My Last Post

We didn't lose the game. We just ran out of time. - Vince Lombardi

Me too.

On The Road To Perfection

Perfection is a road, not a destination. - Burk Hudson

. Try to tell that to someone with OCD!

Disapointment

While a relationship with a principled human being can certainly surpass the relationship with a pet, the fact that so many humans disappoint gives pets a potential edge they wouldn't otherwise have. - Michael Hurd

. Relationships with pets alone are not fulfilling.

The Perfect Speech

Be sincere, be brief, be seated. - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Don't Let It Pass

Seize opportunity by the beard, for it is bald behind. - Bulgarian Proverb

Explains why a bald faced lie can't be an opportunity.

The Blame Game

There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction. The moment you are old enough to take the wheel, the responsibility lies with you. - J. K. Rowling

It's called growing up.

Limitless

Most often our limitations are not from lack of ability but from goals which are not lofty enough. - Lyle

Bright Spot

When there's a lot of light, you don't notice the dark. When there's a lot of dark, you always notice the light. - John Marsden

Surround yourself with light to avoid dark thoughts.

Doing What You Love

Doing what you love means dealing with things you don't. - David Shore

Don't let the details overshadow the big picture.

Just Don't Do It

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. - Lyle

Applies to atomic bombs as well as pink houses.

Literate

The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them. - Mark Twain

Anybody can watch TV; no intelligence required.

Forgiving

People find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right. - J. K. Rowling

  Don't gloat; it makes forgiveness even more difficult.

Zoom

A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties. - Harry S. Truman

A pessimist sits; an optimist sprints.

Optimistic Hope

Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out. - Vaclav Havel

I hope he is right.

Stories

You've got to know your story. Learn to tell it. - Michael Berry

Mr. Berry's point is that you need to be able to sell yourself. You can't do that unless you have a good story and can tell it. What got you where you are? How have you changed? What makes you great? Practice by telling stories.

Battles and Wars

Free men cannot start a war, but once it is started, they can fight on in defeat. Herd men, followers of a leader, cannot do that, and so it is always the herd men who win battles and free men who win wars. - John Steinbeck

Free men following an inspirational leader win both battles and wars. Churchill and Patton come to mind.

Pushing Little Old Ladies

If one man pushes an old lady in front of an oncoming bus and another man pushes an old lady out of the way of an oncoming bus, to borrow Bill Buckley’s famous puncturing of moral equivalence arguments, it will not suffice to say that they are both the sorts of men who push old ladies around. - Jonah Goldberg

Details matter. It's called the whole truth.

Workers

Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all. - Sam Ewing

The good; the bad; the ugly.

Obsessive?

Is OCD a virtue, vice, strength or weakness? - Lyle

Unlisted

Keeping house ain't on my bucket list. - Lyle

Self-Esteem

Most people with low self-esteem have earned it. - Anon

...and act like they are the best.

Ladies and Gentlemen

A lady is a woman who makes it easy for a man to be a gentleman. - American Proverb

A gentleman is a man who makes it easy for a woman to be a lady.

Evil Knows No Distance

State or local tyranny is no better than Federal tyranny. Local evil is just as evil as distant evil. - Lyle

It is just as important to vote on local issues as national ones.

Targeted

When giant bureaucracies set targets for others to reach, they intend not so much to procure improvement as to impose control. - Theodore Dalrymple

An they make themselves look compassionate while butting into other people's business.

Unwise Desires

A desire not to butt into other people's business is eighty percent of all human wisdom. - Robert Heinlein

Bureaucracies are established to butt into other people's business.

Refusing Awards

To refuse awards is another way of accepting them with more noise than normal. - Peter Ustinov

And their point is generally lame.

Big Difference

There's a big difference between pleasure and happiness. - Lyle

Happiness is from within, pleasure is from outside.

If The Handle Fits

Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle that fits them all. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Never trust a liar in any way.

Revolution, Not Evolution

Creativity is not the finding of a thing, but the making something out of it after it is found. - James Russell Lowel

Or making the existing thing awesome.

Flunking

The teacher pretended that algebra was a perfectly natural affair, to be taken for granted, whereas I didn't even know what numbers were. Mathematics classes became sheer terror and torture to me. I was so intimidated by my incomprehension that I did not dare to ask any questions. - Carl Jung

Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. - Robert Heinlein

Lift Anchor

A ship in harbor is safe -- but that is not what ships are built for. - John A. Shedd

The outcome of your journey depends on the one at the helm.

Reformation

It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who would profit by the old order, only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new. - Machiavelli

Any time you want to institute change, spend more effort on the people affected than you did on the details of the change.

Scandalous Superiority

Scandal is great entertainment because it allows people to feel contempt, a moral emotion that gives feeling of moral superiority while asking nothing in return. - Johnathan Haidt

And scandal has become an industry where if it doesn't exist, it's invented.

Creation

Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy. - Margaret Thatcher

It is easier to start from scratch than to change what is in place.

There's A Rhino In The Room

If a rhinoceros were to enter this restaurant now, there is no denying he would have great power here. But I would be the first to rise and assure him that he had no authority whatever. - G. K. Chesterton

The IRS has the power because you give them the authority.

If You Are A Dog

If you are a dog and your owner suggests that you wear a sweater, suggest that he wear a tail. - Fran Lebowitz

Not only be true to your nature but be true to others nature as well.

When You're Gone

The only thing you take with you when you're gone is what you leave behind. - John Alston

And he's not talking about leaving behind a worn-out couch.

Augmented Post

Sometimes I have more to say:

Self-development is a higher duty than self-sacrifice. - Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Self-sacrifice is not a duty. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise.

For some act to be a "duty" it must be something which you are obligated to do. You are obligated to not harm other people, or take their property (steal), or otherwise abuse them. These are duties.

You have no duty to marry, join the military, go to church, work for nothing, or anything else. You may choose to do these things because they benefit your life but they certainly are not obligations.

Self-sacrifice is the cornerstone of biblical ethics. According to the Bible it is a "duty" to sacrifice yourself to others. It may be this is the the core reason we have continuously lost Liberty in this country. As soon as you accept self-sacrifice as a duty then you have allowed others to determine what you are required to do. If those making the decision are part of your government, you (and your fellow countrymen) have lost some of your Liberty. If that chunk of Liberty is too large folks will object to the loss. As of yet though, they have not blamed the core responsibility for the attempted action against individual liberty - the idea that self-sacrifice is a duty.

Duties

Self-development is a higher duty than self-sacrifice. - Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Self-sacrifice is not a duty. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise.

Loss of Liberty

I see people accepting incremental loss of liberty without protest. This is death by a thousand cuts. Loss of liberty for your neighbor cuts you as well. - Lyle

Wherever

Remember, no matter where you go, there you are. - Earl Mac Rauch

If you have issues you might as well face them here and now; they're not going away.

Smooth Heart

To keep the heart unwrinkled, to be hopeful, kindly, cheerful, reverent - that is to triumph over old age. - Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Keep your heart polished.

Universal Language

There is a language in the world that everyone understands. The language of enthusiasm, of things accomplished with love and purpose and as a search for something believed in and desired. - Paulo Coelho

Market globally if you've got a good enough product.

Commendations

Whenever you commend, add your reasons for doing so; it is this which distinguishes the approbation of a man of sense from the flattery of sycophants and admiration of fools. - Sir Richard Steele

Like the advice but love the language.

Actions Mean Something

Happiness is not a reward — it is a consequence. Suffering is not a punishment — it is a result. - Robert Green Ingersoll


Perhaps humanity's Third Law: For every action there is an outcome.

Future Enlarged

Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future. - Paul Boese


....especially for the forgiver.

Paltry Perfection

The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake - you can't learn anything from being perfect - Adam Osborne


You can only learn if your attempt was sincere.

Unsatisfactory Idleness

Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It's not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it's when you've had everything to do, and you've done it. - Margaret Thatcher


Idleness does not bring satisfaction.

Adversity Breaks

Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records. - William Arthur Ward


And the choice is theirs.

Earn Your Wealth

Steve Jobs had more in common with a hardworking shopkeeper than with Bernie Madoff. - Don Watkins


Ill-gotten wealth is not equal to earned wealth.

Rocking Chair

Worry is like a rocking chair: It gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere. - Erma Bombeck


Relax.

On The Road

To know the road ahead, ask those coming back. - Chinese Proverb


As my father said "Learn to soft-soap the older generation."

Going

I don't know where I'm going but I know no one is going to stop me. - Ariel Tweto


Sometimes you just go full speed ahead.

Try, Try Again

If at first you don't succeed, before you try again, stop to figure out what you did wrong. - Leo Rosten


If you continue to think what you thought you will continue to get what you got.

Diminished Enthusiasm

To receive applause for works which do not demand all our powers hinders our advance towards a perfecting of our spirit. It usually means that thereafter we stand still. - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg


Be sure your praise is well placed and proportionate.

THE Best

Very few people are the very best in the world at anything. Doing your best doesn’t mean you have to be THE best. Your best is more than enough. - Jessica Hagy


Your best is most likely to be THE best because so few people really try.

Intelligence

Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings. - C. Archie Danielson


Even if you're a teenager.

You're Not Elsie

Show me a thoroughly contented person and I will show you a useless one. - Josh Billings


Cows produce better when contented but not humans.

Full-Time

When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber. - Sir Winston Churchill


Leadership is not a part-time job.

Sink or Swim

People who drink to drown their sorrow should be told that sorrow knows how to swim. - Ann Landers


Then asked what benefit it provides.

Systems

To manage a system effectively, you might focus on the interactions of the parts rather than their behavior taken separately. - Russell L. Ackoff


If you are building the system; no. If you are staffing the system; yes.

The Choice

The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are. - John Burroughs


The choice is between easy opportunities and distant adventures.

Precious Minds

Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training. - Anna Freud


Maybe, but don't count on it; it's too important.

Decisive Leadership

If I had to sum up in one word what makes a good manager, I'd say decisiveness. You can use the fanciest computers to gather the numbers, but in the end you have to set a timetable and act. - Lee Iacocca


Businesses should be dictatorships, not democracies.

Soaring

One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar. - Helen Keller


Make sure your people can soar.

Going Slowly

Be not afraid of going slowly, be afraid only of standing still. - Chinese Proverb


How fast you go says a lot about your personality.

Lunch Menu

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote! - Benjamin Franklin


Defend the rights of the lamb.

Fear Cured

Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit at home and think about it. Go out and get busy. - Dale Carnegie


If you get bucked off don't just sit in the dirt, get back on.

Right Now

We think very little of time present; we anticipate the future, as being too slow, and with a view to hasten it onward, we recall the past to say it as too swiftly gone. We are so thoughtless, that we thus wander through the hours which are not here, regardless only of the moment that is actually our own. - Blaise Pascal


Plan for the future; learn from the past; live today accordingly.

Blissful

My whole career can be summed up with 'Ignorance is bliss.' When you do not know better, you do not worry about failing. - Jeff Foxworthy


We all start out blissfully ignorant; successful people stay that way.

Unlimited Logic

Drama is imagination limited by logic. Mathematics is logic limited by imagination. - Nathan Campbell


Since both are infinite we have barely scratched the surface.

Unbuilt Palaces

Success consists in being successful, not in having potential for success. Any wide piece of ground is the potential site of a palace, but there's no palace till it's built. - Fernando Pessoa


Act on your dreams.

Forgiveness

It really doesn't matter if the person who hurt you deserves to be forgiven. Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself. You have things to do and you want to move on. - Real Live Preacher


Hate or forgiveness has no effect on the one it is directed towards.

Longevity

Rumor travels faster, but it don't stay put as long as truth. - Will Rogers


Critic's diatribes rarely become classics.

Your Choice

Man can acquire accomplishments or he can become an animal, whichever he wants. God makes the animals, man makes himself. - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg


Your choice.

Switching Gears

If you feel yourself simply rolling along, it’s time to switch gears, because coasting can atrophy your dreams. - Jessica Hagy


Assuming your dreams are about how you will change the world.

Gossips

Who gossips to you will gossip about you. - Turkish saying


It takes two gossips to gossip.

Off Track

Your life will not go according to plan. Nobody’s ever has. So don’t worry if you get off track. The track was imaginary anyway. - Jessica Hagy


Planning does not preclude change.

Foreknowledge

The "second sight" possessed by the Highlanders in Scotland is actually a foreknowledge of future events. I believe they possess this gift because they don't wear trousers... That is also why in all countries women are more prone to utter prophecies. - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg


Deductive reasoning.

Your Epitaph

Consider your epitaph, not your resume. - Jessica Hagy


You can't change your record but you can change your future.

Learn To Survive

Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. - W. Edwards Deming


And you can't expect one without the other.

Set Sail

Tis the set of the sail that decides the goal, and not the storm of life. - Ella Wheeler Wilcox


The last few lines of her poem:

'Tis the set of a soul

That decides its goal,

And not the calm or the strife.

Cowards and Fools

A nation which makes great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools. - Thucydides


We should all know what we are doing, and why.

Kind But Not Just

I have found men to be more kind than I expected, and less just. - Samuel Johnson 


It is all too common for the two to be confused.

Going Gaga

Develop your eccentricities while you are young. That way, when you get old, people won't think you're going gaga. - David Ogilvy


Might drive your parents nuts though......

Problem Free Work

Don't bring your need to the marketplace, bring your skill. If you don't feel well, tell your doctor, but not the marketplace. If you need money, go to the bank, but not the marketplace.  - Jim Rohn


Employees should leave their problems at home.

Love of Books

I would be the most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. - Anna Quindlen


I sure hope e-books don't make a full bookshelf obsolete.

Above The Dirt

I'm going to keep doing what I love as long as I can see above the dirt. - Anon


May you stay above the dirt.

Perceiving Desires

There are people who possess not so much genius as a certain talent for perceiving the desires of the century, or even of the decade, before it has done so itself. - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

  Steve Jobs.

Your Product

When in doubt, raise money from your customers by selling them something they truly need--your product. - Seth Godin


Produce; don't just prepare to produce.

Few Rivals

He who is enamored of himself will at least have the advantage of being inconvenienced by few rivals. - Georg C. Lichtenberg


Being humble does not negate self-esteem.

Right Conduct

Laws control the lesser man... Right conduct controls the greater one. - Mark Twain 




Sorry Mark, but laws don't control (or protect) anyone. Philosophy does; that's why it should be taught in the schools. Laws only determine who to punish.

Your Easy Job

We always think every other man's job is easier than our own. The better he does it, the easier it looks. - Eden Phillpotts


Make your job look easy.

Getting It Built

If you don't get it built, the work doesn't matter. If you're brilliant and undiscovered and under-appreciated (in whatever field you choose), then you're being too generous about your definition of brilliant. - Seth Godin


Lack of humble is not just limited to teens.

True Affection

Passion is seldom the end of any story, for it cannot long endure if it is not soon supplemented with true affection and mutual respect. - Kathryn L. Nelson

Speechless

A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous. - Ingrid Bergman


It's not a good idea to tell your spouse that a kiss is a trick.

Radio Explained

You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat. - Albert Einstein


Technology can be explained simply, no matter how smart you are.

Going Out

A husband is like a fire, he goes out when unattended. - Evan Esar


Wives too.

Happiness First

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want. - Margaret Young


Happiness is lack of pretense.

Honored Values

If we keep treating our most important values as meaningless relics, that's exactly what they'll become. - Michael Josephson


Such as Life, Liberty and Property.

Lack of Interest

The world isn't interested in the storms you encountered, but whether or not you brought in the ship. - Raul Armesto


You probably wouldn't worry about what people think of you if you could know how seldom they do. - Olin Miller

Fashion

Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new. - Henry David Thoreau


Following the fashion of your generation into adulthood is a sign of stability rather than lacking perception.

Skeptical Proof

A thing is not proved just because no one has ever questioned it. What has never gone into impartially has never been properly gone into. Hence skepticism is the first step towards truth. It must be applied generally because it is the touchstone. - Denis Diderot


All how have accepted some conspiracy theory or another should read and understand this.