John Gardner, US author, educator (1933-1982)
Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralising.
Harriet Braiker, US psychologist, management consultant (1948-2004)
Demand perfection of yourself and you’ll seldom attain it. Fear of making a mistake is the biggest single cause of making one. Relax – pursue excellence, not perfection.
Lloyd ‘Bud’ Winter, US sprint coach (1909-1985)
If you don’t do it excellently, don’t do it at all. Because if it’s not excellent, it won’t be profitable or fun, and if you’re not in business for fun or profit, what the hell are you doing there?
Robert Townsend, US author, businessman (1920-1988)
Facilitation
A Zen master once asked an audience of Westerners what they thought was the most important word in the English language. After giving his listeners the chance to think about such favourites as love, truth, failure and so on, he said, ‘No, it’s a three letter word: it’s the word let. Let it be. Let in happen.’
W Timothy Gallwey, US author (b. 1938)
There are two ways of being creative. One can sing and dance. Or one can create an environment in which singers and dancers flourish.
Warren Bennis, US academic, management author (b. 1925)
What we call leadership consists mainly of knowing how to follow. The wise leader stays in the background and facilitates other people’s process.
John Heider, US management author (b. 1960)
There are no problem people, only problem facilitators, who can’t cope with energy and creativity.
Trevor Bentley, US facilitator, author
Facts
Get the facts, or the facts will get you. And when you get ‘em, get ‘em right, or they will get you wrong.
Thomas Fuller, English preacher, scholar, author (1608-1661)
Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known as Mark Twain, US author (1835-1910)
Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
John Quincy Adams, US President (1767-1848)
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
Aldous Huxley, British author (1894-1963)
He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts – for support rather than illumination.
Andrew Lang, British author (1844-1912)
We want the facts to fit the preconceptions. When they don’t, it is easier to ignore the facts than to change the preconceptions.
Jessamyn West, US novelist (1903-1984)
People don’t ask for facts in making up their minds. They would rather have one good, soul-satisfying emotion than a dozen facts.
Robert Keith Leavitt, US advertising executive, author (1895 -1967)
No great marketing decisions have ever been made on quantitative data.
John Sculley, US businessman, computers & drinks (b. 1939)
Information is pretty thin stuff unless mixed with experience.
Clarence Day, US author (1874-1935)
It is the spirit of the age to believe that any fact, however suspect, is superior to any imaginative exercise, no matter how true.
Gore Vidal, US author, essayist (b. 1925)
Failure
If you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything very innovative.
Allen Stewart Konigsberg, known as Woody Allen, US film actor, director (b. 1935)
A man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone he can blame it on.
The most important of my discoveries have been suggested to me by my failures.
Humphry Davy, British chemist (1778-1829)
Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success.
John Keats, British poet (1795-1821)
All of us failed to match our dreams of perfection. So I rate us on the basis of our splendid failure to do the impossible.
William Faulkner, US author (1897-1962)
There could be no honour in sure success, but much might be wrested from a sure defeat.
T E Lawrence, known as Lawrence of Arabia, British soldier, author (1888-1935)
Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.
Confucius, Chinese philosopher, teacher (551-479 BC)
Failures are like skinned knees – painful, but superficial.
Henry Ross Perot, US executive, Presidential candidate (b. 1930)
If you have made mistakes, there is always another chance for you. You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down.
Mary Pickford, US actress (1893-1979)
There’s only one way you can fail, and that’s to quit.
Bertie Charles Forbes, British journalist, founder of Forbes Magazine (1880-1954)
If you want to succeed, double your failure rate.
Thomas John Watson, US businessman, founder of IBM (1874-1956)
I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.
Herman Hesse, German author, poet (1877-1962)
Failing is good, as long as it doesn’t become a habit.
Michael Eisner, US executive, Walt Disney Corporation (b. 1942)
Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.
Henry Ford, US automobile manufacturer, engineer (1863-1947)
Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. What if they are a little coarse, and you may get your coat soiled or torn? What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice? Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, US essayist, poet (1801-1882)
An inventor fails 999 times, and if he succeeds once, he’s in. He treats his failures simply as practice shots.
Charles F Kettering, US engineer, inventor (1876-1958)