Topic

Performance

The quotes here bridge the gap between intention and execution. James's observation that caring enough for a result means you will most certainly attain it is the thesis; Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Curie provide the practical method. The moral weight comes from Addison's three grand essentials for happiness — something to do, something to love, something to hope for — and Mother Teresa's correction of scale: no great things, only small things with great love. The collection is honest about effort: it does not promise that hard work guarantees the outcome, only that caring enough changes what you are willing to attempt. Good for anyone at the gap between knowing what should be done and actually doing it.

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Ocean: A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man - who has no gills.

Source: The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings

Source: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-1793)

Good supervision is the art of getting average people to do superior work

Birth and ancestry, and that which we have not ourselves achieved, we can scarcely call our own

Everything that I understand, I understand only because I love

It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible

Any fool can paint a picture, but it takes a wise man to be able to sell it

He who boasts of his descent, praises the deeds of another

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing

Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.

Every production of genius must be the production of enthusiasm

Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well

Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war.

It's not the size of the boat, it's the motion in the ocean.

The wise does at once what the fool does at last

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out

He who pretends to be either painter or engraver without being a master of drawing is an imposter

We see men fall from high estate on account of the very faults through which they attained it

The men who have succeeded are men who have chosen one line and stuck to it.

Difficulty is the element, and resistance the true work of a man