David Perkins, US psychologist
Time
Dost thou love life?
then do not squander time,
for that is the stuff life is made from.
Benjamin Franklin, US statesman, author, scientist (1706-1790)
The only things that start on time are those things that you’re late for.
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year. No man has learned anything rightly, until he knows that every day is Doomsday.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, US essayist, poet (1803-1882)
He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.
William Bridges, US engineer, researcher, educator (b. 1934)
We’re in such a hurry most of the time we never get much chance to talk. The result is a kind of endless day-to-day shallowness, a monotony that leaves a person wondering years later where all the time went and sorry that it’s gone.
Robert Pirsig, US author, philosopher (b. 1928)
Time makes more converts than reason.
Thomas Paine, British author, political theorist (1737-1809)
You will never find time for anything. If you want time you must make it.
Charles Buxton, British administrator in South America (1853-1934)
No mind is much employed upon the present. Recollection and anticipation fill up almost all our moments.
Samuel Johnson, British poet, critic, lexicographer (1709-1784)
Until you value yourself, you will not value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.
Morgan Scott Peck, US psychiatrist (1936-2005)
The word ‘now’ is like a bomb through the window, and it ticks.
Arthur Miller, US dramatist (1915-2005)
Trust
Whether you’re on a sports team, in an office or a member of a family, if you can’t trust one another, there’s going to be trouble.
Joe Paterno, US college football coach (b. 1926)
There’s no such thing as ‘half-trust’. The instructor pilot can’t ‘half’ sit next to you on your fist solo.
Tom Peters, US management author, presenter (b. 1942)
The chief lesson I have learned in a long life is that the only way to make a man trustworthy is to trust him.
Henry Stimson, US statesman (1867-1950)
Set your expectations high; find men and women whose integrity and values you respect; get their agreement on a course of action; and give them your ultimate trust.
John Akers, US computer executive, IBM (b. 1934)
Organisational leaders who are motivated by the common good not only reject the role of the dictator who rules by fear; they also recognize that demagogues who seduce followers with false promises cannot maintain the trust essential for cooperation.
Michael Maccoby, US management author, psychologist (b. 1933)
You can buy a person’s hand, but you can’t buy his heart. You can buy his back, but you can’t buy his brains.
Stephen Covey, US management author, presenter (b. 1932)
It’s been my experience that the people who gain trust, loyalty, excitement and energy fast are the ones who pass on the credit to the people who really have done the work. A leader doesn’t need any credit; he’s already in the top slot. He’s getting more credit than he deserves anyway.
Robert Townsend, US author, businessman (1920-1998)
I don’t want any yes-men around me. I want everybody to tell me the truth even if it costs them their jobs.
Samuel Goldwyn, Polish/US film producer (1882-1974)
When we walk to the edge of all the light we have and take the step into the darkness of the unknown, we must believe that one of two things will happen. There will be something solid for us to stand on or we will be taught to fly.
Patrick Overton, US poet, playwright, author, presenter
Put not your trust in money, but put your money in trust.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, US essayist, poet (1809-1894)
So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?
Luke 16.11
Value
What we obtain too cheap we esteem too little; it is dearness only that gives everything its value.
Thomas Paine, British author, political theorist (1737-1809)
Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.
Albert Einstein, German physicist (1879-1955)
If you undervalue yourself, no-one’s going to come along and raise your price.
David Williams, British author, presenter (b. 1950)
Steinmetz once charged General Electric $10,000 for chalking an X on a defective machine part. When GE protested and asked him to justify the charge, he sent back this itemised bill – ‘Making one chalk mark - $1; knowing where to place it - $9,999.’
Charles Steinmetz, US electrical engineer (1865-1923)
You don’t get paid for the hour. You get paid for the value you bring to that hour.
Jim Rohn, US motivational speaker, author (1930-2009)
The individual’s most vital need is to prove his worth, and this usually means an insatiable hunger for action. For it is only the few who can acquire a sense of worth by developing and employing their capacities and talents. The majority prove their worth by keeping busy.
Eric Hoffer, US philosopher, author, longshoreman (1902-1983)
Vision
Some things have to be believed to be seen.
Ralph Hodgson, US poet (1871-1962)
If you think big enough, you’ll never have to do it.
Walt Disney died six years before the opening of Walt Disney World. At the opening ceremony, two Disney executives were sitting together. One said, ‘Too bad Walt couldn’t have been here to see this.’ The other responded, ‘You’re wrong. Walt did see this, that’s why it’s here.’
True wisdom consists not in seeing what is immediately before our eyes, but in foreseeing what is to come.
Terence, Roman dramatist (185-129 BC)
Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.
Jonathan Swift, Irish clergyman, poet, satirist (1667-1745)
No man that does not see visions will ever realise any high hope or undertake any high enterprise.
Woodrow Wilson, US President (1856-1924)
A man to carry on a successful business must have imagination. He must see things as in a vision, a dream of the whole thing.