Quotes about Criticism

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

To knock a thing down, especially if it is cocked at an arrogant angle, is a deep delight of the blood.

George Santayana, US philosopher, poet (1863-1952)

Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, a stranger.

Franklin P Jones, US journalist, humorist (1908-1980)

I can take any amount of criticism, so long as it is unqualified praise.

Noel Coward, British actor, playwright, composer (1899-1973)

We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.

Denis Diderot, French philosopher (1713-1784)

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

Albert Einstein, German physicist (1879-1955)

Too many of us take pleasure in discouraging people by pointing out their mistakes and getting excited about their failures rather than focusing on their strengths and getting excited about their possibilities.

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

For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism.

People spend too much time finding other people to blame, too much energy finding excuses for not being what they are capable of being, and not enough energy putting themselves on the line, growing out of the past, and getting on with their lives.

J Michael Straczynski, US science fiction writer, producer (b. 1954)

Evaluation of performance, merit rating, or annual review nourishes short-term performance, annihilates long-term planning, builds fear, demolishes teamwork, nourishes rivalry and politics. It leaves people bitter, crushed, battered, desolate, despondent, rejected, feeling inferior, some even depressed, unfit for work for weeks after receipt of rating, unable to comprehend why they are inferior.

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

Don’t find fault, find a remedy.

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

Quotes about Creativity

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

A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something.
Frank Capra, Italian/US film director (1897-1991)

Confusion is the welcome mat at the door of creativity.
Michael J Gelb, US author, educator (b. 1952)

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.
Arthur Koestler, British author (1905-1983)

Why do we only ever play these games – games that are designed to stimulate us, to solve differences and to make us think creatively – in the training room?
David Firth, British management author (b. 1949)

Think before you speak is criticism’s motto: speak before you think, creation’s.
E M Forster, British author (1879-1970)

E M Forster

Creativity is the ability to see relationships where none exist.
Thomas Disch, US author (1940-2008)

Storm and Silence – the two modes of group creativity. Together they unlock a world of rich inspiration.
David Williams, British management author, presenter (b. 1950)

Quotes about Courage

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

Courage is one step ahead of fear.

Coleman Young, US senator (1918-1997)

Always do what you are afraid to do.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, US essayist, poet (1803-1882)

Far better to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much... in the grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt, US President (1858-1919)

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

Eleanor Roosevelt, US United Nations delegate (1884-1962)

Eleanor Roosevelt at Pearl Harbour

The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skilful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.

Epictetus, Greek philosopher (55-135 AD)

The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out and meet it.

Pericles, Greek statesman (495-429 BC)

A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet, letter-writer (1749-1832)

Sometimes you just have to take the leap, and build your wings on the way down.

Kobi Yamada, US marketeer, author

Security is mostly superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoidance of danger is not safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.

Helen Keller, US writer, lecturer (1880-1968)

It is better to err on the side of daring than the side of caution.

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

Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.

Peter Drucker, US management author (1909-2005)

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister (1874-1965)

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.

John F Kennedy, US President (1917-1963)

Courage is the main quality of leadership, in my opinion: courage to initiate something and keep it going – pioneering an adventurous spirit to blaze new ways.

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

Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.

Special Olympics motto

Quotes about Control

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

You can’t hold a man down without staying down with him.

Booker T Washington, US reformer, teacher (1856-1915)

Booker T Washington

You do not lead by hitting people over the head – that’s assault, not leadership.

Dwight D Eisenhower, US President, general (1890-1969)

Those who can command themselves, command others.

William Hazlitt, British journalist, essayist (1778-1830)

People have changed. They know more, they want to know more, they expect more, they want to be more, they want to fill up their lives with work that has meaning. There’s no time to worry about keeping everybody in line. Control is an illusion only achieved when people are controlling themselves.

David Firth, British management author (b. 1949)

Quotes about Contribution

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

Life’s most urgent question is: what are you doing for others?

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

If there be any truer measure of a man than by what he does,  it must be by what he gives.

Robert South, English clergyman (1634-1716)

We are here on earth to do for others. What the others are here for, I don’t know.

W H Auden, British poet (1907-1973)

From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.

Arthur Ashe, US tennis player (1943-1993)

The simplest and shortest ethical precept is to be served as little as possible – and to serve others as much as possible.

Leo Tolstoy, Russian author (1828-1910)

It is one of the most beautiful compensations in life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, US essayist, poet (1803-1882)

The miracle is this; the more we share, the more we have.

Leonard Nimoy, US actor (b. 1931)

Leonard Nimoy

No man, who continues to add something to the material, intellectual and moral well-being of the place in which he lives, is left long without proper reward.

Booker T Washington, US reformer, teacher (1856-1915)

There was never a person who did anything worth doing that did not receive more than he gave.

Henry Ward Beecher, US preacher, author (1813-1887)

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.

Augustine (Og) Mandino, US insurance businessman, author (1923-1996)

For it is in giving that we receive.

Francis of Assisi, Italian friar (1182-1226)

Quotes about Continuous Improvement

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

He who stops being better stops being good.

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

There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.

Aldous Huxley, British author (1894-1963)

It is necessary to try to surpass oneself always; this occupation ought to last as long as life.

Christina, Queen of Sweden (1632-1654)

The road to success is always under construction.

James C Miller, US economist, politician (b. 1942)

We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.

Marian Wright Edelman, US lawyer (b. 1939)

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.

Vincent Van Gogh, Dutch painter (1853-1890)

Vincent Van Gogh

There is no brilliant single stroke that is going to transform the water into wine or straw into gold.

Coleman Young, US senator (1918-1997)

You can’t improve 100% in one thing. But you can improve 1% in 100 things.

John Willard Marriott, US executive, Marriott Hotels (b. 1932)

The rung of the ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man’s foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher.

T H Huxley, British biologist (1825-1895)

The productivity of people requires continuous learning, as the Japanese have taught us. It requires adoption in the West of the specific Japanese Zen concept where one learns to do better what one already does well.

Peter Drucker, US management author (1909-2005)

Improvement makes straight roads; but the crooked roads without improvement are roads of genius.

William Blake, British poet, painter, engineer (1757-1827)

Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.

Robert Collier, US advertising copywriter (1885-1950)

Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement and success have no meaning.

Benjamin Franklin, US statesman, author, scientist (1707-1790)

Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.

Salvador Dali, Spanish artist (1904-1989)

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