Pace
The first man gets the oyster, the second man gets the shell.
Andrew Carnegie, British industrialist, philanthropist (1835-1919)
Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.
Donald Marquis, US newspaper owner, poet, playwright (1878-1937)
Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.
Will Rogers, US actor, humorist (1879-1935)
We live in an age when pizza gets to your home before the police.
Jeff Marder, US humorist, TV presenter (b. 1961)
If everything’s under control, you’re going too slow.
Mario Andretti, Italian racing driver (b. 1940)
The speed of the boss is the speed of the team.
Lee Iacocca, US automotive executive (b. 1924)
There is more to life than increasing its speed.
Mahatma Gandhi, Indian nationalist leader (1869-1948)
The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.
Harry Emerson Fosdick, US clergyman, author (1878-1969)
Paperwork
Report writing, like motor-car driving and love-making, is one of those activities which almost every Englishman thinks he can do well without instruction. The results of course are usually abominable.
Tom Margerison, US photographer
What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.
Samuel Johnson, British poet, critic, lexicographer (1709-1784)
Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank piece of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.
Gene Fowler, US journalist, biographer (1890-1960)
Having imagination, it takes you an hour to write a paragraph that, if you were unimaginative, would take you only a minute. Or you might not write the paragraph at all.
Franklin P Adams, US journalist, poet, radio personality (1881-1960)
How do I know what I think until I see what I say?
E M Forster, British author (1879-1970)
Passion
Only passion, great passion, can elevate the human soul to achieve great things.
Denis Diderot, French philosopher (1713-1784)
We may affirm absolutely that nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, German philosopher (1770-1831)
I don’t believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.
Joseph Campbell, US author, editor (1904-1987)
One person with a belief is equal to a force of 99 who have only interests.
John Stuart Mill, British philosopher, economist (1806-1873)
Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
Kahlil Gibran, Lebanese philosopher, author, poet (1883-1931)
Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep in them – a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have the skill, and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.
Muhammad Ali, US heavyweight boxing champion (b. 1942)
There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the infinite passion of life.
Federico Fellini, Italian film director (1920-1993)
Planning
If you are leaping a ravine, the moment of takeoff is a bad time for considering alternative strategies.
John Cleese, British actor, author (b. 1939)
Men never plan to become failures; they simply fail to plan to be successful.
William Arthur Ward, US academic, author (1921-1994)
Plans are useless, but planning is essential.
Dwight D Eisenhower, US President, general (1890-1969)
Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.
Henry Ford, US automobile manufacturer, engineer (1863-1947)
Chance favours only the prepared mind.
Louis Pasteur, French chemist, microbiologist (1822-1895)
Organisation can never be a substitute for initiative and judgement.
Louis Brandeis, US supreme court justice (1856-1941)
Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.
John Lennon, British pop musician, co-founder of The Beatles (1940-1980)
Possibility
Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet, letter-writer (1749-1832)
Anything is possible if you don’t know what you’re talking about.
There is no person living who isn’t capable of doing more than he thinks he can do.
Henry Ford, US automobile manufacturer, engineer (1863-1947)
First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
Epictetus, Greek philosopher (55-135 AD)
I only speak to the ‘A’ in people and I set as the goal the maximum capacity that people have. I settle for no less. I make myself a relentless architect of the possibilities of human beings.
Benjamin Zander, British conductor, management presenter (b. 1939)
To find in ourselves what makes life worth living is a risky business, for it means that once we know we must seek it. It also means that without it life will be valueless.
Marsha Sinetar, US management author
It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.
Bob Goddard, US physicist, rocketry pioneer (1882-1945)
You wake up in the morning, and your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours of unmanufactured tissue of the universe of life! It is yours. It is the most precious of possessions. No one can take it from you. And no one receives more or less than you receive.
Arnold Bennett, British novelist (1867-1913)
I am inclined by nature to be optimistic about the capacity of a person to rise higher than he or she has thought possible once interest and ambition are aroused.