Archive for category: Goals

If you would live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.

Albert Einstein – German physicist, Nobel Prize in physics 1921 (1879-1955)

Life is charming, my friend, if you but look at it through the right spectacles.

Alexandre Dumas fils – French writer (1824-1895), from “The Camelia-lady” (“La dame aux camélias”, 1848)

La vie est charmante, mon cher, c’est selon le verre par lequel on la regarde.

Alexandre Dumas fils – écrivain français (1824-1895), de “La dame aux camélias” (1848)

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

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

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)

To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.

John Henry Cardinal Newman – English Catholic clergyman (1801-1890), from “An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine”, Chapter 1, Part 7 (1845), Quotations book 2019

If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging!

adage, often attributed to William Penn Adair “Will” Rogers – American humorist (1879-1935), could not be verified by the Will Rogers Memorial Museum & Birthplace Ranch

Lovers of praise will with pleasure undergo every labour and every danger for this.

τοὺς δ᾽ ἐπαίνου ἐραστὰς ἀνάγκη διὰ τοῦτο πάντα μὲν πόνον, πάντα δὲ κίνδυνον ἡδέως ὑποδύεσθαι.

Xenophon – Greek soldier, politician and historian (430-354 B.C.), student of Socrates, from a speech Held by Cyrus the Great in “Cyropaedia”, book 1, chapter V, section 12 (c. 370 B.C.)

Don’t just aspire to make a living. Aspire to make a difference.

Denzel Washington – American actor, director, producer and keynote speaker (b. 1954), in his commencement address at Dillard University (May 9th, 2015), Quotations book 2019

(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

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

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

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

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

The most reliable indication of public purpose in this country is derived through our popular elections.

Abraham Lincoln – American politician, 1861-65 16th president (1809-1865), abolished slavery in 1863, from his annual Message to Congress, 6 December 1864

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

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

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

All mankind’s progress has been achieved as a result of the initiative of a small minority that began to deviate from the ideas and customs of the majority until their example finally moved the others to accept the innovation themselves.

Ludwig von Mises – Austrian economist (1881-1973), in “Liberalism: In the Classical Tradition” (1927), Quotations book 2017

You can’t get very far until you start doing something for somebody else.

Melvin Jones – American business leader, founder of Lions Club International (1879-1961), Quotations book 2017

If no mistake have you made, yet losing you are … a different game you should play.

Wisdom from Jedi Master Yoda – character from the book and film series “Star Wars”, from the novel “Shatterpoint” (2004), Quotations book 2017

The secret of getting forward is to make the first step.

Proverb, often attributed to Mark Twain – born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, American writer (1835-1910), Quotations book 2017

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)

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)

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

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

The biggest risk is not taking any risk.

Mark Zuckerberg – American company founder: facebook (b. 1984)

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

What is imaginable is also possible.

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

The important thing is not how many years in your life but how much life in your years.

Dr. Edward J. Stieglitz – American gerontologist and author (1899-1958), from “The Second Forty Years” (1947)

Man kommer aldrig först om man går i andras fotspår.

Swedish proverb – published in a collection by Gunnel (b. 1941) and Kjell Swärd (b. 1937), Quotations book 2015

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

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

Car il suffit pour y voir clair de changer de perspective.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry –  écrivain, et aviateur français (1900-1944), de “La Citaelle” (1948), Brochure de citation 2014

You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.

Joe Sabah – American motivational speaker (b. 1931)

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)

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)

University am 12. September 1962 We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills.

John F. Kennedy – American politician, 1961-63 35th president (1917-1963), in his peech at Rice University on September 12th, 1962

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)

Whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

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

The big question about how people behave is whether they’ve got an Inner Scorecard or an Outer Scorecard. It helps if you can be satisfied with an Inner Scorecard. I always pose it this way, I say: “Lookit. Would you rather be the world’s greatest lover, but have everyone think you’re the world’s worst lover? Or would you rather be the world’s worst lover but have everyone think you’re the world’s greatest lover?”

Warren Buffett – American value investor, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (b. 1930), from “Warren Buffett’s Management Secrets” (2009), Quotations book 2015

In the factory we make cosmetics; in the store we sell hope.

Charles Haskell Revson – American entrepreneur, founder of Revlon (1906-1975), Quotations book 2014

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

It was character that got us out of bed, commitment that moved us into action, and discipline that enabled us to follow through.

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

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)

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

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)

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

To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to have changed often.

Sir Winston L. Churchill – British politician, 1940-45 and 1951-55 Prime Minister, Nobel Prize in literature 1953 (1874-1965), in a congress speech fom january 17th, 1952, Quotations book 2013

A setback is a setup for a comeback.

Dr. Robert H. Schuller – American evangelist and reformed priest (1926-2015), Quotations book 2012

Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for further developments.

Julius Sextus Frontinus – Roman engineer, in 10 A.D., Quotations book 2012

Who really wants to change something must show respect – but nevertheless be disrespectful.

James Watson and Francis Crick – American (Watson, b. 1928) and British (Crick, 1916-2004) molecular biologist, discoverers of the DNA structure, Nobel Prize in medicine 1962, Quotations book 2011

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

Ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.

The Bible, Jeremiah 6,16 (NIV) – Quotations book 2010

Live your life, as if you are gonna die.

attributed to William Shatner – Canadian actor (b. 1931)

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.

attributed to Henry Ford – American engineer and industrialist (1863-1947)

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

Henry David Thoreau – American writer (1817-1862), from “Walden” (1854)

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)

It gives me a good feeling.

Walter Annenberg – American philanthropist, who donated paintings worth 1 Billion $ to the New York Metropolitan Museum on his motivation (1908-2002), Quotations book 2004

Doing charity work is the opposite of investing – we look for the most difficult problem to solve and the ones that have the lowest possibility of success.

Wisdom- Quotations book 2008

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

Man does not want liberty in order to maximize his utility, or that of the society of which he is a part. He wants liberty to become the man he wants to become.

James M. Buchanan – American economist, Nobel Memorial Prize in economic sciences 1986 (1919-2013), Quotations book 2008

Plan so big that you need God to fulfill your plan.

Dr. William Rohl “Bill” Bright – American evangelist, founder of the Campus Crusade for Christ International (1921-2003), Quotations book 2008

There’s a way to do it better – find it!

Thomas Alva Edison – American inventor (1847-1931), 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, b. 1923)

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

Kenyan proverb – Quotations book 2005

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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