The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with some rain.
Dolly Parton, US singer, actress (b. 1946)
To err is human; to blame it on the other guy is even more human.
Bob Goddard, US physicist, rocketry pioneer (1882-1945)
Notice the difference between what happens when a man says to himself, ‘I have failed three times,’ and what happens when he says, ‘I am a failure.’
Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa, Canadian/Japanese scholar, senator (1906-1992)
If at first you don’t succeed, failure may be your style.
Denis Charles Pratt, known as Quentin Crisp, British author (1908-1999)
Half the failures in life arise from pulling in one’s horse as it is leaping.
Julius Hare, British author (1795-1855)
I don’t measure a man’s success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom.
George S Patton, US general (1885-1945)
Focus
If you have twenty-five priorities, you have none. And if you don’t know it, your customers do.
Jan Carlzon, Swedish businessman, airline executive (b. 1941)
There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.
Peter Drucker, US management author (1909-2005)
Suppose you were taking a course in parachuting and there were 100 things to learn to do successfully. You correctly identified 99 of these 100 items on the written test. But on your first jump, you couldn’t remember how to pull the rip cord, which was the item you missed. You’d probably earn a posthumous A for the course from most teachers, but it wouldn’t bring you back from the dead. If you want to jump safely, worry less about your test score and worry about what’s important and what’s not. Then learn and do the important things.
Wess Roberts, US author (b. 1946)
Those who cannot tell what they desire or expect, still sigh and struggle with indefinite thoughts and vast wishes.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, US essayist, poet (1803-1882)
Anyone can do any amount of work provided it isn’t the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment.
Robert Benchley, US humorist (1889-1945)
Fun
Work should be more fun than fun.
Noel Coward, British actor, playwright, composer (1899-1973)
The man who does not work for the love of work but only for money is not likely to make money nor find much fun in life.
Charles Schwab, US industrialist (1862-1939)
Serious-minded people have few ideas. People with ideas are never serious.
Paul Valery, French poet, critic (1871-1945)
Make a resolution not to become suspicious when you hear people laughing.
David Firth, British management author (b. 1949)
Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.
Victor Borge, Danish entertainer, pianist (1909-2000)
First you have to have fun. Second, you have to put love where your labour is. Third, you have to go in the opposite direction to everyone else.
Anita Roddick, British retail executive, founder of The Body Shop (1942-2007)
If people never did silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian philosopher (1889-1951)
A little nonsense now and then is cherished by the wisest men.
Willie Wonka, character in ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ by Roald Dahl, British author (1916-1990)
We’re all working harder and faster. But unless we’re also having fun the transformation doesn’t work.
Jack Welch, US executive, utility chief (b. 1935)
I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of the telescope and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.
Geisel Theodor Seuss, known as Dr Seuss, US author (1904-1991)
The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously.
Nicholas Butler, US educator, Nobel Peace Prize winner (1862-1947)
Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.
Oscar Wilde, Irish dramatist, poet (1854-1900)
Future
Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.
Dale Carnegie, US lecturer, author (1888-1955)
Tomorrow is often the busiest time of the year.
My interest is in the future because I’m going to spend the rest of my life there.
Charles F Kettering, US engineer (1876-1958)
The best way to be ready for the future is to invent it.
John Sculley, US businessman, computers & drinks (b. 1939)
Your successful past will block your visions of the future.
Joel Barker, US management author, presenter
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Eleanor Roosevelt, US United Nations delegate (1884-1962)
The future is like heaven – everyone exalts it but no-one wants to go there now.
James Baldwin, US author (1924-1987)
The future has a habit of suddenly and dramatically becoming the present.
Roger W Babson, US statistician, columnist (1875-1967)
The past cannot be changed, the future is still in our power.
Hugh White, US politician (1773-1840)
No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.
Isaac Asimov, Russian biochemist, author (1920-1992)
Business, more than any other occupation, is a continual dealing with the future; it is a continual calculation, an instinctive exercise in foresight.
Henry R Luce, US publisher (1898-1967)
The ability to plan for what has not yet happened, for a future that has only been imagined, is one of the hallmarks of leadership.
Warren Bennis, US academic, management author (b. 1925)
Those who talk about the future are scoundrels. It is the present that matters.
Louis Ferdinand Céline, French novelist (1894-1961)
As for the future, your task is not to foresee but to enable it.