Tag: thought for today

Only with a new leader do you realize the value of the old.

—Burmese proverb

HT: Execupundit

 

We live in the midst of details that keep us running round in circles and never getting anywhere but tired, or that bring on nervous breakdowns and coronary thrombosis. The answer is not to take to the woods, but to find out what we really want to do and then cut out the details that fritter away what is most valuable in life. Live deep instead of fast. I think this is what Thoreau meant.

—Henry Seidel Canby

HT: Words of Wisdom: More Good Advice compiled and edited by William Safire, Leonard Safir

Avoid interruptive thinking. Everyone—and I mean everyone—has something good to offer you if you are astute enough to find it. Sometimes it means picking a small kernel out of a lot of chaff, but the kernel is always there. One way to get the best from people is to learn to avoid what I call interruptive thinking. This is where someone is saying something to you and you interrupt—and probably change the subject in doing so.

—David Mahoney

HT: Words of Wisdom: More Good Advice compiled and edited by William Safire, Leonard Safir

Be a good listener. Your ears will never get you in trouble.

—Frank Tyger

HT: Words of Wisdom: More Good Advice compiled and edited by William Safire, Leonard Safir

Professional critics are seldom elevated to positions where creative talent is the chief quality required.

—William Gibbs McAdoo

(McAdoo was President Woodrow Wilson’s secretary of the treasury, as well as his son-in-law).

HT: Wilson by A. Scott Berg

The rarest thing in public life is courage, and the man who has courage is marked for distinction; the man who has not is marked for extinction, and deserves submersion.

—Woodrow Wilson

HT: Wilson by A. Scott Berg

The world’s memory must be kept alive, or we shall never see an end of its old mistakes.

—Woodrow Wilson

HT: Wilson by A. Scott Berg

Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.

—Albert Schweitzer

HT: Execupundit

It’s a very short trip. While alive, live.

—Malcolm Forbes

HT: Words of Wisdom: More Good Advice compiled and edited by William Safire, Leonard Safir

You can’t depend on your judgment when your imagination is out of focus.

—Mark Twain

HT: Execupundit