Favorite Sayings

Here are some of my favorite sayings. I've collected them over the years and try to live by them, although it's not always easy!

Complexity by Tolstoy

I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives
Tolstoy

Modern Interpretation
Don't get so comfortable with one technology that you refuse to learn a new one!

If you work for a man

If you work for a man, then by all means, work for him. If he pays you wages which supply your bread and butter, speak well of him; stand by him and the institution he represents. If put to a pinch, an ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness.

If you must vilify, condemn and eternally disparage – resign your position, and when you are outside, damn to your hearts content.

But as long as you are part of the institution, do not condemn it. IF you do that , you are loosening the tendrils that are holding you to the institution, and by the first high wind that comes along, you will be uprooted and blown away, and probably will never know why.

Elbert Hubbard

How to tell the winners from the losers

Winners know that people will be good if you give them a chance.
Losers feel that people will be bad if you give them the chance.

Winners aren't afraid of losing
Losers are secretly afraid of winning.

Winners work harder than losers and have more time.
Loser are always "Too Busy" to what is necessary.

Winners take big problems and separate them into smaller parts that they can be handled easily.
Losers take a lot of little problems and throw them together until they are unmanageable.

Winners aren't afraid to contradict themselves when circumstances change.
Losers are more concerned with being consistent than being right.

When winners make mistakes, they say "I was wrong".
When losers make mistakes, they say "It wasn't my fault".

Winners make commitments.
Losers make promises.

Winners say "I'm good, but not as good as I want to be".
Losers say "I'm not as bad as a lot of people".

Winners listen.
Losers just wait for a turn to speak.

Winners are sensitive to the atmosphere around them.
Losers are sensitive only to their own feelings.

Winners respect those who are superior and try to learn from them.
Losers resent those who are superior and try to obstruct them.

Winners say "There ought to be a better way".
Losers say "That's the way it's always been done here".

The Retired Engineer

There was an engineer who had an exceptional gift for fixing all things mechanical. After serving his company loyally for over 30 years, he happily retired.

Several years later his company contacted him regarding a seemingly impossible problem they were having with one of their multi-million dollar machines. They had tried everything, and everyone lese to get the machine fixed but to no avail.

In desperation, they called on the retired engineer who had solved so many of their problems in the past. The engineer reluctantly took the challenge. He spent a day studying the huge machine.

At the end of the day he marked a small x in chalk on a particular component of the machine and proudly stated, “This is where your problem is”. The part was replaced and the machine worked perfectly again.

The company received a bill for $50,000 from the engineer for his service. They demanded an itemized accounting of his charges. The engineer responded briefly:

One chalk mark …………......... $1.00
Knowing where to put it ……… $49,999.00

It was paid in full and the engineer retired in peace.

A Lion in Africa

Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows that it must run faster that the fastest lion or it will be killed.

Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows that it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.

It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle: When the sun comes up you had better be running!

Click Here to Download an Adobe file with all the sayings!

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