If you take too long in deciding what to do with your life, you’ll find you’ve done it.
—PAM SHAW
To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing.
—EVA YOUNG
When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.
—WILLIAM JAMES
Half the failures in life arise from pulling in one’s horse as he is leaping.
—JULIUS CHARLES HARE AND AUGUSTUS WILLIAM HARE
Give me the benefit of your convictions, if you have any; but keep your doubts to yourself, for I have enough of my own.
—JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
Throughout history, the most common debilitating human ailment has been cold feet.
—Country
Calculation never made a hero.
—JOHN HENRY CARDINAL NEWMAN
He who hesitates is interrupted.
—FRANKLIN P. JONES
IF YOU CAN’T MAKE A MISTAKE . . .
If you can’t make a mistake, you can’t make anything.
—MARVA N. COLLINS
Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.
—BABE RUTH
The greatest mistake you can make in life is continually to be fearing you will make one.
—ELBERT HUBBARD
A stumble may prevent a fall.
—ENGLISH PROVERB
He who never made a mistake never made a discovery.
—SAMUEL SMILES
A mistake proves that someone stopped talking long enough to do something.
—PHOENIX FLAME
Mistakes are the usual bridge between inexperience and wisdom.
—PHYLLIS THEROUX
Night Lights
Better to ask twice than to lose your way once.
—DANISH PROVERB
We’re all proud of making little mistakes. It gives us the feeling we don’t make any big ones.
—ANDREW A. ROONEY
Not That You Asked . . .
To err is human; to admit it, superhuman.
—DOUG LARSON
Admit your errors before someone else exaggerates them.
—ANDREW V. MASON, MD
There is no saint without a past—no sinner without a future.
—ANCIENT PERSIAN MASS
Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human condition, there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes.
—GEORGE SOROS
Soros on Soros
One of the most dangerous forms of human error is forgetting what one is trying to achieve.
—PAUL NITZE
It is very easy to forgive others their mistakes; it takes more grit and gumption to forgive them for having witnessed your own.
—JESSAMYN WEST
The worst part is not in making a mistake but in trying to justify it, instead of using it as a heaven-sent warning of our mindlessness or our ignorance.
—SANTIAGO RAMÓN Y CAJAL
Charlas de Cafe
Always acknowledge a fault frankly. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you opportunity to commit more.
—MARK TWAIN
To obtain maximum attention, it’s hard to beat a good, big mistake.
—DAVID D. HEWITT
Justifying a fault doubles it.
—FRENCH PROVERB
Your worst humiliation is only someone else’s momentary entertainment.
—KAREN CROCKETT
He who is afraid to ask is ashamed of learning.
—DANISH PROVERB
The only nice thing about being imperfect is the joy it brings to others.
—DOUG LARSON
Nine times out of ten, the first thing a man’s companion knows of his shortcomings is from his apology.
—OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES SR.
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
—JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH
Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went
I’D RATHER BE A FAILURE . . .
I’d rather be a failure at something I enjoy than be a success at something I hate.
—GEORGE BURNS
You never conquer a mountain. You stand on the summit a few moments; then the wind blows your footprints away.
—ARLENE BLUM
Victory is in the quality of competition, not the final score.
—MIKE MARSHALL
Laurels don’t make much of a cushion.
—DOROTHY RABINOWITZ
Success covers a multitude of blunders.
—BERNARD SHAW
Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.
—TRUMAN CAPOTE
Success and failure. We think of them as opposites, but they’re really not. They’re companions—the hero and the sidekick.
—LAURENCE SHAMES
Don’t confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other.
—ERMA BOMBECK
The hero reveals the possibilities of human nature; the celebrity reveals the possibilities of the media.
—DANIEL J. BOORSTIN
The Image
Oh, the difference between nearly right and exactly right.
—HORACE J. BROWN
Success is never final, but failure can be.
—BILL PARCELLS
Finding a Way to Win
I couldn’t wait for success . . . so I went ahead without it.
—JONATHAN WINTERS
There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying.
—FRANCIS BACON
You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.
—BEVERLY SILLS
Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.
—HENRY VAN DYKE
Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.
—LOU HOLTZ
True success is overcoming the fear of being unsuccessful.
—PAUL SWEENEY
If at first you do succeed—try to hide your astonishment.
—Los Angeles Times Syndicate
If you’re not failing now and again, it’s a sign you’re playing it safe.
—WOODY ALLEN
You’re never as good as everyone tells you when you win, and you’re never as bad as they say when you lose.
—LOU HOLTZ WITH JOHN HEISLER
The Fighting Spirit
It takes as much courage to have tried and failed as it does to have tried and succeeded.
—ANNE MORROW LINDBERGH
It isn’t failing that spells one’s downfall; it’s running away, giving up.
—MICHEL GRECO
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then give up. There’s no use in being a damn fool about it.
—W. C. FIELDS
Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent.
—MARILYN VOS SAVANT
On this earth, in the final analysis, each of us gets exactly what he deserves. But only the successful recognize this.
—GEORGES SIMENON
If at first you don’t succeed, you are running about average.
—M. H. ALDERSON
Success is not forever, and failure’s not fatal.
—DON SHULA WITH KEN BLANCHARD
Everyone’s a Coach
Failure is an event, never a person.
—WILLIAM D. BROWN
Welcome Stress!
Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
—JOHN WOODEN
They Call Me Coach
Defeat may serve as well as victory to shake the soul and let the glory out.
THE REWARD FOR WORK WELL DONE . . .
The reward for work well done is the opportunity to do more.
—JONAS SALK, MD
The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.
—RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Work is something you can count on, a trusted, lifelong friend who never deserts you.
—MARGARET BOURKE-WHITE
The biggest mistake you can make is to believe that you are working for someone else.
—Bits & Pieces
The work praises the man.
—IRISH PROVERB
One of the greatest sources of energy is pride in what you are doing.
—Spokes
Do the best you can in every task, no matter how unimportant it may seem at the time. No one learns more about a problem than the person at the bottom.
—SANDRA DAY O’CONNOR
Manual labor to my father was not only good and decent for its own sake but, as he was given to saying, it straightened out one’s thoughts.
—MARY ELLEN CHASE
A Goodly Fellowship
There’s no labor a man can do that’s undignified—if he does it right.
—Bill Cosby
Happiness, I have discovered, is nearly always a rebound from hard work.
—DAVID GRAYSON
Adventures in Contentment
There are no menial jobs, only menial attitudes.
—WILLIAM J. BENNETT
The Book of Virtues
Just as there are no little people or unimportant lives, there is no insignificant work.
—Elena Bonner
Alone Together
There is a kind of victory in good work, no matter how humble.
—JACK KEMP
Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it.
—HENRY FORD
Accomplishments have no color.
—LEONTYNE PRICE
The best preparation for work is not thinking about work, talking about work, or studying for work: it is work.
—WILLIAM WELD
Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing. It’s when you’ve had everything to do, and you’ve done it.
—MARGARET THATCHER
The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work.
—RICHARD BACH
Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Nothing is work unless you’d rather be doing something else.
—GEORGE HALAS
My father always told me, “Find a job you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.”
—JIM FOX
When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life or in the life of another.
—HELEN KELLER
Ability will never catch up with the demand for it.
—MALCOLM S. FORBES
What you have inherited from your fathers, earn over again for yourselves, or it will not be yours.
—JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
Not only is woman’s work never done, the definition keeps changing.
—BILL COPELAND
in Herald-Tribune (Sarasota, Florida)
We work to become, not to acquire.
—ELBERT HUBBARD
Blessed is the person who is too busy to worry in the daytime and too sleepy to worry at night.
—LEO AIKMAN
in Journal-Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia)
Perfection is finally attained, not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away.
—ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY
If you have a job without any aggravations, you don’t have a job.
—MALCOLM S. FORBES
Work keeps us from three evils: boredom, vice and need.
—VOLTAIRE
It’s strange how unimportant your job is when you’re asking for a raise, but how important it can be when you want to take a day off.
in Tri-County Record (Kiel, Wisconsin)
I don’t know what liberation can do about it, but even when the man helps, woman’s work is never done.
—BERYL PFIZER
The man who didn’t want his wife to work has been succeeded by the man who asks about her chances of getting a raise.
—EARL WILSON
There is no such thing as a nonworking mother.
—HESTER MUNDIS
Powermom
Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.
—MARK TWAIN
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Retirement, we understand, is great if you are busy, rich and healthy. But then, under those conditions, work is great too.
—BILL VAUGHAN
Retirement should be based on the tread, not the mileage.
—ALLEN LUDDEN
I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve immortality through not dying.
—WOODY ALLEN
It proves, on close examination, that work is less boring than amusing oneself.
—CHARLES BAUDELAIRE
EVERYWHERE IS WALKING DISTANCE . . .
Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.
—STEVEN WRIGHT
The perfect journey is circular—the joy of departure and the joy of return.
—DINO BASILI
in Il Tempe (Rome, Itlay)
What is traveling? Changing your place? By no means! Traveling is changing your opinions and your prejudices.
—ANATOLE FRANCE
The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.
—ST. AUGUSTINE
There ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.
—MARK TWAIN
The rule for traveling abroad is to take our common sense with us, and leave our prejudices behind.
—WILLIAM HAZLITT
A good traveler is one who does not know where he is going. A perfect traveler does not know where he came from.
—LIN YUTANG
Be careful going in search of adventure—it’s ridiculously easy to find.
—WILLIAM LEAST HEAT MOON
Blue Highways: A Journey into America
Most travel is best of all in the anticipation or the remembering; the reality has more to do with losing your luggage.
—REGINA NADELSON
in European Travel & Life
Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything.
—CHARLES KURALT
On the Road With Charles Kuralt
The average tourist wants to go to places where there are no tourists.
—SAM EWING
Men travel faster now, but I do not know if they go to better things.
—WILLA CATHER
Death Comes for the Archbishop
Each year it seems to take less time to fly across the ocean and longer to drive to work.
—The Globe and Mail (Totonto, Ontario)
For travel to be delightful, one must have a good place to leave and return to.
—FREDERICK B. WILCOX
Traveling is like falling in love; the world is made new.
—JAN MYRDAL
IT’S A STRANGE WORLD OF LANGUAGE . . .
It’s a strange world of language in which skating on thin ice can get you into hot water.
—FRANKLIN P. JONES
in Quote
If the English language made any sense, lackadaisical would have something to do with a shortage of flowers.
—DOUG LARSON
Words are vehicles that can transport us from the drab sands to the dazzling stars.
—M. ROBERT SYME
Words are like diamonds. Polish them too much, and all you get are pebbles.
—BRYCE COURTENAY