Looking for Permanecy in a Time of Change

Image by chooyutshing via Flickr

(Referring to England) This island is almost made of coal and surrounded by fish. Only an organizing genius could produce a shortage of coal and fish in Great Britain at the same time. – Aneurin Bevan

The volume of paper expands to fill the available briefcases. – Edmund G. Brown

People don’t buy for logical reasons. They buy for emotional reasons. – Zig Zigler

Anything new, anything worth doing, can’t be recognized. People just don’t have that much vision. – Pablo Picasso

In their search for quality, people seem to be looking for permanency in a time of change. – John Naisbitt

Like all weak men, he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one’s mind. – William Somerset Maugham

A bad reference is as hard to find as a good employee. – Robert Half

The Last Refuge of Scoundrels

Image via Wikipedia

Underlying the whole scheme of civilization is the confidence men have in each other, confidence in their integrity, confidence in their honesty, confidence in their future. – W. Bourke Cockran

We need to revise the old saying to read, hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned. – Milton friedman

Guidelines for Bureaucrat: (1) When in charge ponder. (2) When in trouble delegate. (3) When in doubt mumble. – James H. Boren

In a bureaucratic system, increase in expenditure will be matched by fall in production. – Max Gammon

Issues are the last refuges of scoundrels. – Edmund G. Brown, Jr.

It is because we put up with bad things that hotelkeepers continue to give them to us. – Anthony Trollope

For every action there is an equal and opposite government program. – Michael Main

Related articles by Zemanta

• The Comfort of Religion (donhall.blogspot.com)

No One Ever Died an Atheist

Image by anddoesitexplode via Flickr

Ah, don’t say that you agree with me. When people agree with me, I always feel that I must be wrong. – Oscar Wilde

A resume is a balance sheet without any liabilities. – Robert Half

Because of indifference, one dies before one actually dies. – Elie Wiesel

A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits. – Richard M. Nixon

Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right. – Laurens Van der Post

Your business is never really good or bad out there. Your business is either good or bad between your own two ears. – Zig Zigler

No one ever died an atheist. – Plato

Concensus is a Security Blanket

Image by reebob via Flickr

Every obnoxious act is a cry for help. – Zig Ziglar

The action is best which procures the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers. – Francis Hutcheson

When a man asks for your advice, he usually tells you just how he expects you to decide. – Edgar Watson Howe

Don’t ask a barber if you need a haircut. – Daniel greenberg

A blind man will not thank you for a looking glass. – Thomas Fuller

Consensus is the security blanket for the insecure. – Pierre A. Rinfret

Many pormising reconciliations have broken down because, while both partis came prepared to forgive, neither party came prepared to be forgiven. Charles Williams

Related articles by Zemanta

• Imitation is the lamest form of flattery (speedcommunications.com)
• Review - "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde (talesofan8thgradenothing.wordpress.com)

The Penalties of Over Achievement

Image via Wikipedia

Nothing is ever accomplished by a reasonable man. – J. Fred Bucy

It’s amazing what ordinary people can do if they set out without preconceived notions. – Charles F. Kettering

If you tell people where to go, but not how to get there, you’ll be amazed at the results. – George S. Patton

If you can’t measure output then you measure input. – Charle Schultze

The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul. – Bible, Proverbs 13:19

There is no penalty for overachievement. George W. Miller

Action is the proper fruit of knowledge. – Thomas Fuller

Related articles by Zemanta

• 25 Veterans Day Quotes (businesspundit.com)
• A Word Or Two From General George S. Patton . . . .The Real One - 1945 (newstalgia.crooksandliars.com)
• New York Times: "Homeless on Veterans Day" (themoderatevoice.com)

The Dark Place it Leads -

Image by annia316 via Flickr

We are not capable of everything. – Virgil

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads. Erica Jong

An idea can turn into dust or magic, depending on the talent that rubs against it. – William Bernbach

Every man loves what he’s good at. – Thomas Shadwell

Credentials are not the same as accomplishments. – Robert Half

The trouble with most of us is that we stop trying in trying times. – Denis Waitley

Do just once what others say you can’t do, and you will never pay attention to their limitations again. – James R. Cook

Related articles by Zemanta

• Genius Quotes For Life (slideshare.net)

Heideffer and a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein

Cover via Amazon

From the book Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein

A special book for those with a darkly comical bent – or just bent

So Ole died, and his wife Lena went to the local paper to get a notice in the obituaries. The gentleman at the counter, after offering his condolences, asked Lena what she would like to say about Ole.
Lena said: “You just put ‘Ole died.’”
Perplexed, the man said, “That’s it? You lived together over fifty years, you have children and grandchildren. Besides, if it’s the money you’re worried about, you should know that the first five words are free.”
“Okay,” Lena said, “Put down, ‘Ole died. Boat for sale.’”

Quotations Can Damn Anything

Image by Amarand Agasi via Flickr

A consultant is someone who takes your watch away to tell you what time it is. – Ed Finkelstein

Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. Pablo Picasso

Egypt: Where the Israelites would still be if Moses had been a bureaucrat. – Laurence J. Peter

The reason worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work. – Robert Frost

Never invest in anything that eats or needs repainting. - Billy Rose

Be careful – with quotations you can damn anything. – Andre Maurois

People will accept your ideas more readily if you tell them Benjamin Franklin said it first. – David H. Comins

Dollars and Sense

Image by Bods via Flickr

Dollars do better is they are accompanied by sense. – Earl Riney

Competence always contains the seeds of incompetence. – Laurence J. Peter

One’s ability to perform a given task competently decreases in proportion to the number of people watching. – Mark R. Frank

If not controlled, work will flow to the competent man until he submerges. – Charles Boyle

Everyone must row with the oars he has. – Thomas Fuller

As the tempo of a man’s activity steadily increases, it is evident that men must become skilled practitioners of the science of selection. – Philip Marvin

You cannot define talent. All you can do is build the greenhouse and see if it grows. – William P. Steven

What Makes Balloons Larger and Candy Bars Smaller?

Image by tray via Flickr

He that speaks ill of the mare will buy her. – Benjamin Franklin

There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an evening with an insurance salesman? – Woody Allen

The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything he buys at retail, sells everything he sells at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways. – John F. Kennedy

I never knew an auctioneer to lie unless it was absolutely necessary. – Josh Billings

What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. And a sentimentalist -–is a man who sees an absurd value in everything, and doesn’t know the market price of any single thing. – Oscar Wilde

Inflation makes balloons larger and candy bars smaller. – David L. Kurtz

A hamburger by any other name costs twice as much. – Evan Esar

The only difference between a pigeon and the American farmer today is that a pigeon can still make a deposit on a John Deere. – James Allen

Related articles by Zemanta

• 12 Business Mergers We'd Like to See (blippitt.com)

How to Make a Compact with the Devil

Image by Sapphiren via Flickr

Advertising agency: eighty-five percent confusion and fifteen percent commission. – Fred Allen

In science the credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not to the man to whom the idea first occurs. – Sir William Osler

To sell something, tell a woman it’s a bargain; tell a man it’s deductable. – Earl Wilson

When a man sells eleven ounces for twelve, he makes a compact with the devil, and sells himself for the value of an ounce. – Henry Ward Beecher

I am the world’s worst salesman; therefore I must make it easy for people to buy. – Frank W. Woolsworth

It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place. – H.L. Mencken

Whenever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person see him, and each man as he really is. – William James

Related articles by Zemanta

• The Hidden Power of Humor (psychcentral.com)

Unemployment, Inflation, Armpits and Crime - just not in that order

Image by Eliya via Flickr

You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements. – Norman Douglas

Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket. – George Orwell

If you think advertising doesn’t pay – we understand there are 25 mountains in Colorado higher than Pikes Peak. Can you name one? – anonymous

Advertising is a valuable economic factor because it is the cheapest way of selling goods, particularly if the goods are worthless. – Sinclair Lewis

Advertising is legalized lying. – H.G. Wells

They took a poll on Madison Avenue and here is what people in the advertising industry are worried about most: inflation, unemployment, crime, and armpits – not necessarily in that order. – Robert Orben

Nothing except the mint can make money without advertising. – Thomas B. Macaulay

Image via Wikipedia

One illusion is that you can industrialize a country by building factories. You don’t. You industrialize it by building markets. – Paul G. Hoffman

The meek shall inherit the world, but they’ll never increase market share. – William G. McGowan

I know that half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; but I can never find out which half. – John Wannamaker

Advertising may be described as the science of arresting human intelligence long enough to get money from it. – Stephen Leacock

The codfish lays ten thousand eggs,
The homely hen lays one.
The codfish never cackles
To tell you what she’s done.
And so we scorn the codfish
While the humble hen we prize,
Which only goes to show you
That it pays to advertise. – anonymous

If you don’t buy this magazine, we’ll kill this dog – January 1973 cover of National Lampoon

Related articles by Zemanta

• George Carlin's Last Words (perezhilton.com)

We Sell Hope

Image by Pandiyan via Flickr

Fuel is not sold in a forest, nor fish on a lake. – Chinese proverb

People will buy anything that’s one to a customer. – Sinclair Lewis

In our factory, we make lipstick. In our advertising, we sell hope. – Charles Revson

Anything that won’t sell, I don’t want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility and utility is success. – Thomas A. Edison

There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer. – Peter Drucker

No more good must be attempted than the people can bear. – Thomas Jefferson

Benjamin Franklin may have discovered electricity, but it was the man who invented the meter who made the money. – Earl Wilson

Related articles by Zemanta

• Sheep and Wolves (trommetter.com)
• Guest Review: The Intimate Lives of Our Founding Fathers (bookingmama.blogspot.com)

Another Inch and it Would have been Adultery

Image by dewet via Flickr

When people asked me what I did for a living, I told them, “I do pilots.” They all thought I was a stewardess. – Suzanne Somers

He and I had an office so tiny that an inch smaller and it would have been adultery. – Dorothy Parker

When the going gets tough, everyone leaves. – Lynch‘s Law

The difference between a job and a career is the difference between 40 and 60 hours a week. – Robert Frost

If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem wonderful at all. – Michelangelo

Use your best judgment at all times. – Entire contents of Nordstrom’s policy manual

Every crowd has a silver lining. – P.T. Barnum

Related articles by Zemanta

• Bro-etry: A Man Tells Us How To Fix Our Lives In Verse [Uh Oh Bro] (jezebel.com)
• Doing P.T. Barnum Proud: The Rise of 'Stuntertainment' (trueslant.com)
• Painless Parker's Dental Circus (neatorama.com)
• Another Delightfully Demented Gift: The Feejee Mermaid (boingboing.net)

A Symptom That a Nervous Breakdown is on its Way

Image by Kinky Kristina via Flickr

If you have two jobs and you’re rich you have diversified interests. If you have two jobs and you’re poor, you’re moonlighting. – Anonymous

About the only thing on a farm that has an easy time is the dog. – Ed Howe

When you have a number of disagreeable duties to perform always do the most disagreeable first. – Josiah Quincy

Nobody works as hard for his money as the man who marries it. – Fred McKinney

It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up. – Muhamman Ali

My mistake was buying stock in the company. Now I worry about the lousy work I’m turning out. – Marvin Townsend

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important. – Bertrand Russell

Related articles by Zemanta

• Aristotle's Error (scientificamerican.com)
• Bertrand Russell: superhero (hermenaut.org)
• Quarter of France Telecom staff 'psychologically vulnerable' (theregister.co.uk)

Doing Nothing Makes You Tired

Image by spbutterworth via Flickr

Production is the goose that lays the golden egg. Payrolls make consumers. – George Humphrey

The most popular labor-saving device today is still a husband with money. – Joey Adams

Energy is beauty – a Ferrari with an empty tank doesn’t run. – Elsa Paretti

It’s a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you often get it. – Somerset Maugham

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. – Vidal Sassoon

When I work I relax; doing nothing or entertaining visitors makes me tired. – Pablo Picasso

The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the rest willing to let them. – Robert Frost

Related articles by Zemanta

• Sophie Reade's Boobs - Nibbly Things (socialitelife.celebuzz.com)
• Maugham, W. Somerset: The Hero (book-blog.com)

It's Tolerated Only for Race Horses and Fancy Women

Image by Tobyotter via Flickr

The difficult we do at once; the impossible takes a bit longer. – Inscription on the memorial to the SeaBees (U.S. naval construction battalions)

My father worked for the same firm for twelve years. They fired him. They replaced him with a tiny gadget this big. It does everything that my father does, only much better. The depressing thing is my mother ran out and bought one. – Woody Allen

It costs me a dollar to make my product, and I can sell all I care to make for four dollars apiece. You just can’t believe the profit there is in that three percent. – anonymous

Seek simplicity and distrust it. – Alfred North Whitehead

Large increases in cost with questionable increases in performance can be tolerated only for race horses and fancy women. – William Thomson

Production is not the application of tools to materials, but logic to work. – Peter Drucker

Related articles by Zemanta

• Peter Drucker's Wisdom From Simple Things (laf.ee)
• How to make your New Year's resolutions stick (crosscut.com)
• Farewell To the South Pole Dome (science.slashdot.org)

Everything Else is just Waiting

Image by Martin_Heigan via Flickr

Being on the tightrope is living; everything else is waiting. – Karl Wallenda

Unless you enter the tiger’s den, you cannot take the cubs. – Japanese proverb

Security is mostly superstition. It does not exist in nature. – Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. - Helen Keller

If you don’t have some bad loans you are not in business. – Paul Volcker

Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out. – James Bryant Conant

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one. – Elbert G. Hubbard

One throw of the dice will never abolish chance. – Stephane Mallarme

To win you have to risk loss. – Jean-Claude Killy

If you bet a horse, that’s gambling. If you bet you can make three spades, that’s entertainment. If you bet cotton will go up three points, that’s business. See the difference? – William F. Sherrod

Related articles by Zemanta

• Maybe America's ruling class isn't frightened enough to create health reform. (slate.com)
• Judging Books by Their Covers: U.S. Vs. U.K. (themillions.com)

Testing the Depth of the River With Both Feet

Image by Stuck in Customs via Flickr

Capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell. – Frank Borman

In all human affairs, the odds are always six to five against. – Damon Runyon

You can only become a winner if you are willing to walk over the edge. – Ronald E. McNair

I never gamble. – John Pierpont Morgan

Nine gamblers could not feed a single rooster. – Yugoslavian proverb

We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success; we often discover what we will do by finding out what we will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery. – Samuel Smiles

No one tests the depth of the river with both feet. – Ashanti proverb

Related articles by Zemanta

• Banging on the Bankers (meganmcardle.theatlantic.com)

Ability is Nothing Without Laughing - Often

Image via Wikipedia

The successful man is the one who has lived well, laughed often, and loved a great deal. – Arthur J. Stanley

The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar instead of how little he can give for a dollar is bound to succeed. – Henry Ford

Ability is nothing without opportunity. – Napoleon Bonaparte

There is the greatest practical benefit in making a few failures early in life. – Thomas H. Huxley

Wise men learn by other men’s mistakes, fools by their own. – Anonymous

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. – Albert Camus

Related articles by Zemanta

• Top 5 Reasons Personal Budgets Fail (pocketsmith.com)
• Acknowledging failure isnt a failure - fail hard, fail spectacularly (thecauseisthehabit.com)
• Fail Fast? (tdhurst.com)

Barbra Streisand's Holy Grail of Success

Image by joebeone via Flickr

Gross National Product is our holy grail. – Stwart Udall

The toughest thing about success is that you’ve got to keep on being a success. – Irving Berlin

Success to me is having ten honeydew melons and eating only the top half of each. – Barbra Streisand

Success is never final. – Winston Churchill

All you need in life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure. – Mark Twain

Success is that old ABC – Ability, Breaks, and Courage. – Charles Luckman

Success generally depends upon knowing how long it takes to succeed – Montesquieu

Rise Early, Work Late, Strike Oil

Image by purplemattfish via Flickr

The minute you start to talk about what you’re going to do if you lose, you have lost. – George P. Shultz

About the meanest thing you can say about a man is that he means well. – Harry S. Truman

My formula for success? Rise early, work late, strike oil. – Jean Paul Getty

To succeed, it is necessary to accept the world as it is and rise above it. – Michael Korda

Some men succeed by what they know; some by what they do; and a few by what they are. – Elbert Hubbard

There is only one success – to be able to spend your time in your own way. – Christopher Morley

Related articles by Zemanta

• Lost leaders: Thomas E Dewey (newstatesman.com)

Who Am I?

Image via Wikipedia

Few great leaders encountered defeat so consistently before enjoying ultimate victory as did this individual. A frequently reported listing of these failures includes the following:
Failed in business in 1831
Ran for legislature and lost in 1832
Failed in business in 1834
Sweetheart died in 1835
Had a nervous breakdown in 1836
Lost political campaign in 1838
Defeated for Congress in 1843
Defeated for Congress in 1846
Defeated for Congress in 1848
Defeated fof U.S. Senate in 1855
Defeated for Vice President in 1856
Defeated for U.S. Senate in 1858

Elected as 16th president of the United States – 1860 – Abraham Lincoln

Related articles by Zemanta

• Grants That Saved Historic Relics Now Endangered (abcnews.go.com)

Obscurity is Forever

Image by Christophe Porteneuve via Flickr

Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake. – Savielly Grigorievitch

To finish first you must first finish. – Rick Mears

It is better to lose the saddle than the horse. – Italian proverb

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever. – Napoleon Bonaparte

In a negotiation, he who cares less, wins. – anonymous

If you are planning on doing business with someone again, don’t be too tough in the negotiations. If you’re going to skin a cat, don’t keep it as a housecat. – Marvin S. Levin

Related articles by Zemanta

• Tuft of Napoleon's hair found in Sydney vault (telegraph.co.uk)