No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helps you.
— Althea Gibson Darben
The only way to enjoy anything in this life is to earn it first.
— Ginger Rogers
It is sobering to consider that when Mozart was my age he had already been dead for a year.
— Tom Lehrer
Men too involved in details usually become unable to deal with great matters.
— Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.
— E. B. White
There may now exist great men for things that do not exist.
— Samuel Burchardt
Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she had laid an asteroid.
— Mark Twain
Restlessness is discontent--and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.
— Thomas Alva Edison
The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg--not by smashing it.
— Ellen Glasgow
Originality is not seen in single words or even sentences. Originality is the sum total of a man’s thinking and writing.
— Isaac Bashevis Singer
Competence, like truth, beauty, and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder.
— Laurence J. Peter
Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a good carpenter to build one.
— Sam Rayburn
To achieve great things, we must live as though we are never going to die.
— Luc de Clapiers de Vauvenargues
Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable.
— Samuel Johnson
We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The way to get things done is not to mind who gets the credit of doing them.
— Benjamin Jowett
For a man to achieve all that is demanded of him he must regard himself as greater than he is.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
— Matthew 5:14-16
No man knows what he can do till he tries.
— Publilinus Syrus
There are only two ways of getting on in the world; by one’s own industry, or by the weaknesses of others.
— Jean de La Bruyere
None climbs so high as he who knows not whither he is going.
— Oliver Cromwell
The higher a monkey climbs, the more you see of his ass.
— General Joseph Stillwell
How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.
— Gabrielle (
— Maxwell Anderson
In this world there are only two tragedies: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.
— Oscar Wilde
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
What we call results are beginnings.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Well done is better than well said.
— Benjamin Franklin
If moderation is a fault, then indifference is a crime.
— Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.
— George Bernard Shaw
Sayings
The cards you hold in the game of life mean very little. it’s the way you play them that counts.
— West African saying
Aiming isn’t hitting.
— East African saying
The difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a little longer.
— Slogan of the
Getting something done is an accomplishment; getting something done right is an achievement.
They said it couldn’t be done, but we did it.
Those who dare do; those who dare not, do not.
Jokes
When her formal education was over, a young woman went out into the world to start her own business. After a year, she reported that she was worth $5,000, but her parents merely smiled. After a few more years her net worth had grown to some $15,000, and each year it increased by modest amounts, but her parents never had more than a smile or pat on the back for her.
Then one year she came home and announced that in order to keep the business going, she’d have to borrow a million dollars. At this her father bounded up from the sofa, clapped her on the back, and crowed, “Now that’s an achievement!”
“What a superb performance,” gushed the woman when the recital was over. “I’d give half my life to be able to play the piano like that.”
“Madam,” responded the pianist with a little bow, “that is exactly what it took.”
