Miscellaneous Quotes

The experience to be gathered from books, though often valuable, is but of the nature of learning; whereas the experience gained from actual life is of the nature of wisdom; and a small store of the latter is worth vastly more than a stock of the former.
-Samuel Smiles, Self Help, 1859.


It is astonishing what foolish things one can temporarily believe if one thinks too long alone....
John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, 1935.


At base, mainstream economic theory rests on two observations: obvious opportunities for gain are rarely left unexploited, and things add up. (Or as I sometimes put it, $20 bills donÕt lie in plain view for very long, and every sale is also a purchase.) When one sets out to make a formal mathematical model, these rough principles usually become the more exact ideas of maximization (of something) and equilibrium (in some sense). It is, however, a good idea always to keep the looser statement in mind, for two opposing reasonsÑ to remind yourself not to take any particular mathematical formalization too seriously, but also to remind yourself that the basic principles of mainstream economics are not at all silly or unreasonable.
- Paul Krugman, Development, Geography and Economic Theory, 1995.


The more I've thought about it over the years, the more I've concluded that what really leads to outstanding consultants, and I think then outstanding performance in almost anything you can think of, is the willingness to really take risks, take risks with your thinking, to take risks in how far you're trying to push the client, and not to be conservative and too cautious. I had a conversation with a colleague recently who was learning how to ski, and he said that, in the course of his ski week, he concluded that, if you weren't falling, you weren't learning, and I think that's, you know, a general rule of life. You've got to take risks and be willing to fail.
Fred Gluck, Managing Director, McKinsey & Co


I always thought there was at least one person in the stands who had never seen me play, and I didn't want to let him down.
-Joe Dimaggio.


Liberty for the wolves is death for the lambs.
-Isaiah Berlin

Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.
-T.S. Eliot

I think that's the nature of discoveries, many times: that the reason they're difficult is that you've got to take a series of steps, three or four steps, which if you don't make them you won't get there, and if you're wrong in any one of them you won't get there. It isn't a matter of one jump-- that would be easy. You've got to make several successive jumps. And usually the pennies drop one after another until eventually it all clicks. Otherwise it would be too easy!
- Francis Crick

The player who knows how will usually draw, the player who knows why will usually win.
Good players give their best in every match, every game, every move.
The master knows exactly the right moment to do nothing.
The popular player loses without an alibi, wins with grace, and draws with a smile.
-Tom Wiswell, quoted in Victor Niederhoffer, Education of a Speculator

If I am not for myself, who is for me? But if I am for my own self only, what am I, and if not now, when?
- Rabbi Hillel.

For an ethic is not an ethic, and a value not a value, without some sacrifice to it. Something given up, something not taken, something not gained. We do it in exchange for a greater good, for something worth more than just money and power and position. The great paradox of this philosophy is that in the end it brings one greater gain than any other philosophy.
- Jerry Kohlberg

• Effective managers manage themselves and the people they work with so that both the organization and the people profit from their presence.
• People who feel good about themselves produce good results.
• Help people reach their full potential. Catch them doing something right.
• The best minute I spend is the one I invest in people.
• Feedback is the breakfast of champions.
• Everyone is a potential winner; Some people are disguised as losers; DonÕt let their appearances fool you.
• Take a minute: Look at your goals. Look at your performance. See if your performance matches your goals.
• If you are first tough on the behavior, and then supportive of the person, it works.
• We are not just our behavior, we are the person managing our behavior.
• Being honest with people eventually works.

• Goals begin behaviors. Consequences maintain behavior.
  - Blanchard And Johnson 

Tell us thy troubles and speak freely. A flow of words doth ever ease the heart of sorrows; it is like opening the waste where the mill dam is overfull.
-Robin Hood 
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
Martin Luther King, Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, 1967. 
The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility.
Martin Luther King, Jr., The Trumpet of Conscience, 1967. 
Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
Martin Luther King, Jr., Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Stockholm, Sweden, December 11, 1964. 

Words can never adequately convey the incredible impact of our attitudes toward life. The longer I live the more convinced I become that life is 10 percent what happens to us and 90 percent how we respond to it. I believe the single most significant decision I can make on a day-to-day basis is my choice of attitude. It is more important than my past, my education, my bankroll, my successes or failures, fame or pain, what other people think of me or say about me, my circumstances, or my position. Attitude keeps me going or cripples my progress. It alone fuels my fire or assaults my hope. When my attitudes are right, there is no barrier too high, no valley too deep, no dream too extreme, no challenge too great for me.
Charles R. Swindoll

If anything goes bad, I did it.
If anything goes semigood, then we did it.
If anything goes really good, then you did it.
That's all it takes to get people to win football games for you.
Bear Bryant
Many people will walk in and out of your life,
But only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.

To handle yourself, use your head;
To handle others, use your heart.

Anger is only one letter short of danger.

If someone betrays you once, it is his fault;
If he betrays you twice, it is your fault.

Great minds discuss ideas;
Average minds discuss events;
Small minds discuss people.

He who loses money, loses much;
He, who loses a friend, loses much more;
He, who loses faith, loses all.

Beautiful young people are accidents of nature,
But beautiful old people are works of art.

Learn from the mistakes of others.
You can't live long enough to make them all yourself.

Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is mystery. Today is a gift.