Brainy Thoughts

“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.”

William A. Foster

“You can’t win a war against your brother.”

Brainythoughts.com 2006

“Those that make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness.”

Jean de La Bruysre

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

Mohandas Karamchand “Mahatma” Gandhi (October 2 1869 – January 30 1948) was an advocate and pioneer of nonviolence. He led the struggle for India’s independence from British colonial rule.

“When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging”

Will Rogers (November 4, 1879, August 15, 1935) was an American comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer, and actor.

“There are some oddities in the perspective with which we see the world. The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas-covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Douglas Noël Adams (March 11, 1952, May 11, 2001). British author, comic radio dramatist, and amateur musician. He is known most notably as author of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series.

Douglas Adams died of a heart attack at the age of 49 on Friday 11 May 2001, while working out at a private gym in California.

“Age is a very high price to pay for maturity.”

Anonymous

“A closed mouth gathers no foot.”

Anonymous

“You’ve got to think about the big things when you’re doing the small things so that all the small things go in the right direction.”

Alvin Toffler (born October 3, 1928) is an American writer and futurist, known for his works discussing the digital revolution, communications revolution, corporate revolution and technological singularity.

“Family are important, but climate has so much more to offer.”

Author: Unknown

“Luck affects everything. Let your hook always be cast; in the stream where you least expect it there will be fish.”

Publius Ovidius Naso (20 March 43 BC – AD 17) was a Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, wrote on topics of love, abandoned women, and mythological transformations. Ranked alongside Virgil and Horace as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature.

“Life’s big fallacy is security. There is none, ever. And I love that. I love the lack of security, of not knowing where the next buck’s going to come from. I love the need for adaptability. My kids can do anything they like as long as they don’t become lazy. If they become hoods, let them be the hardest working hoods around, not the footsoldiers.”

Alan Duff (b. 1950). New Zealand novelist (famous for Once Were Warriors), newspaper columnist, and polemicist. born and raised in a State housing area in Rotorua, New Zealand.

The Books in Homes scheme, launched in 1995 by Duff with commercial sponsorship and government support, aims to alleviate poverty and illiteracy by providing low-cost books to underprivileged children, thus encouraging them to read. In its first year alone it put about 180,000 new books in the hands of about 38,000 children.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Duff

“I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.”

Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949), American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor.

“Give me a lever long enough, and a place to stand and I will move the entire earth.”

Archimedes (C. 287 – 212 B.C.), ancient Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and philosopher

Archimedes is creditied to have discovered the principles of density and buoyancy, also known as Archimedes’ principle, while taking a bath. The story goes that he then took to the streets naked, being so elated with his discovery that he forgot to dress, crying “Eureka!” (”I have found it!”).

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets:

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”
“

Author: William Hutchinson Murray (18 March 1913 – 19 March 1996), from the The Scottish Himalayan Expedition (1951)

“The noblest dog is the hot dog. It feeds the hand that bites it.”

“Television has changed the American child from an irresistible force into an immovable object.”

Laurence J Peter

“Enlightenment is always preceded by confusion”

Milton Hyland Erickson, MD (1901 – 1980) American psychiatrist and founding president of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis

Milton Hyland Erickson was also a fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Psychopathological Association. He is noted for his often unconventional approach to psychotherapy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_H._Erickson

“Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them.”

Dr Laurence J. Peter (September 16, 1919 – January 12, 1990)

Laurence J. Peter was an educator and “hierarchiologist”, best known to the general public for the formulation of the Peter Principle, which states which states: “In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence”.

“When the winds of change come, some people build walls, others build windmills.”

Author: Brian Mayne

“Sometimes it’s very difficult to keep momentum when it’s you that you are following.”

Eva María Duarte de Perón (also known as Evita) (May 7, 1919, July 26, 1952)

Eva Perón was the second wife of Argentine President Juan Domingo Perón (18951974) and the First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death in 1952. Though she was never an officially elected political figure, most scholars agree that by her husband’s second term in office she had come to exercise more power and influence within the government than anyone but her own husband.

Analysis paralysis is when the opportunity cost of decision analysis exceeds the benefits.

“Celebrate any progress. Don’t wait to get perfect.”

Ann McGee Cooper

“Grant me the strength to focus on the most important things, the clarity of thought to determine which things are important, and the energy to carry them out.”

Author: Brainy Thoughts, 2006

“A diamond is a piece of coal that stuck to the job.”

Thomas A. Edison

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847, October 18, 1931)

American inventor and businessman who developed many devices which greatly influenced life in the 20th century. Dubbed “The Wizard of Menlo Park” by a newspaper reporter, he was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production to the process of invention, and can therefore be credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory. Some of the inventions credited to him were not completely original, but improvements of earlier inventions, or were actually created by his numerous employees working under his direction. Nevertheless, Edison is considered one of the most prolific inventors in history, holding 1,097 U.S. patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.

Someone said to Voltaire, “Life is hard.” Voltaire replied, “Compared to what?”

François-Marie Arouet (21 November 1694, 30 May 1778), better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, essayist, deist and philosopher.

Voltaire is known for his sharp wit, philosophical writings, and defense of civil liberties, including freedom of religion and the right to a fair trial. He was an outspoken supporter of social reform despite strict censorship laws in France and harsh penalties for those who broke them. A satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize Church dogma and the French institutions of his day. Voltaire is considered one of the most influential figures of his time.

“Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right.”

Author Unknown

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela OM, CC, AC, QC (born July 18, 1918)

First President of South Africa to be elected in fully-representative democratic elections. Before his presidency he was a prominent anti-apartheid activist who, while imprisoned for 27 years, was involved in the planning of underground armed resistance activities. The armed struggle was, for Mandela, a last resort; he remained steadfastly committed to non-violence. Through his 27-year imprisonment, much of it spent in a cell on Robben Island, Mandela became the most widely-known figure in the struggle against South African apartheid. Although the apartheid regime and nations sympathetic to it considered him and the ANC to be terrorists, the armed struggle was an integral part of the overall campaign against apartheid. The switch in policy to that of reconciliation, which Mandela pursued upon his release in 1990, facilitated a peaceful transition to fully-representative democracy in South Africa.

Having received over a hundred awards over four decades, Mandela is currently a celebrated elder statesman who continues to voice his opinion on topical issues. In South Africa he is often known as Madiba, an honorary title adopted by elders of Mandela’s clan. The title has come to be synonymous with Nelson Mandela. Many South Africans also refer to him reverently as ‘mkhulu’ (grandfather).

“Most men stumble over great discoveries. But most then pick themselves up and walk away.”

Sir Winston Churchill (30 November 1874, 24 January 1965)

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. Well known orator, strategist, soldier, author and politician, Churchill won the 1953 Nobel Prize in Literature for his many books on English and world history. Sir Winston Churchill was voted the Greatest-ever Briton in the 2002 BBC poll the 100 Greatest Britons.

“We are born naked, wet and hungry. Then things get worse”

Author Unknown

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Reinhold Niebuhr (American theologian, 1892-1971)

“Never get into fights with ugly people, they have nothing to lose.”

“Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig.”

Authors Unknown

“It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others”

John Kirinrich

“Don’t aim at success – the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot by pursued; it must ensure, as the unintended side-effect of one’s personal dedication to a course greater than oneself.”

Viktor Emil Frankl, M.D., Ph.D., (March 26, 1905 – September 2, 1997) Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist.

Viktor Frankl is the author of the book Man’s Search for Meaning, which chronicles his experiences as a concentration camp inmate at Auschwitz in WW2 and describes his psychotherapeutic method of finding meaning in all forms of existence, even the most sordid ones, and thus a reason to continue living.

Viktor Frankl is one of the key figures in existential therapy.

“How do I know what I think until I hear what I say?”

Edward Morgan Forster (January 1, 1879 – June 7, 1970). English novelist, short story writer, and essayist. He is most famous for his novels, most of which have been filmed.

“Invention is not the product of logical thought, even though the final product is tied to logical structure.”

Albert Einstein
German-American theoretical physicist widely regarded as the most important scientist of the 20th century and one of the greatest physicists of all time.

“I drink to make other people interesting.”

“I thought I wanted a career, turns out I just wanted paychecks.”

Authors unknown

“You can cage an animal, but you can’t take away the rage”

Metalica (the band)

“Dreams can often become challenging, but challenges are what we live for.”

Travis White

“When people keep telling you that you can’t do a thing, you kind of like to try it. “

Margaret Chase Smith

“Mountains cannot be surmounted except by winding paths.”

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

“In knowledge work, the task is not given, it has to be determined.”

Peter Ferdinand Drucker (November 19, 1909, November 11, 2005) Austrain management author & guru. Moved to USA in 1937, was naturalized in 1943. Professor of Management at New York University from 1950 to 1971. From 1971 to his death he was the Clarke Professor of Social Science and Management at Claremont Graduate University.

Drucker was interested in the growing importance of people who worked with their minds rather than their hands. He was intrigued by employees who know more about certain subjects than their bosses or colleagues and yet had to cooperate with others in a large organization. Drucker analyzed it and explained how it challenged the common thinking about how organizations should be run.

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”

George Bernard Shaw

“In matters of principal, stand like a rock.
In matters of taste, swim with the current.”

Thomas Jefferson 1743 – 1826

Thomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States (18011809), principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and an influential Founding Father of the United States.
A political philosopher who promoted classical liberalism, republicanism, and the separation of church and state, he was the author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1779, 1786), which was the basis of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

“An apple every eight hours will keep three doctors away.”

“Any numpty can have the facts, but having an opinion is an art.”

Authors Unknown

“A fool with a tool is still a fool.”

Author Unknown

“Creativity is not in the finding of a thing, but in the making something of it when it is found.”

James Russell Lowell (1819, 1891), American Romantic poet, critic, satirist, writer, diplomat, and abolitionist.

“I don’t think much of people who have it in them to be first, but who finish second.”

Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Sr. (September 6, 1888, November 18, 1969) was a prominent United States businessman and political figure, the father of President John F. Kennedy (JFK) and Robert F. Kennedy (RFK), and the patriarch of the Kennedy political family.

“The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of new ideas and bold projects. Rather it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the ideals and great enterprises of [American] Society.”

Robert Francis Kennedy ( U.S. attorney general and adviser, and brother to former US President JFK, 1925-1968)

“He that hath knowledge spareth his words.”

Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626), English Philosopher

“Your success as a family – our success as a society – depends not on what happens at the White House, but on what happens inside your house.”

Barbara Pierce Bush (born June 8, 1925) is the wife of the 41st President of the United States, George H. W. Bush, and was First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993.

“In leadership, in standing for principle, there is loneliness. But men and woman of integrity must live with their convictions. Unless they do so, they will be miserable.”

Gordon B. Hinckley

“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.”

Author: Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

“The stone does not always know what ripples it has caused in the pond”

BrainyThoughts.com 2006

“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”

Nelson Mandela

“Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.”

Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson

“We pledge our allegiance to life through our actions.”

BrainyThoughts.com 2006

“What you give will always come back double.”

Author Unknown

“Surround yourself with successful people,
Don’t be challenged by them,
Challenge yourself and learn from them, because
Success has a mysterious way of attracting more success,
Like negativity attracts more negativity.”

Author: Lazy Boy (Lyrics)

“Do, or be done to.”

Brainy Thoughts 2006

“Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.”

Author: Will Durant

“Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.”

Author: Joel Barker

“Every snowflake in an avalanche pleads not guilty.”

“Fill what’s empty, empty what’s full, scratch where it itches.”

Authors Unknown.

“Don’t stay in bed, unless you can make money in bed.”

Author: George Burns (1896-1996)

“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.”

Author: William Shakespeare

“You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage – pleasantly, smilingly, non-apologetically – to say no to other things.
And the way you do that is by having a bigger ‘YES’ burning inside.”

Author: Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

Covey defines a habit as “the intersection of knowledge, skill and desire.” The seven habits outlined by Covey are: be proactive, begin with the end in mind, put first things first, think “win-win,” seek first to understand — then to be understood, synergize and sharpen the saw.

“A witty saying proves nothing. ”

“Admit nothing, deny everything and make counter-accusations. “

Authors: Unknown

Bill Gates allegedly gave this speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school.

He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

”
Rule 1: Life is not fair – get used to it!

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

If you can read this – Thank a teacher!

If you are reading it in English – Thank a Veteran.
”

Author: Bill Gates (unconfirmed)

”
Let your thoughts be positive for they will become your words.
Let your words be positive for they will become your actions.
Let your actions be positive for they will become your values.
Let your values be positive for they will become your destiny.
“

Author: Mahatma Gandhi

“Simple clear purpose and principals give rise to complex and intelligent behavior.
Complex rules and regulations give rise to simple and stupid behavior.”

Author: Dee Hock

“Friend what is it that you seek?
What is it that you try to find?
Someday I hope you realized
It shined in you all the time.

Hills to climb, sights to see, seas to cross,
Friends to make, hands to shake, the world is yours,
Foods to taste, sounds to hear, love to feel,
Seeds to sow, things to know, fish to reel,
Space to quiz, stones to lift, Life’s a gift.”

Author: Faithless (Band) – from the song I Want More

“You are not what you think, but what you think you are.”

Author Unknown

“We could learn a lot from Crayons: Some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, while others bright, some have weird names, but we have to learn how to live in the same box. “

Author: Unknown

“There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.”

Nelson Mandela

“The fear of suffering is worse than suffering itself.”

Author: Paulo Coelho. 1947-

“I know that you believe that you understand what you think I said but I am not sure you realise that what you heard is not what I meant.”

Author: Unknown

“I’m rather like a mosquito at a nudist camp; I know what to do, but I don’t know where to begin.”

Author: Stephen Bayne

“The difference between ‘involvement’ and ‘commitment’ is like an eggs-and-ham breakfast: the chicken was ‘involved’ – the pig was ‘committed’.”

Author: Unknown

“Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”

Donald Rumsfeld (American Secretary of Defense)

“If you are going through hell, keep going.”

Author: Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

“Experience is something you don’t get until just after you need it.”

“For every problem there is one solution which is simple, neat and wrong.”

Author(s) Unknown

“It doesn’t matter if you’re a late bloomer as long as you don’t miss the flower show.”

Author: Jane Fonda

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

Author: Nelson Mandela
Rolihlahla “Nelson” Mandela (born July 18, 1918) is a former President of South Africa, was one of its chief anti-apartheid activists, and was also an anti-apartheid saboteur and guerrilla leader. He is considered by most people to be a freedom fighter, but the apartheid regime naturally considered him a terrorist. He spent his childhood in the Thembu chiefdom before embarking on a career in law.

“Talk does not cook rice.”

Chinese proverb

“The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.”

Author: Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

Corollary:

“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.”

“If you know but do not do, then in fact you do not know.”

Author: Unknown

“Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart give yourself to it.”

Buddha

“Of all the things I’ve lost, I miss my mind the most.”

Author: Ashley Brilliant

“A drunk mans’ words are a sober mans’ thoughts.”

“A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience.”

“There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”

Author: John F. Kennedy – Thirty-fifth President of the USA.

The Cuban Missile Crisis.
The,Cold War’ between the United States and the Soviet Union almost turned into a real war in October 1962 when an American spy plane secretly flew over Cuba and took pictures of military construction sites. President Kennedy saw from these pictures that the Russians were building nuclear missile launchers in Cuba, only 90 miles from Florida. President Kennedy faced a very difficult decision. Should he ignore the missiles even though they were very close to the United States? Should he use force to remove the missiles, even at the risk of starting a nuclear war?

“When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth. “

George Bernard Shaw

“Be interested.”

Everyone wants to be interesting – but the vitalizing thing is to be interested. Keep a sense of curiosity. Discover new things. Care. Risk failure. Reach out.

Author: John W. Gardener

“Let life not become a comb that nature gives us after we have lost our hair.”

Author: Unknown

“Everything that can be invented has been invented.”

Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899

“I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation. “

George Bernard Shaw

“Your ability to generate power is directly proportional to your ability to relax.”

Author: David Allen

“It is the act of forgiveness that opens up the only way to think creatively about the future at all.”

Desmond Wilson

“People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are like. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, they make them.”

Author: George Bernard Shaw (1856, 1950), Irish playwright. Best known for Pygmalion (1913). Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925

“I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once.”

Author: Ashley Brilliant

“Your identity is what you’ve committed yourself to.”

Author: John W. Gardner