Quotes That Inspire and Amuse Us
Here are some of our favorite quotes from the famous and less famous. May you be inspired and amused today.
About ConsultingMy greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions. ~ Peter Drucker
All too many consultants, when asked, 'What is 2 and 2?' respond, 'What do you have in mind?' ~ Norman R. Augustine The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed. ~ Henry Ford A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business. ~ Henry Ford About PlanningWith change, comes opportunity. ~ Ann Grove, President, Logical Writing Solutions, Inc.
If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favourable. ~ Seneca Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. ~ Seneca A man who does not think and plan long ahead will find trouble right at his door. ~ Confucius You can use an eraser on the drafting table or a sledge hammer on the construction site. ~ Frank Lloyd Wright An idea can turn to dust or magic, depending on the talent that rubs against it. ~ Bill Bernbach Readiness for opportunity makes for success. Opportunity often comes by accident; readiness never does. ~ Samuel Rayburn In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins - not through strength, but through persistence. ~ Buddha I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it. ~ attributed to Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), and others |
About WritingYou can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair – the sense that you can never completely put on the page what’s in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take down names. You can come to it because you want a girl to marry you or because you want to change the world. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page. ~ Stephen King, in On Writing
Writing is ... a way that one mind can cause ideas to happen in another mind. ~ Steven Pinker, cognitive scientist and author of Sense of Style Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead. ~ Gene Fowler The only reason for being a professional writer is that you can't help it. ~ Leo Rosten Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original and the part that is original is not good. ~ Samuel Johnson Copy from one, it's plagiarism; copy from two, it's research. ~ Wilson Mizner Vigorous writing is concise. … This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell. ~ E.B. White in Elements of Style Remember to never split an infinitive. The passive voice should never be used. Do not put statements in the negative form. Proofread carefully to see if you words out. And don't start a sentence with a conjugation. ~ William Safire Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary. ~ Frank L. Visco in How to Write Good My books are water; those of the great geniuses are wine. (Fortunately) Everybody drinks water. ~ Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) History will be kind to me for I intend to write it. ~ Sir Winston Churchill My family can always tell when I'm well into a novel because the meals get very crummy. ~ Anne Tyler Don't loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club, and if you don't get it you will nonetheless get something that looks remarkably like it. ~ Jack London (1903) |
About TrainingCreative minds always have been known to survive any kind of bad training. ~ Anna Freud
It is what we think we know already that often prevents us from learning. ~ Claude Bernard Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education. ~ Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) About EditingI would go in (to President Nixon) with a draft of the speech. He called me in the next day and said, “Is this the best you can do?” I said, “Henry, I thought so, but I’ll try again.” So I go back in a few days, with another draft. He called me in the next day and he said, “Are you sure this is the best you can do?” I said, “Well, I really thought so. I’ll try one more time.” Anyway, this went on eight times, eight drafts; each time he said, “Is this the best you can do?” So I went in there with a ninth draft, and when he called me in the next day and asked me that same question, I really got exasperated and I said, “Henry, I’ve beaten my brains out – this is the ninth draft. I know it’s the best I can do: I can’t possibly improve one more word.” He then looked at me and said, “In that case, now I’ll read it. ~ Ambassador Winston Lord, relaying a story about Dr. Henry Kissinger
Literature is strewn with the wreckage of those who have minded beyond reason the opinion of others. ~ Virginia Woolf If you can’t annoy somebody, there’s little point in writing. ~ Kingsley Amis There is no urge so great as for one man to edit another man's work - Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) We owe almost all our knowledge not to those who have agreed, but to those who have differed. ~ Charles Caleb Colton Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers. ~ T. S. Eliot |