Reading at the wedding

Never mind the Royal Wedding; my 33-year-old daughter was married last week at Gretna Green. She asked me if I would read something for her as part of the ceremony, and of course I said I would. Yet despite an extensive search I could find nothing suitable among the published work I knew.  

It’s not that I was being picky; I had a particular problem in choosing what to read. You see, for ten years my daughter was married to a man we all loved, Robbie, and they had  a boy and girl together. Everything was fine until a little over two years ago, quite unexpectedly, Robbie died of a rapid virulent cancer.

We all think it’s great that Joni has now found a new love in her life. The children adore him, and last week they acted respectively as seven-year-old best man and nine-year-old bridesmaid at our tiny ceremony – they even had short speeches to make, which they performed immaculately. My problem was that I wanted to acknowledge the past, and particularly Robbie, in the reading without it becoming maudlin or distracting from the present joyful occasion. I felt I needed to write something of my own. 

Photographs are important to our family. My wife, especially, likes to take pictures of our get-togethers and celebrations, and these are prominent around our house and our daughter’s – in regular frames and digital frames, in albums, and on the home screens of our laptop computers. We all like to see Robbie’s smiling face popping up, here and there, among the other family images. Pictures, then, became the theme for my poem, my way of having Robbie there without sadness, and my way of marrying the past, present and future. 

Pictures is only three short verses, and there were only ten people in the room when I read it, but I have never been so nervous, at least until I saw my daughter’s face light up with the recognition of what I was aiming for with the poem. I grew more confident once I knew I’d won her approval, and my reading ended in the warmth of fond appreciation. What I didn't know at the time was that she had secretly compiled an album of pictures to chronicle the year that had passed since she met her new husband - an illustrated journal of their relationship to date which she presented him at the wedding meal; this made my poem seem more appropriate and poignant.

Pictures was written for this very particular special occasion, but I’d like to think there is something universally applicable in what it has to say, and I hope it appeals to others outside our family circle.

Pictures 

These days of our lives are framed in pictures;

holidays, babies, celebrations,

for recollection in tranquillity,

for ‘What year was this?’, ‘Oh, look at you’;

for remembrance, when people go. 

This day of our lives we’ll frame in pictures;

red dress, white dress, prettiness;

boys wrapped in silk ties and sly grins;

our happiness set free and

captured in pictures for  

Those days, those quiet days

when we lay them in their place beside the others,

and on our knees retrace the long line of our lives.

Quotes about Pace

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The first man gets the oyster, the second man gets the shell.

Andrew Carnegie, British industrialist, philanthropist (1835-1919)

Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.

Donald Marquis, US newspaper owner, poet, playwright (1878-1937)

Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.

Will Rogers, US actor, humorist (1879-1935)

We live in an age when pizza gets to your home before the police.

Jeff Marder, US humorist, TV presenter (b. 1961)

If everything’s under control, you’re going too slow.

Mario Andretti, Italian racing driver (b. 1940)

The speed of the boss is the speed of the team.

Lee Iacocca, US automotive executive (b. 1924)

There is more to life than increasing its speed.

Mahatma Gandhi, Indian nationalist leader (1869-1948)

The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.

Harry Emerson Fosdick, US clergyman, author (1878-1969)

Quotes about Opportunity

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If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.

Milton Berlinger, known as Milton Berle, US actor (1908-2002)

Ability is nothing without opportunity.

Napoleon Bonaparte, French soldier, statesman, revolutionary (1769-1821)

Napoleon Bonaparte

When one door closes, another opens, but we often look so long and regretfully upon the closed door, we do not see the ones which open for us.

Alexander Graham Bell, British inventor (1847-1922)

There is no security on this earth, there is only opportunity.

Douglas McArthur, US general (1880-1964)

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

Thomas Alva Edison, US inventor (1847-1931)

When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.

John F Kennedy, US President (1917-1963)

We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities.

Walt Kelly, US satirist (1913-1973)

The untalented are more at ease in a society that gives them valid alibis for not achieving than in one where opportunities are abundant.

Eric Hoffer, US philosopher, author, longshoreman (1902-1983)

Quotes about Motivation

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The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.

Plutarch, Greek biographer, essayist (46-120 AD)

A key characteristic of transformational leaders is that they motivate people to do more than they originally expected to do.

Elizabeth Chell, British academic, management author (b. 1949)

Martin Luther King did not say ‘I have a dream’ to himself.

Benjamin Zander, British conductor, management presenter (b. 1939)

You know I was stumped one day when a little boy asked, ‘Do you draw Mickey Mouse?’ I had to admit I do not draw any more. ‘Then you think up all the jokes and ideas?’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘I don’t do that.’ Finally he looked at me and said, ‘Mr Disney, just what do you do?’ ‘Well,’ I said, ‘Sometimes I think of myself as a little bee. I go from one area of the studio to another and gather pollen and sort of stimulate everybody.’ I guess that’s the job I do. I certainly don’t consider myself a businessman, and I never did believe I was worth anything as an artist.

Walt Disney, US artist, film producer (1901-1966)

Good leadership consists of motivating people to their highest levels by offering them opportunities, not obligations.

John Heider, US management author (b. 1960)

Leaders in the new organisation do not lack motivational tools, but the tools are different from those of traditional corporate bureaucrats. The new rewards are based not on status but on contribution and they consist not of regular promotion and automatic pay rises but of excitement about mission and a share of the glory and the gains of success.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter, US academic, management author (b. 1943)

We don’t want satisfaction. We want creative dissatisfaction associated with excitement about the job. That’s what motivation is made of.

Daniel Quinn Mills, US academic, management author (b. 1949)

Do you want to sell sugar water all your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?

Steve Jobs, US executive, co-founder of Apple Computer Inc (b. 1955), persuading John Sculley to leave Pepsi Cola.

Steve Jobs with John Sculley

I’m slowly becoming a convert to the principle that you can’t motivate people to do things, you can only demotivate them. The primary job of the manager is not to empower but to remove obstacles.

Scott Adams, US cartoonist, author (b. 1957)

The best motivation is self-motivation. The guy says, ‘I wish someone would come by and turn me on.’ What if they don’t show up? You’ve got to have a better plan for your life.

Jim Rohn, US motivational speaker, author (1930-2009)

Everyone needs to know what is expected of them. Expect people to be better than they are; it helps them to become better. But don’t be disappointed when they are not; it helps them to keep trying.

Merry Browne, US poet

The key to motivation is motive.

Roger Merrill, US management consultant, author

In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flames by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.

Albert Schweitzer, Alsatian theologian (1875-1965)

I was going to buy a copy of The Power of Positive Thinking, and I thought: What the hell good would that do?

Ronnie Shakes, US humorist

Quotes about Mistakes

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Mistakes are the portals of discovery.

James Joyce, Irish author, poet (1882-1941)

One cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs – but it is amazing how many eggs one can break without making a decent omelette.

No man ever became great or good except through many and great mistakes.

William Ewart Gladstone, British Prime Minister (1809-1898)

He who never made a mistake never made a discovery.

Samuel Smiles, British author (1812-1904)

Show me a person who has never made a mistake and I’ll show you somebody who has never achieved much.

Joan Collins, British actress (b. 1933)

Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.

Mahatma Gandhi, Indian nationalist leader (1869-1948)

To swear off making mistakes is very easy. All you have to do is swear off having ideas.

Leo Burnett, US advertising executive (1891-1971)

Knowledge rests not upon truth alone, but upon error also.

Carl Gustav Jung, Swiss psychiatrist, analytical psychologist (1876-1961)

From error to error discovers the entire truth.

Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychiatrist, founder of psychoanalysis (1856-1939)

Don’t ‘tolerate’ mistakes. Embrace them!

Tom Peters, US management author, presenter (b. 1942)

Experience is simply the name we give to our mistakes.

Oscar Wilde, Irish dramatist, poet (1854-1900)

Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.

Nasreddin, Turkish cleric (c. 13^th Century AD)

I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge.

Igor Stravinsky, Russian composer (1882-1971)

A doctor can bury his mistakes but an architect can only advise his client to plant vines.

Frank Lloyd Wright, US architect (1869-1959)

Quotes about Meetings

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Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything.

John Kenneth Galbraith, US economist, diplomat (1908-2006)

The next time you’re in a meeting, look around and identify the yes-butters, the not-knowers, and the why-notters. Why-notters move the world.

Louise Pierson, US advertising executive

A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled.

Barnett Cocks, British political author (1907-1989)

Every discussion in a meeting has a diminishing curve of interest. The longer the discussion goes on, the fewer people will be interested in it.

Mark McCormack, US sports agent (1930-2003)

Why do we take notes of meetings that last for hours and call them minutes?

David Williams, British author, presenter (b. 1950)

A conference is a gathering of important people who singly can do nothing, but together can decide that nothing can be done.

Fred Allen, US supreme court justice (b. 1928)

What is a committee? A group of the unwilling, picked from the unfit, to do the unnecessary.

Richard Harkness, US journalist (1907-1977)

Quotes about Mediocrity

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Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.

Joseph Heller, US author (1923-1999)

Only the mediocre are always at their best.

John Giradoux, French author, diplomat (1882-1944)

The world is full of people who never quite get into the first team and who just miss the prizes at the flower show.

Jacob Bronowski, British mathematician, scientist (1908-1974)

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.

Henry David Thoreau, US essayist, poet (1817-1862)

Quotes about Media

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A newspaper consists of just the same number of words, whether there be any news or not.

Henry Fielding, British playwright, author (1707-1754)

For most folks, no news is good news; for the press, good news is not news.

Gloria Borger, US journalist, political pundit (b. 1952)

Nothing travels faster than light, with the possible exception of bad news, which follows its own rules.

Douglas Adams, British author (1952-2001)

Newspapers should have no friends.

Joseph Pulitzer, Hungarian/US publisher, founder of the Pulitzer Prize (1847-1911)

I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.

Mahatma Gandhi, Indian nationalist leader (1869-1948)

Mahatma Gandhi

The camera cannot lie. But it can be an accessory to untruth.

Harold Evans, British journalist, editor (b. 1928)

All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth.

Richard Avedon, US photographer (1923-2004)

Quotes about Measurement

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Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted, counts.

George Pickering, British clinician (1904-1980)

Sometime during the two-year curriculum, every MBA student ought to hear it clearly stated that numbers, techniques and analysis are all side matters. What is central to business is the joy of creating.

Peter Robinson, US executive (b. 1938)

Never measure the height of a mountain until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was.

Doug Hammarskjold, Swedish statesman (1905-1961)

What gets measured gets done – but only for the purpose of measurement.

David Williams, British author, presenter (b. 1950)

Quotes about Listening

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We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.

Epictetus, Greek philosopher (55-135 AD)

The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said.

Peter Drucker, US management author (1909-2005)

If you’re talking, you’re giving information and therefore giving away power; if you’re listening and asking questions, you’re gaining information, the raw material of knowledge, and therefore gaining power.

Geoff Burch, British management author, presenter (b. 1951)

Geoff Burch

 

One of the best ways to persuade others is with your ears – by listening to them.

Dean Rusk, US statesman (1909-1994)

A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he gets to know something.

Wilson Mizner, US playwright, author (1876-1933)

It is a mistake to think we listen only with our ears. It’s much more important to listen with the mind, the eyes, the body, and the heart. Unless you truly want to understand the other person, you’ll never be able to listen.

Mark Herndon, US musician (b. 1955)

Quotes about Learning

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I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.

Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter (1881-1973)

The difference between what the most and the least learned people know is inexpressibly trivial in relation to that which is unknown.

Albert Einstein, German physicist (1879-1955)

At the core of active learning is a deceptively simple requirement; students must be personally invested in the learning process.

David Garvin, US academic, business author

Sit down before a fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and whatever abyss nature leads or you shall learn nothing.

Thomas Henry Huxley, British biologist, philosopher (1825-1895)

Learn to Unlearn.

R D Laing, British psychiatrist (1927-1989)

Prepare yourself in the subject so well that it shall be always on tap: then in the classroom trust your spontaneity and fling away all further care.

William James, US philosopher, psychologist (1842-1910)

The ability to learn faster than the competition is often the only sustainable competitive advantage a company can have.

Arie de Geus, Dutch oil executive, management presenter (b. 1930)

Over the long run, superior performance depends on superior learning.

Peter Senge, US management author, presenter (b. 1947)

The illiterate of the future will not be the person who cannot read. It will be the person who does not know how to learn.

Alvin Toffler, US management author, editor (b. 1928)

In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.

Eric Hoffer, US philosopher, author, longshoreman (1902-1983)

I do like challenges. What I like most of all is to learn. When I feel that I’ve learnt what there is to learn about telecommunications, or airlines, or cosmetics – well, you name it – then I move on to something else.

Richard Branson, British entrepreneur (b. 1950)

The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.

Mary Adelaide Eden Philpotts, British author (1896-1996)

I’m always ready to learn, but I do not always like being taught.

Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister(1874-1965)

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.

Douglas Adams, British author (1952-2001)

What did you ask at school today?

Richard Feynman, US physicist, Noble Prize winner, bongo player (1918-1988)

When you read a book, you hold another’s mind in your hands.

James Burke, British TV presenter, producer (b. 1936)

In the book of life, the answers aren’t in the back.

Charlie Brown, cartoon strip by Charles Schulz (1922-2000)

Quotes about Leadership

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A leader is a dealer in hope.

Napoleon Bonaparte, French soldier, statesman, revolutionary (1769-1821)

Leadership is the transference of vision.

Hal Reed, US business executive (b. 1957)

The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.

Kenneth Blanchard, US management author, presenter (b. 1939)

Management is about now, leadership about the future; one implements goals, the other sets them; one relies on control, the other inspires trust; one deals in rational processes, the other in emotional horizons.

Amin Rajan, British economist, researcher, author (b. 1942)

The job of the leader is to speak to the possibility.

Benjamin Zander, British conductor, management presenter (b. 1939)

Benjamin Zander

Good leaders must first become good servants.

Robert Greenleaf, US management consultant, educationist (1904-1990)

A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go but ought to be.

Rosalynn Carter, US First Lady (b. 1927)

Managers are often so busy cutting through the undergrowth they don’t even realise they are in the wrong jungle. A leader is a person who climbs the tallest tree, surveys the entire situation, and yells, ‘Wrong jungle!’

Stephen Covey, US management author, presenter (b. 1932)

People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.

John C Maxwell, US clergyman, author (b. 1947)

I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.

Ralph Nader, US lawyer, Presidential candidate (b. 1934)

I used to think that running an organisation was equivalent to conducting a symphony orchestra. But I don’t think that’s quite it; it’s more like jazz. There is more improvisation.

Warren Bennis, US academic, management author (b. 1925)

Let me state a basic old form of leadership. This anachronism is the person who in effect says to his organisation, ‘I order all of you insignificant little people to come to work excited, energetic, and creative and to accomplish impossible tasks so that I may become rich and famous and live a luxurious life travelling around the world and building a home on the Riviera and playing golf with other important people like myself. By the way, I want you to park in the outer lot and slog through the snow past the empty parking space with my name on it, and I also want you to pay for your coffee while I get mine free, served on fine china.’

Robert Townsend, US author, businessman (1920-1998)

You manage things; you lead people.

Grace Murray Hooper, US naval officer, Admiral (1906-1992)

A leader has a vision and conviction that a dream can be achieved. He inspires the power and energy to get it done.

Ralph Lauren, US fashion designer (b. 1939)

The leader who knows when to listen, when to act, and when to withdraw can work effectively with nearly everyone.

John Heider, US management author (b. 1936)

No man is great enough or wise enough for any of us to surrender our destiny to. The only way in which anyone can lead us is to restore to us the belief in our own guidance.

Henry Miller, US author (1891-1980)

Mention the word leadership and the vast majority of folks think of Gandhi or Churchill or Iacocca. In doing so, they raise the concept to a level where it seems relevant to a handful of people at most. Thinking that way, the younger manager doesn’t try to develop her own leadership potential. Leadership with a small ‘l’ is of incredible importance in today’s world. Needless to say, it would greatly help if we could get more people to think of leadership in the ‘small l’ sense, and not just the larger than life ‘capital L’ sense.

John Kotter, US author (b. 1947)

One of the advantages of being a captain is being able to ask for advice without necessarily having to take it.

Captain James T Kirk, character in ‘Star Trek’, created by Gene Roddenberry (1921-1991)

A leader is best

When people barely know that he exists,

Not so good when people obey and acclaim him,

Worse when they despise him.

‘Fail to honour people,

They fail to honour you’;

But of a good leader, who talks little,

When his work is done, his aim fulfilled,

They will also say, ‘We did this ourselves.’

Lao Tzu, Chinese founder of Taoism, author (6^th Century BC)

We can’t all be heroes because somebody has to sit on the kerb and clap as they go by.

Will Rogers, US actor, humorist (1879-1935)

The graveyards are full of indispensable men.

Charles de Gaulle, French President, general (1890-1970)

A politician thinks of the next election - a statesman of the next generation.

James Freeman Clarke, US minister, theologian, author (1810-1888)

Life is like a dogsled team. If you ain’t the lead dog, the scenery never changes.

Lewis Grizzard, US columnist, humorist (1946-1994)

Be willing to make decisions. That’s the most important quality in a good leader.

George S Patton, US general (1885-1945)

Eagles don’t flock – you have to find them one at a time.

Henry Ross Perot, US executive, Presidential candidate (b. 1930)

A good leader is a person who takes a little more than his share of the blame and a little less than his share of the credit.

John C Maxwell, US clergyman, author (b. 1947)

Make a careful list of all things done to you that you abhorred. Don’t do them to others, ever. Make another list of things done to you that you loved. Do them to others, always.

Dee Hock, US financial business executive (b. 1929)

Quotes about Knowledge

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To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge.

Benjamin Disraeli, British Prime Minister (1804-1881)

What you don’t know will always hurt you.

We don’t know a millionth of one percent of anything.

Thomas Alva Edison, US inventor (1847-1931)

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.

Benjamin Franklin, US statesman, author, scientist (1706-1790)

Throughout history, the craftsman who had learned a trade after five or seven years of apprenticeship had learned, by age eighteen or nineteen, everything he would ever need to use during his lifetime. In the society of organisations, however, it is safe to assume that anyone with any knowledge will have to acquire new knowledge every four or five years or become obsolete.

Peter Drucker, US management author (1909-2005)

No amount of sophistication is going to allay the fact that all your knowledge is about the past and all your decisions are about the future.

Ian E Wilson, Canadian cultural administrator (b. 1943)

We are trying to sell more and more intellect, and less and less materials.

George Hegg, strategic planner, 3M

The factory worker no longer manipulates the sheet of steel; he manipulates the data about the steel.

William Bridges, US engineer, researcher, educator (b. 1934)

The secret of business is to know something that nobody else knows.

Aristotle Onassis, Greek businessman (1906-1975)

The most important part of turnover is the loss of intellectual capital.

Ted Kastelic, US business executive, Intel

If money is your hope for independence, you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.

Henry Ford, US automobile manufacturer, engineer (1863-1947)

You never have to know all the answers because you won’t be asked all the questions.

Herbert Prochnow, US banker, author (1897-1998)

The more a man knows, the more willing he is to learn. The less a man knows, the more positive he is that he knows everything.

Robert Ingersoll, US lawyer, orator (1833-1899)

To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.

Confucius, Chinese philosopher, teacher (551-479 BC)

An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less.

Nicholas Butler, US educator, Nobel Peace Prize winner (1862-1947)

Quotes about Journeys

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A journey of a thousand miles starts in front of your feet.
Lao Tzu, Chinese founder of Taoism, author (6th Century BC)

If everything seems to be coming your way, you’re probably in the wrong lane.

None travels so high as he who knows not where he is going.

Oliver Cromwell, English soldier, statesman (1599-1658)

It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.

Ursula K Le Guin, US author (b. 1929)

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

Muriel Strode US poet (1875-1964)

If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths rather than travel the worn paths of accepted status.

John D Rockefeller, US industrialist, philanthropist (1839-1937)

While modelling and matching the styles and processes of others is helpful, remember it’s your journey with your own goals, signposts and markers.

Scott Simmerman, US management consultant (b. 1948)

Don’t worry about genius. Don’t worry about being clever. Trust to hard work, perseverance and determination. And the best motto for a long march is: ‘Don’t grumble. Plug on!’

Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister (b. 1925)

I will go anywhere, as long as it be forward.

David Livingstone, British missionary (1813-1873)

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forward.

Soren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher (1813-1855)

We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.

C S Lewis, British author, scholar (1898-1963)

There are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going.

Beverly Sills, US soprano (1929-2007)

Originality is unexplored territory. You get there by carrying a canoe – you can’t take a taxi.

Alan Alda, US actor, author, director (b. 1936)

Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads with nothing but their own vision.

Ayn Rand, Russian/US author (1905-1982)

Quotes about Involvement

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Tell me and I’ll forget.

Teach me and I’ll remember.

Involve me and I’ll learn.

W Edwards Deming, US statistician, author (1900-1993)

People tend to resist that which is thrust upon them. They tend to support that which they help create.

Vince Pfaff

Retention boils down to basic practices. A company that engages its people at all levels and in all ways is a company that keeps them.

Barbara Ettorre, US management consultant

Nobody’s ever insulted to be invited.

Mrs Leonard Lyons

Flow is a state of self-forgetfulness, the opposite of rumination and worry; instead of being lost in nervous preoccupation, people in flow are so absorbed in the task at hand that they lose all self-consciousness, dropping the small preoccupations – health, bills, even doing well – of daily life.

Daniel Goleman, US psychologist, author (b. 1946)

Painters must want to paint above all else. If the artist in front of the canvas begins to wonder how much he will sell it for, or what the critics will think of it, he won’t be able to pursue original avenues. Creative achievements depend on single-minded immersion.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Hungarian/ US social scientist (b. 1934)

Quotes about the Internet

Here's the next section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training.


An updated version of the book is newly available as part of my Almost Free Kindle titles both in the UK and in the USA.

The Internet crosses borders and oceans with daredevil ease. There is no greater challenge to a parochial outlook than a day or two monitoring message traffic in this ongoing worldwide conversation.

Paul Gilster, US science author (b. 1949)

Email is reincarnating the age of letter-writing. We’re keeping in touch the way the Victorians did, building a personal community connected by a constant stream of letters sharing news and gossip. Email is reviving the ‘letter’ as a forum for wit, style, and personality, as well as an invaluable business tool.

Leslie Schroeder, US public relations executive

Stop thinking about it as the ‘information superhighway’ and start thinking about it as the ‘marketing superhighway’. Doesn’t it sound better already?

Don Logan, US media executive, Time Inc (b. 1944)

The Internet is a perfect diversion from learning – it opens many doors that lead to empty rooms.

Cliff Stoll, US astronomer (b. 1950)

The Internet is an elite organisation; most of the population of the world has never even made a phone call.

Noam Chomsky, US linguist, political activist (b. 1928)

The greatest asset of this worldwide electronic network, covering millions of individuals and organisations, is the ease with which you can establish a direct relationship with one person.

David Williams, British author, presenter (b. 1950)

We’ve all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually produce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.

Eyler Coates, US librarian (1930-2002)

Quotes about Integrity

Here's the next section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training.


An updated version of the book is newly available as part of my Almost Free Kindle titles both in the UK and in the USA.

We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.

Jimmy Carter, US President (b. 1924)

Jimmy Carter

Always do right! This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known as Mark Twain, US author (1835-1910)

Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.

Thomas Jonathan ‘Stonewall’ Jackson, US general (1824-1863)

So act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world.

Immanuel Kant, German philosopher (1724-1804)

All ambitions are lawful, except those that climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind.

Joseph Conrad, Polish/British author (1857-1924)

No-one can earn a million dollars honestly.

William Jennings Bryan, US statesman (1860-1925)

The measure of a man’s character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

Thomas Babington Macaulay, British historian, essayist (1800-1859)

Character is doing what’s right when nobody’s looking.

J C Watts, US politician (b. 1957)

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

Martin Luther King Jr, US civil rights leader (1929-1968)

I either want less corruption, or more chance to participate in it.

Ashleigh Brilliant, British philosopher, author (b. 1933)

It is easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them.

Alfred Adler, Austrian psychiatrist (1870-1937)

These are my principles. If you don’t like them I have others.

Julius Henry ‘Groucho’ Marx, US comic actor (1890-1977)