Quotes For You

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old, seek what they sought. -Matsuo Basho

People wander about what you are pursuing. You have to explain about the thread. -William Stafford, American poet (1914-1993)

Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder. - George Washington

A man's character is his fate. - HERACLITUS (c. 540 - c. 480 BC), Greek philosopher

The qualities of a great man are "vision, integrity, courage, understanding, the power of articulation, and profundity of character. - DWIGHT EISENHOWER (1890-1969)

Our men ... have killed to exterminate men, women, children, prisoners and captives, active insurgents and suspected people from lads of 10 up.... Our soldiers have pumped salt water into men to "make them talk," and have taken prisoners people who held up their hands and peacefully surrendered, and an hour later. . .stood them on a bridge and shot them down one by one, to drop into the water below and float down, as examples to those who found their bullet-loaded corpses. -Philadelphia Ledger newspaper in 1901, from its Manila correspondent during the US war with Spain for the control of the Philippines

Governments, like clocks, go from the motion that men give them. Therefore, governments rather depend upon men, than men upon governments. Let the men be good, then the government cannot be bad; if the men be bad, then government will never be good. I know some say 'let us have good laws and no matter for the people who execute them.' But let them consider that though good laws do well, good men do better. For good laws may lack good men, but good men will never lack good laws nor allow bad ones. - William Penn in 1681, America, Character Counts

If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative. -Woody Allen

There is little that bureaucrats hate more than innovation, especially innovation that produces better results than the old routines. Improvements always make those at the top of the heap look inept. Who enjoys appearing inept? -Frank Herbert

If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can't be done. -Peter Ustinov

You never change something by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. -Buckminster Fuller

You can be discouraged by failure, or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes, make all you can. Because, remember that's where you'll find success – on the far side of failure. -Thomas J Watson Sr

Character is an essential tendency. It can be covered up, it can be messed with, it can be screwed around with, but it can't be ultimately changed. It's the structure of our bones, the blood that runs through our veins. - SAM SHEPARD -- American actor/playwright

The true test of civilization is not the census, nor the size of cities, nor the crops - no, but the kind of man the country turns out. -RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803-1882), American writer and philosopher

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved. - HELEN KELLER (1880-1968), Blind and deaf writer/lecturer

The white hot energy of youth, which saw in obstacles but inspirations, and in the enemy but the gage to battle, becomes too complacent with age. The result of mathematical calculation and metaphysical erudition; of knowledge he never had and plans he never made. -George S. Patton

[I]t is impossible to organize things if you yourself are not in order. When you do things in the right way, at the right time, everything else will be organized. --Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Master from Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind

Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can't build on it; it's only for wallowing in. -Katherine Mansfield

Every great personality I have ever known who has demonstrated the capacity for prodigious work has been a person in tune with the Infinite. Every person seems in harmony with Nature. -Norman Vincent Peale