Success... and relaxation

Success in life comes not from holding a good hand, but in playing a poor hand well.
~ Denis Waitley (American motivational speaker)

When was the last time you spent a quiet moment just doing nothing - just sitting and looking at the sea, or watching the wind blowing the tree limbs, or waves rippling on a pond, a flickering candle or children playing in the park?
~ Ralph Marston

There is a certain degree of satisfaction in having the courage to
admit one's errors. It not only clears up the air of guilt and defensiveness, but often helps solve the problem created by the error.
~ Dale Carnegie (1888-1955)

and relating to playing...

What if this weren't a hypothetical question?

We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.

~ George Bernard Shaw quotes (Irish literary Critic, Playwright and Essayist. 1925 Nobel Prize for Literature, 1856-1950)

Never idealize others. They will never live up to your expectations. Don't over-analyse your relationships. Stop playing games. A growing relationship can only be nurtured by genuineness.

~ Leo F. Buscaglia quotes (American guru, tireless advocate of the power of love, 1924-1998)

Just playing

Boys will be boys, and so will a lot of middle-aged men.
~ Kin Hubbard.

Behind every successful man stands a surprised mother-in-law.
~ Hubert Humphrey

Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you.
~ Carl Gustav Jung

Guard your time and your thoughts

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.

~ Carl Sandburg

It's hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head.

~ quotes about Confidence by Sally Kempton, Esquire, 1970 Personal Growth and Self Development
(the moral is don't give space in your head to your enemies - K)

Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

~ Unknown

Heroes, Attitudes, and Vision

Nurture your mind with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic makes heroes.
~ Benjamin Disraeli

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
~ Herm Albright

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man.
~ Benjamin Franklin

law, reputation and optimism

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.
~ Martin Luther King Jr.

You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do.
~ Henry Ford

The average pencil is seven inches long, with just a half-inch eraser - in case you thought optimism was dead.
~ Robert Brault

Future; being good; creativity

The future is here. It's just not widely distributed yet.
~ William Gibson

On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.
~ George Orwell

Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things.
~ Ray Bradbury

Peace, and purpose

Out of clutter, find simplicity.
From discord, find harmony.
In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
~Albert Einstein

If you're not serving a customer, you better be serving someone who is.
~ Unknown

Great teams need great leaders - leaders who inspire, motivate, instil pride, loyalty and a sense of fun at work.
~Natalie Calvert, Managing Director, Calcom Group

Encouragement, criticism, or wit?

The words in your mouth can be the best reward for your people.
~ Barry Lawson, of Scottish Water

Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger.
~ Franklin P. Jones

The problem lies between the keyboard and the chair.
~ Noted by a Computer Help Line Adviser in a call report

Problems and opportunity

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
~ Thomas Edison

The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.
~ Theodore Rubin

If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask? Do they get smart just in time to ask questions?
~ Scott Adams

Friendship - the muse of inspiration

To say that a man is your Friend, means commonly no more than this, that he is not your enemy. Most contemplate only what would be the accidental and trifling advantages of Friendship, as that the Friend can assist in time of need by his substance, or his influence, or his counsel. Even the utmost goodwill and harmony and practical kindness are not sufficient for Friendship, for Friends do not live in harmony merely, as some say, but in melody.
~ Henry David Thoreau (American Essayist, Poet and Philosopher,1817-1862)

A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things but cannot receive great ones.
~ Lord Chesterfield (British Statesman, Diplomat and Wit, 1694-1773)

This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.
~ Western Union internal memo 1876

Prejudice and Speech

Even the hint of prejudice of any type has no place in a well-run organization.
~ Fred A. Manske, Jr.

Look wise, say nothing, and grunt. Speech was given to conceal thought.
~ Sir William Osler

Press On

Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it's a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from.
~ Al Franken

We cannot fail to win unless we fail to try.
~ Tom Clancy

Some men see things as they are and say "Why?" I dream things that never were, and say, "Why not?"
~ George Bernard Shaw

Positivity...

Love your enemies. It makes them so damn mad!
~ Mark Twain

The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.
~ George F. Will

Imagination is the only key to the future. Without it none exists - with it all things are possible.
~ Ida M. Tarbell (1857 -1944)

The Important Thing

Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.
~ Stephen King

The important thing is not to stop questioning.
~ Albert Einstein

The most overlooked advantage to owning a computer is that if they foul up there's no law against wacking them around a little.
~ Joe Martin

Help others

Computers now allow us to lose more information faster than we've ever been able to before.
~ Paul Prichard

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool.
~ Richard Feynman

Help others get ahead. You will always stand taller with someone else on your shoulders.
~ Bob Moawad

Press on!

If you delay till tomorrow what ought to be done today, you overcharge the morrow with a burden which belongs not to it.
~ Hugh Blair

The thing that impresses me the most about America is the way parents obey their children.
~ King Edward VIII

Effective people are not problem-minded; they're opportunity-minded. They feed opportunities and starve problems.
~ Stephen Covey

Looking where? For what?

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.
~ J.F. Kennedy

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it, and then misapplying the wrong remedies.
~ Groucho Marx

Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest.
~ Isaac Asimov

Generations, character and science

Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.
~ George Orwell

Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.
~ Kurt Vonnegut

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not "Eureka!" (I found it!) but "That's funny..."
~ Isaac Asimov

Each moment fits into eternity

Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
~ P. J. O'Rourke

Never explain -- our friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.
~ Elbert Hubbard

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
~ R. W. Emerson