"A human being
should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a
ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a
bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve
equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a
tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.
Specialization is for insects."
Excerpt from the
notebooks of Lazarus Long, from Robert Heinlein's "Time Enough for
Love"
"It is not the critic
who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where
the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man
who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;
who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there
is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do
the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends
himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high
achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring
greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who
know neither victory nor defeat."
Theodore Roosevelt
- "Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it"
- - Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
- "One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important."
- - Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
- "Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal."
- - Henry Ford (1863-1947)
- "When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong."
- - Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983)
Other qoutes I really like:
“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
-Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776.
Irish blessing:
"May you have warm words on a cold evening
A full moon on a dark night and a smooth road all the way to your door.
May you be in Heaven a full 1/2 hour before the Devil knows your dead.
May you live as long as you want and never want as long as you live.
May your heart be light and happy May your smile be big and wide.
May your pockets always have a coin or two inside.
And remember to forget the trouble that’s past away but never forget the blessings that come each day."
Unknown
"One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been."
Sophocles
- "Opportunities multiply as they are seized."