person you really are? Everybody has something unique to contribute. Celebrate yourself and what you have to offer.

Dr. Howard Murad – American physician, Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at the UCLA’s Geffen School of Medicine, founder of Murad Skincare and the worldwide Inclusive Health’ movement (b. 1939)

When we find a purpose that is bigger than ourselves, we become more powerful in our ability to create.

Jack Delosa – Australian author and investor, founder and CEO of The Entourage (b. 1987), Quotations book 2018

Every mission risks losing its identity as a mission if it eliminates suffering servanthood in exchange for personal ease on a par with the world’s standards.

Stephen E. Freed – International Director of International Teams (www.iteams.org)

There are two ways to live your life.

One is as though nothing is a miracle.

The other is as if everything is.

often falsely attributed to Albert Einstein

You can’t have everything. Where would you put it?

Steven Wright – American Comedian and actor (*1955), Quotations book 2007

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to gather wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.

popular version of an excerpt of chapter 75 from “Citadelle” (1948) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – French writer and aviator (1900-1944), Quotations book 2018

Originally written as:
Créer le navire ce n’est point tisser les toiles, forger les clous, lire les astres, mais bien donner le goût de la mer qui est un, et à la lumière duquel il n’est plus rien qui soit contradictoire mais communauté dans l’amour.

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.

Mahatma Gandhi – Indian politician (1869-1948), in “Young India” from August 11th, 1920, Quotations book 2013 and 2015

Never start a business just to make money, start a business to make a difference.

Marie Forleo – American entrepreneur, life coach and philanthropist (b. 1975), Quotations book 2022

It is important that an aim never be defined in terms of activity or methods. It must always relate directly to how life is better for everyone. … The aim of the system must be clear to everyone in the system. The aim must include plans for the future. The aim is a value judgement.

Prof. Dr. William Edwards Deming – founder of Total-Quality-Management TQM (1900-1993)

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.® Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has..

Margaret Mead – American anthropologist and ethnologian (1901-1978), Courtesy of The Institute for Intercultural Studies, Inc., New York, Quotations book 2008

Follow your own instincts, not those of people who see the world differently.

Sumner Murray Redstone – born Sumner M. Rothstein, American media magnate (CBS, Viacom, 1923-2020)

If you can’t feed 100 people, then feed just one.

Wisdom, often attributed to Mother Teresa – born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, Albanian-born Indian nun and order’s founder, Nobel Peace Prize (1910-1997), could not be verified by the Mother Teresa Center, Quotations book 2013

The Reverend Fred Craddock, a remarkable preacher from Georgia, may have been imagining things –the way preachers are wont to do – but he says this story really happened.
Dr. Craddock was visiting in the home of his niece. There was this old greyhound dog there, just like the ones who race around a track chasing those mechanical rabbits. His niece had taken the dog in to prevent it from being destroyed because its racing days were over.
Dr. Craddock strikes up a conversation with the dog: “I said to the dog, ‘are you still racing?’ ‘No,’ he replied. ‘Well, what was the matter? Did you get too old to race?’ ‘No, I still had some race in me.’ ‘Well, what then? Did you not win?’ ‘I won over a million dollars for my owner.’
‘Well, what was it? Bad treatment?’ ‘Oh, no,’ the dog said, ‘They treated us royally when we were racing.’ ‘Did you get crippled?’ ‘No.'”
“Then why?” Craddock pressed, “Why?” The dog answered, “I quit.” “You quit?” “Yes,” he said, “I quit.”
“Why did you quit?” “I just quit. Because after all that running and running and running, I found out that the rabbit I was chasing wasn’t even real.”
On this day of celebration, achievement, and the commencement of a new phase in your lives, it takes considerable temerity for me to challenge you to consider what kind of rabbit you’ll choose to chase during your careers. I do so only because – this may surprise you – I challenge myself as to whether the rabbit I’ve been chasing all these long years is real.

John C. Bogle – American author and founder of The Vanguard Group and the world’s first index mutual fund (1929-2019)

The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to pass it on.

proverb, often falsely attributed to William Shakespeare (English writer, 1564-1616) or Pablo Picasso (born Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso, Spanisch artist, 1881-1973)

Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.

Zig Ziglar – American author, motivational speaker and entrepreneur (1926-2012), Quotations book 2014

What is imaginable is also possible.

Ludwig Wittgenstein – Austro-British philosopher (1889-1951), from “Tractatus logico-philosophicus” (1912)

Like Warren [Buffett], I had a considerable passion to get rich, not because I wanted Ferraris — I wanted the independence. I desperately wanted it.

Charlie Munger – Vice Chairman Berkshire Hathaway (b. 1924)

Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.

Vince Lombardi – legendary American football coach (1913-1970), Quotations book 2016

The philosophy behind much advertising is based on the old observation that every man is really two men – the man he is and the man he wants to be.

attributed to William Feather – American author and publisher (1889-1981), Quotations book 2008

I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.

Wayne Gretzky – Canadian ice hockey player and coach (b. 1961), Quotations book 2016

Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional.

Roger Crawford – American tennis player, motivational speaker, and author (b. 1960), Quotations book 2022

When you stop getting better, you stop being good.

Franz Türk – Austrian cellarer, vineyard owner and entrepreneur (b. 1970), Quotations book 2016

He who thinks that he has finished is finished. Those who think that they have arrived, have lost their way.

Henri J.M. Nouwen – Dutch theologian and psychologist (1932-1996), Quotations book 2007

To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act.

Pour accomplir des grandes choses il ne suffit pas d’agir il faut rêver..

Anatole France – born Jacques Anatole François Thibault, French poet, Nobel Prize in literature 1921 (1844-1924), in his inaugural speech at the Académie Française on December 24th, 1896

To move from the old to what is about to come is the only tradition worth keeping.

Marcus “Dodde” Wallenberg – Swedish banker: SEB-Bank (1899-1982), in a letter to his brother Jacob (1946), Quotations book 2018

Att skifta från det gamla till det som kommer är den enda tradition värd att vårda.

Marcus “Dodde” Wallenberg – svensk bankman: Stockholms Enskilda Bank (1899-1982), i ett brev till sin bror Jacob (1946), Citatbok 2018

Difficulties break some men but make others.

Nelson Mandela – South African anti-apartheid activist and politician, 1994-99 president, Nobel Peace Prize (1918-2013), from a letter to Winnie Mandela from Robben Island (February 1st, 1975)

People are not lazy. They simply have impotent goals – that is, goals that do not inspire them.

attributed to Anthony Robbins – American author and motivational speaker (*1960)

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.
Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Sarah Frances Brown – mother of the American writer H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (b. 1940), quoted in his book of aphorisms “P.S. I Love You” (1990)

Aim at Heaven and you will get ‚earth thrown in’. Aim at earth and you will get neither.

C. S. Lewis – British writer (1898-1963), Quotations book 2006

It’s not what you take but what you leave behind that defines greatness.

Edward G. Gardner – Amercian company founder: Soft Sheen Products Inc. (b. 1925), Quotations book 2015

One of the most pleasant experiences in our life is to serve as a target, but without being hit.

proverb, often attributed to Sir Winston L. Churchill – British politician, 1940-45 and 1951-55 Prime Minister, Nobel Prize in literature 1953 (1874-1965), Quotations book 2018

People […] grow five thousand roses in the same garden and yet do not find what they are looking for. […] What they are looking for could be found in one single rose.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – French writer and aviator (1900-1944), from “The Little Prince”, Chapter XXV (1943)

Les hommes […] cultivent cinq mille roses dans un même jardin… et ils n’y trouvent pas ce qu’ils cherchent. […] Et cependant ce qu’ils cherchent pourrait être trouvé dans une seule rose.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – écrivain et aviateur français (1900-1944), de “Le Petit Prince” (1943)

Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day that says: I’ll try again tomorrow.

Mary Anne Radmacher – American writer, artist and speaker (b. 1957)

(Christ) tu me répétais: Vis le très peu de choses que tu as compris de l’Évangile!

Frère Roger – né comme Roger-Louis Schutz-Marsauche, fondateur de la “Communauté de Taizé” œcuménique (1915-2005), de la lettre “Vivre l’inespéré”, à l’ouverture du “Conseil de la Jeunesse” (30.8.1974), Brochure de citation 2019

Plans are often worthless, yet the planning process is priceless.

Dwight David Eisenhower – American general and politician, 1953-61 34th president (1890-1969)

Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing. You don’t win once in a while; you don’t do things right once in a while; you do them right all of the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.

There is no room for second place. There is only one place in my game, and that’s first place. I have finished second twice in my time at Green Bay, and I don’t ever want to finish second again. There is a second place bowl game, but it is a game for losers played by losers. It is and always has been an American zeal to be first in anything we do, and to win, and to win, and to win.

Every time a football player goes to ply his trade he’s got to play from the ground up – from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play. Some guys play with their heads. That’s O.K. You’ve got to be smart to be number one in any business. But more importantly, you’ve got to play with your heart, with every fiber of your body. If you’re lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he’s never going to come off the field second.

Running a football team is no different than running any other kind of organization – an army, a political party or a business. The principles are the same. The object is to win – to beat the other guy. Maybe that sounds hard or cruel. I don’t think it is.

It is a reality of life that men are competitive and the most competitive games draw the most competitive men. That’s why they are there – to compete. The object is to win fairly, squarely, by the rules – but to win.

And in truth, I’ve never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart, didn’t appreciate the grind, the discipline. There is something in good men that really yearns for discipline and the harsh reality of head to head combat.

I don’t say these things because I believe in the ‘brute’ nature of men or that men must be brutalized to be combative. I believe in God, and I believe in human decency. But I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour – his greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear – is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle – VICTORIOUS.

Vince Lombardi – legendary American football coach (1913-1970), Quotations book 2018

It is much easier to be a hero than a gentleman. Heroes you can be once in a while; gentlemen, you must always be.

Luigi Pirandello – Italian writer, Nobel Prize in literature 1934 (1867-1936), from his comedy “The Pleasure of Honesty”, Act one, Scene three (1917)

È molto più facile […] essere un eroe che un galantuomo. Eroi si può essere una volta tanto; galantuomini, si dev’esser sempre.

Luigi Pirandello – scrittore italiano, Premio Nobel per la letteratura 1934 (1867-1936), dalla sua commedia “Il piacere dell’onestà”, Atto Primo, Scena Terza (1917)

Don’t dream your life, live your dream.

Lifeslogan – Quotations book 2011

Unity increases power.

Joyce Meyer – American evangelist (b. 1943)

Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.

Dr. h. c. Václav Havel – Czech writer and politician, 1993-2003 president of the Czech Republik (1936-2011), from “Disturbing the peace: a conversation with Karel Hvížďala”, Chapter 5 (1986), Quotations book 2017

Naděje není to přesvědčení, že něco dobře dopadne, ale jistota, že má něco smysl – bez ohledu na to, jak to dopadne.

Dr. h.c. Václav Havel – český a později politik, 1993-2003 prezidentem České republiky (1936-2011), “Dálkový výslech. Rozhovor s Karlem Hvížd’alou” (1986), Citace knihy 2017

There is no easy way from the earth to the stars.

Non est ad astra mollis e terris via.

Lucius Annaeus Seneca – Roman philosopher (4 B.C.-65 A.C.), from his comedy “Hercules Furens”, line 437 “Megara” (c. 54)

Home is not where you are from, it is where you belong.
Some of us travel the whole world to find it.
Others find it in a person.

Beau C. Taplin – Australian poet (b. 1988), from his poem “The Explorers”, in “Worlds of You” (2018)

Our doubts are traitors
And make us lose the good we oft might win
By fearing to attempt.

William Shakespeare – English writer (1564-1616), from “Measure for Measure”, act 1, scene 4 (1604)

A goal properly set is halfway reached.

Zig Ziglar – American author, motivational speaker and entrepreneur (1926-2012)

As long as you’re green you’re growing, as soon as you’re ripe you start to rot.

Raymond Albert “Ray” Kroc – American company founder, who was brave enough to switch from a milk shake-machine-agent to a fast food-entreprenaur at the age of 52: McDonald’s Corp. (1902-1984), from “Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald’s” (1977), Quotations book 2018

No es verdad que las personas dejan de perseguir sus sueños porque envejecen, envejecen porque dejan de perseguir sus sueños.

It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.

Gabriel García Márquez – Columbian writer, Nobel prize in literature 1982 (1927-2014)

Where there is no vision, the people perish.

The Bible, Proverbs 29:18 (KJV) – Quotations book 2007

We feel noble intentions should be checked periodically against results.

Warren Buffett – American value investor, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (b. 1930), in the “Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report 1999” (2000)

Gentlemen, make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood … Make big plans … aim high in hope and work.

Daniel H. Burnham – American urban designer for Chicago (1846-1912), Quotations book 2011

An idiot with a plan can beat a genius without a plan.

Warren Buffett – American Value investor, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (b. 1930)

Whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

The Bible, Galatians 6:7 (ESV) – Quotations book 2016

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

Oscar Wilde – Irish writer (1854-1900), from “Lady Windermere’s Fan: A Play About a Good Woman” (1892)

I believe in what I do, and I do what I believe in.

Peter E. Mück – German writer and graphic artist (b. 1946)

This time the men of western Europe have not lacked courage and have not acted too late. They have done something great and what is remarkable and perhaps unique is that they have done it by renouncing means of force, any constraint, any threat.

Paul-Henry Spaak – Belgian politician, 1956-61 Nato General Secretary (1899-1972), on Occasion of the signing of the Roman Treaties 1957, seen on a bust of Paul-Henry Spaak in front of Brussel’s Central Station , Quotations book 2013