Wisdom and Observations
updated May 7, 2006 rev. May 21,
2011
These are various bits of wisdom and observations that I have collected over
the years. I have grouped them into several general headings but most could fit
in any heading. There is some repetition in that the same theme is expressed
differently or I heard it differently from different sources or due to
inadvertent duplication since the list is huge. These statements come from a
wide variety of sources ranging from friends, co-workers, newspapers, magazines,
etc. but unfortunately, I do not know the source for most of them. I believe a
few of the statements are my own.
This list has become very long -- too long for a single file. I eventually
plan to break these up into separate pages with related thoughts grouped
together. I have between one and two hundred more to add when I have time.
Here are new ones and some are fragments for later. I do not have time to
organize then now so they are in no particular order.
- A significant difference between those who get ahead and those who don't
is that those who get ahead tend to take low risk to achieve high benefit
while those who don't tend to take high risk to achieve low benefit.
- History is a good explanation of the present.
- Knowledge is of little use without wisdom.
- Try not to know so much that you can not learn anything.
- When you mix money with emotion, money loses and emotion wins.
- Some people are so smart that they even know things that they do not know.
- Some people would accomplish something great if only it were real easy.
The one truly easy thing to do is to downplay the accomplishments of others.
- Some people are so busy fantasizing about achieving great things that they
never get around to achieving anything.
- Some people have so much time to complain about why they do not have much
in life that they have no time left to do what it takes to acquire those
things.
- Some people are so busy doing nothing that they do not have time to do
anything.
- Entitlement Syndrome: The refusal to become something in life because it
is too easy to live off of subsidies.
- You generally can not win until you have practiced loosing.
- Win with modesty. Lose with dignity.
- It is folly to do nothing the easy way while scoffing at others who are
doing real things the apparent hard way.
- Never refer to the person who fools you as stupid.
- There is a huge difference between using a handout to work one's way up
the economic ladder and using a handout to relax at one's current rung.
- It is not surprising that lawyers advocate so much for criminals as
criminals provide so much opportunity for lawyers to receive a lot of money.
- If lawyers did not exist, lawyers would not be needed.
- Those who work hard do not always finish first. But quitters do not even
finish last.
- Blessed are those who do the most wrong things in life for they shall
receive the greatest subsidies.
- There is a lot of money to be made selling "success" to those who think
they can buy it.
- The tendency towards laziness is the seed that spawns socialism.
- Free enterprise is the accelerator of economic expansion. Socialism is the
brake.
- The customer is not an interruption to business. He is the reason for it.
- Arrogance is not a substitute for competence. Rather, arrogance is an
indicator of incompetence.
- Lawyers were parasites. Now they are predators.
- Those who would profit from tragedy have a obligation to prevent it.
- ACLU, a.k.a.: All Corrupt Lawyers Union; Advocates for Criminal Liberties
Unlimited
- Show me a need for lawyers that does not depend on the action or possible
action of another lawyer.
- It is a complement to say that a lawyer is worthless for the truth is that
they are worse than nothing.
- WWJD: What Would Jesus DO? A frequently used expression to inspire
misguided compassion. Misguided compassion is an early step in being duped
into socialism.
- Some people look for the opportunity. Others look for the excuse.
- If your goal is to be miserable then do not be unhappy when you achieve
your goal.
- It is pointless to wait for your ship to come in if it never left port.
- A lot of people who curse the rich would if given a large sum of money,
spend it all on fancy cars and flaunt, and then when the money was gone,
resume cursing the rich.
- A fine is a penalty for doing wrong. A tax is a penalty for doing right. A
subsidy is a reward for doing nothing.
- If you look to the government for solutions you will end up with more
problems.
- Some people are so smart that it costs them a lot of money.
- An interesting fact: As a group the poor spend more money on illicit drugs
than is spent subsidizing them to purchase needed pharmaceutical drugs that
they supposedly can not afford.
- Much political fame and fortune has been had by purporting to champion the
poor.
- Certification is the mechanism by which the average are promoted to
excellent.
- A person should be known by the their deeds rather than their pedigree.
- No amount of money can purchase good. A remarkably small amount of money
can purchase evil.
- No amount of money can bring out the good in people. A remarkably small
amount of money will reveal their evil.
- Money does not change your character. It reveals your real character.
- Those who are waiting for the world to give them what they deserve may
already have received it.
- Mistakes are the opportunities for those who really do have high class to
demonstrate it.
- Physical attractiveness is of no consequence if you have a bad attitude.
Lack of physical attractiveness is of no consequence if you have a good
attitude.
- One lesson learned from raising many cats is to accept each cat, different
as it is from other cats, for the value of its individuality. The next step is
extending this lesson to people.
- I wonder about people who are on the dole complaining about how working
people are not paying enough taxes so that the dole be increased.
- One thing that people never forget is how you treated them when they were
down.
- It is easy to be smart when you are ignorant.
- If you only put forth the minimum effort then you should only expect the
minimum result.
- If you make a mistake and do not fix it you will be known as the person
who does things wrong. If you fix it you will be known as the person who does
things right.
- Those who do not make mistakes also do nothing, period.
- When someone falls down you help them up. When someone lies down you step
around them for they do not need your help.
- There is a significant difference between helping those in distress and
subsidizing those who are lazy.
- The successful capitalize on good fortune and work to overcome bad
fortune. The failures squander good fortune and give up when faced with bad
fortune.
- A good sailor does not poke a hole in another sailors part of the ship in
order to make his own part look better.
- No sailor is above sinking who only mends leaks within his part of the
ship.
- The focus of some people is to solve and prevent problems. The focus of
other people is to exacerbate and create problems. Problem solvers are
remembered for their brilliance. Problem creators are remembered for their
stupidity.
- It is much easier to learn that which you do not know than to keep hiding
your ignorance by bluffing. Those who really do know see through your bluff
and chuckle behind your back.
- When given the choice between the risk of success or the certainty of
failure it is surprising how many people choose certainty because that is the
safe approach.
- Do not be so smart that you are dumb.
- One of the secrets to sleeping well at night is to know that during the
day you treated everyone right.
- Just because you do something stupid does not mean that you are entitled
to a subsidy.
- One of the luxuries of being ignorant is that you do not realize you are
ignorant and thus conclude that you are knowledgeable. Then you can say or do
dumb things and feel good about it.
- You tend to excel at that which you practice. If you practice doing
nothing then that is what you will be good at.
- Compassion is helping those who through no fault of their own are unable
to help themselves. Stupidity is helping those who refuse to help themselves.
- Do not confuse the poor with the worthless. Although both groups may be
low on the economic scale there is a huge difference. The legitimately poor
are so because of a valid reason not under their control. The worthless are
wrongly classified as poor due to a stupid reason well within their control.
Political correctness (which is always wrong) promotes the worthless up to the
level of poor. It may make the worthless feel better but it is an extreme
insult to the legitimately poor. Anytime you observe the word, poor, be sure
that it should not be replaced with the word, worthless (including references
on this web page).
- "The poor will always be with us." This statement from religion has the
common socialist interpretation that the non-poor will always do things such
as to stifle economic advancement by the poor. The correct interpretation is
that there will always be people who make bad decisions thus living their
lives wrong and either staying or becoming poor is the consequence.
- There are those who say that society has an obligation to the poor. The
truth is that the poor have an obligation to live their lives such as not to
be a burden on society. The only obligation of society is to make it possible
for someone to work their way up.
- It is said that if you give a person a fish you have fed them for a day
but if you teach them to fish you have fed them for life. This is true but
what if the person refuses to learn to fish, preferring instead to live off of
your daily fish subsidy?
On Knowledge
- There is a substantial difference between questioning something because
you know a lot about it and questioning something because you know little
about it.
- There is a huge difference between receiving a diploma and earning an
education.
- Knowledge is usually not recognized unless accompanied by a degree.
- Pedigree is often used as a substitute for knowledge.
- You are not measured by how much you know, but by how much you
teach.
- A sure way to learn something is to teach it.
- Knowledge is only the accumulation of facts. Intelligence is the ability
to correlate knowledge to produce meaningful information.
- Ignorance is the lack of knowledge. Stupidity is the lack of intelligence.
Ignorance is curable. Stupidity is not.
- Do not let ignorance be your excuse for being ignorant.
- The one thing you can give away and still keep is knowledge.
- Although an education costs money, ignorance is far more expensive.
- The less you know about something the more it costs.
- It is expensive not to think.
- Experience is the best school but gives no degree.
- The highest tribute that can be paid to an instructor is to be surpassed
by the student.
- Curiosity breeds knowledge.
- Witchcraft is the misunderstanding and misapplication of science.
- Using skepticism as a substitute for knowledge only advertises your
ignorance.
- Being a skeptic on a subject that you do not understand will give the
illusion that your are knowledgeable on the subject - but only to people who
also do not understand the subject.
- The punishment for stupidity is certain, swift, and harsh.
- Knowledge is useless without understanding.
- Open-mindedness is the ability to separate fact from opinion.
Close-mindedness is the substitution of opinion for fact.
- If you are so smart then why aren't you rich?
- With knowledge comes responsibility. One advantage of ignorance is that
you do not have to be responsible.
- Why is it that the less someone knows about something the more of an
expert they are on that something?
- Do not let knowledge be a block to learning.
- You can not learn anything if you "know" more than those around you.
- The more you pretend to know, the less you will learn.
- Artificial intelligence is a synonym for ignorance.
- If all you know about a subject is wrong then you know less than nothing
about that subject.
- It is easy to think you know a lot when in reality you are too ignorant to
realize what you do not know.
- Be careful that your expertise on a subject is not based on ignorance.
- Wisdom is not an extrapolation of ignorance.
- If you know everything you don't know, you can't know anything you do
know.
- Be careful about dazzling someone with what you know. They may ask
questions that reveal how little you actually know.
- I have learned many things by listening to the ideas and
opinions of others different from my own.
- Knowing the answers does not mean anything unless you also know what the
questions are.
- It seems like many people want to get an education without having to learn
anything.
- If you are frustrated because those around you who are clearly not as
smart as you are getting ahead of you, then perhaps you need to rethink who is
really smarter.
- Do not let the "fact" that you are smarter than those around you prevent
you from doing the right things to get ahead.
- It is interesting how those who are too ignorant t know the "easy" way to
success beat those who do by only doing things the "hard" way.
- The trap of the easy way. Doing things the "easy" way generally entails a
lot of work - so much so that the person is reluctant to try the "hard" way
which actually takes less work.
- It is one thing to act like you know something. It is entirely another
thing to actually do.
- It is impossible to explain anything to the person who knows everything.
- Why is it that those who know the least are determined to give you the
most advice?
- If I do not know how to do something is that proof that no one else can
either?
- The onset of knowledge is when you learn enough to comprehend the vastness
of what you do not know.
- Knowing the answer is not good enough. You must understand the answer.
- A free education is worthless.
- An education is something you work for, not get for free.
- The marketable value of an education is related to the visible effort you
put forth to earn it.
- If you let others think for you then they will control your mind.
- Many people will gladly pay a high price as long as they can remain
ignorant that they are paying a high price.
- Stupidity is refusing to learn.
- The world is full of experts. Unfortunately, few of them know
anything.
On Philosophy of Living
- You can not be happy under someone else's terms.
- If at first you do not succeed, try something else.
- No one ever had an excuse for succeeding.
- For some people failure is OK if they have an excuse.
- Some people, although seemingly always striving to succeed, actually are
determined to fail because they do not want the responsibility that comes with
succeeding. They take great care in making sure that some other person or
situation appears to be the cause of their failure.
- Those who are accustomed to failure will continue to fail. Those
accustomed to success will continue to succeed.
- You fail the "easy way". You succeed the "hard way".
- A lot of people want to succeed the easy way and will waste their lives
doing it the hard way trying to purchase success or pursuing other dead ends
however easy. Believe it or not, the easy way to succeed is to work both hard
and smart.
- A hard way of doing something is frequently the obvious easy way.
- If you refuse to do something unless you can to it the easy way then you
will do very little in life.
- It is impossible to succeed without effort - the laws of Nature do not
allow it.
- It is not whether you are a good starter, it is whether you are a good
finisher that counts.
- If you never start then do not spend your time waiting to finish.
- Those who are too lazy to take the time to learn the fundamentals prefer
to skip them in hopes that their ignorance will not be revealed. What they do
not realize is that that step only advertises their ignorance.
- Some people would like to sit in the pilot's seat of a 747 and imagine
that they could fly the plane and amuse themselves at how many other people
could not. Others study and put forth the effort required to learn. It is no
matter of luck that these people generally earn far more money than the first
kind.
- Mediocrity is easy to find. If you are not careful and do not work hard,
it will find you.
- A good impression means nothing if it is not backed up by reality.
- If your determination is to fail then you will always succeed.
- Why is it that some people are willing to work easy to fail but not hard
to succeed?
- Some people take absolutely no risk. They fail one hundred percent of the
time.
- The easiest thing in the world to do is to give up.
- It takes a lot more work to do things the easy way rather than the right
way.
- Many people dream of success. Only a few do what it takes to be
successful.
- It is interesting how people with nothing to do often complain that the
emptiness of their lives is due to other people not taking the time to do
something.
- If you do not allow people to fail then they have no incentive to succeed.
- Success is not possible unless there is a risk of failure.
- If you can not fail for doing the wrong things then there is no point in
striving to do the right things.
- It is easy to take high risk when you do not realize that you are taking
high risk.
- Some people wait for it to happen. Others just make it happen.
- No matter how many times you take the wrong approach you will not get the
right result.
- Some people are quick to find an excuse not to do anything. Others are
quick to find a reason to do everything.
- Some people look for every excuse to fail. Others look for every reason to
succeed.
- In any endeavor that has risk to life people will find the right balance
between the rewards of risk and death. Corollary: the safer you make a
dangerous endeavor the more risk people will take - hence the death rate will
not drop as expected.
- If you do wrong things it is necessary that you fail.
- Your class is determined by the things you do, not by how much wealth you
have. Low class people do low class things. High class people do high class
things.
- All the money in the world can not purchase class but even basic class can
lead to riches.
- You do not have class just because you have a lot of money but you
certainly can have lack of class.
- Those who have not made it in the world generally have the luxury of
ignorance. They sincerely believe that their failure was caused solely by the
bad external events or a lack of good external events. Those who have made it
do not have this luxury. They know that external events may help or hinder but
that success comes only through individual effort.
- It is easy to do dumb things when you have the luxury of ignorance.
- Do not be so infatuated with how smart you are that you do very dumb
things.
- Why is it that people who work hard and pay taxes are referred to as
"fortunate" while people who do not work and receive a free living are
referred to as "unfortunate"?
- Character is what you do when no one is watching.
- Life is not long enough for it to be worthwhile to make enemies.
- It takes a lot of working hard to equal a little of working smart.
- The amount of useful information that people will pass on to you is
directly proportional to their belief that you will listen to that which you
wish was not true.
- Some people are experts at doing things wrong.
- It is easy to be an expert when you have the luxury of ignorance.
- Confidence in someone or something is lost very fast. It is regained very
slowly.
- Your problem would go away if only you would.
- Do not listen to the person who screams, rants, and raves for that person
has nothing important to say.
- Be careful that you are not for what you are against or against what you
are for.
- It is human nature to do exactly the wrong thing. Be aware of this and you
can avoid many mistakes.
- Do not expect society to conform to your standards. Instead, you are
expected to conform to society's standards.
- If you want to be liked by people, leave them alone.
- If you want to be loved, then work. Even animals are attracted to a hard
working person.
- Do not condemn a person after they have tried but failed. Only condemn if
they did not try.
- Do not waste your time trying to be what you were not meant to be. Seek to
excel in something that is yours to do.
- You do not get ahead by doing the minimum you can get away with.
- The best you can do is the best you can do.
- One of the things that is absolutely impossible to do is to explain
patience to a person who does not have it.
- Some people think with their brains, others with their gut. I prefer by
far that which comes from the brain.
- The shortcut to success is the longest way to get there.
- You can not help someone get to where they are not trying to go.
- If you are going to help someone then that implies that they are trying to
do something. If they are not trying to do anything then there is no way you
can help them.
- Over-simplification is a result of not understanding the problem.
- Absolute rules produce absolute absurdity.
- It is a good thing to have an open mind but do not let your mind become so
open that your brains fall out.
- Some people have excuses, others have results.
- People will form their opinion of you in spite of yourself.
- Never be worth more dead than alive.
- When confronted with the unknown, people tend to put more faith in
witchcraft than science.
- Those who think that they are superior to others are too inferior to
realize that they are not.
- Fear of failure inhibits success.
- He who says it can not be done should not interfere with the man doing it.
- You can break the laws of man and probably get away with it. The
punishment for breaking the laws of Nature is certain, immediate, and usually
deadly.
- Sight is the ability to see what is. Vision is the ability to see what can
be.
- Either lead, follow, or get out of the way.
- He who listens is able to hear a soft voice.
- He who listens with his mouth open is deaf.
- There are more right ways to live than can be counted. Live by the right
ways of your choice and let others live by the right ways of their choice.
- The goal of every secret is to escape either directly or indirectly.
- Do not condemn someone or something based on evidence alone.
- Evidence is only an assimilation of statements or material each of which
may or may not be true and also, each may contain various degrees of bias and
furthermore, taken as a whole may be incomplete in critical details.
- Always consider your own guilt and shortcomings before condemning someone
else.
- Partial truths correlate one hundred percent with a lie.
- Evidence is not a substitute for proof.
- Do not pass judgment until all the facts are in.
- Believing that something can not be accomplished is a self-fulfilling
prophecy.
- He who feels so superior that he can bypass the fundamentals will always
be inferior to those who mastered the fundamentals.
- Correlation is the measure of similarity between the agreements AND (not
or) disagreements of two or more things.
- He who is led by logic runs in straight but jerky line. He who is led by
rationale runs in a smooth line. He who is led by fear runs in circles. He who
is led by emotion runs backwards.
- When there are many different things each of which can cause an
undesirable outcome, people tend to isolate the thing that is least understood
and dwell on minimizing its effect, however small, and ignore the other things
which may have far greater effect.
- Ignorance is not a substitute for knowledge.
- It is difficult to step to the future with your feet shackled to the past.
- Ego is a wall that you surround yourself with that keeps useful
information out and ignorance in.
- Many things are possible if only you are not determined that they are not.
- Hearing is being able to remember what someone said. Listening is being
able to understand what someone said.
- The easiest faults to see in others are those of your own.
- Your attitude towards animals reveals your real attitude towards people.
- That which you would do to an animal, so would you do to a person. That
which you would do for an animal, so would you do for a person.
- Something is not better by virtue of being different.
- There is a big difference between a personality characteristic and a
personality fault.
- No one can doubt the expertise of a magician.
- The problem with crossing a bridge before you arrive is that you may cross
the wrong bridge.
- Spoken words mean little; written words mean something; action means a
lot.
- The best solution to an imaginary problem is to ignore it.
- Praise or criticism is only as meaningful as the source is qualified.
- Just because you would do a job wrong does not mean that someone else in
incapable of doing the job right.
- Work with Nature, not against.
- Although getting to first base is a necessary step it is not sufficient in
of itself to win the game. Seek to go beyond first base in the game of life.
- The game of life does not depend so much on getting a good hand as how you
play the cards you were dealt. A good hand means nothing if you do not play
them well. A bad hand can be transformed into a good had with the right effort
and patience. Luck has little to do with it.
- Avoid making waves if you are prone to sea sickness.
- Never ask someone for their opinion if you have put them down previously
for having the "wrong" opinion.
- It is human nature to do exactly the wrong thing.
- Blindly following the right path will lead to failure.
- It may take more work to do something the "easy way" than the "hard way".
- If you are waiting for someday to happen it never will.
- Sometimes the path to victory includes taking a calculated loss.
- None are so blind as those who will not see. None are so deaf as those who
will not listen. None are so mute as those who will not speak. None are so
ignorant as those who refuse to learn. None are so stupid as those who will
not think.
- If you want to grow a forest then you must plant a lot of seeds. Plant
many seeds along the way of life. Do not worry that some or even many will not
germinate - for that is a certainty. You will never enjoy the fulfillment that
the little seed you did not plant could have grown into.
- In a dispute between right and wrong then compromise is wrong.
- One wrong erases one hundred rights.
- The purpose of life is to do something. What is the purpose of living if
you are going to do nothing?
- Some people are so busy doing nothing that they do not have time to do
anything.
- Wishing by itself will not get anything done.
- You can not lose what you do not have.
- The secret to strength, both physically and mentally, is to know and
understand your weaknesses.
- Some people are so risk adverse that they are more comfortable with the
certainty of failure than the risk of success.
- It is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without
your help.
- If you tell the truth, you do not have to remember anything.
- Who gossips to you will gossip of you.
- You can not strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
- For some people it is not what direction the road goes but whether the
road is easy to take.
- If all you do is hear then you leave with nothing. If you listen then you
leave with a concept.
- I have watched both man and animal undertake numerous small and
meaningless battles that were absolutely un-winable. Later I saw them win the
major battles of life with ease. The moral from the study of Nature is that in
order to win the important battles it is necessary to perfect the fighting
skill on battles whose outcome does not matter. Ever notice how young boys
(and animals) who constantly pushed the envelope of what was allowable grew up
to become leaders - they lost the insignificant battles but developed the
skill to win the important ones.
- Some people would rather have a wrong solution fast than a right solution
that takes longer.
- You do not get the right results by doing the wrong things.
- You do not get to do the big things in life often enough to develop direct
proficiency. That does not mean that you can not be good at them. All it takes
is practice at the many little things in life that you do all the time. It is
too late to develop proficiency when the big things must be done.
- If you indicate that you know more than those around you then those around
you will stop passing information to you.
- Do not let failure in the past be the basis for failure in the future.
- Many real problems begin as solutions to imaginary ones.
- The right road gets you to the right place. The easy road generally gets
you to the wrong place. It takes more work to get to the right place from the
wrong place than the effort required to take the right road in the first
place.
- You are doomed to fail again if you do not understand why you failed
before.
- If you are down and you are wishing for the rest of the world to be down
with you then you are wishing for no hope for yourself.
- People with high egos only generally do not make much money.
- People who did make a lot of money and had a high ego also had a high
degree of skill.
- Ego is not a substitute for skill.
- An ego is the easy ticket to failure.
- You can be successful with skill and no ego but you are certain to fail if
you have ego and no skill.
- When some people discover that it takes work to succeed, they only put up
the appearance of trying.
- A person with skill and ego is a bit obnoxious.
- A person with ego and no skill is funny to watch but an aggravation to be
around.
- A person with skill and no ego sets the example for all to follow.
- A person with no skill and no ego has hope.
- You tend to become like the way you think. If you think like the poor then
you will be poor. If you think like the wealthy then that is what you are
likely to become.
- You tend to become like the way you act. If you act like the poor then you
will be poor. If you act like the wealthy then that is what you are likely to
become.
- You do not have to be wealthy to enjoy a rich life. You do not have to be
poor to not have that which makes life good. For the most part you can choose
the quality of life you live.
- It is easy to give expert advice when you know little or nothing about the
subject or situation.
- If you are determined to find a problem then you will always succeed.
- The future can be changed only if you act now.
- It is always too late to change the past.
- Do not waste time trying to find what does not exist.
- If you look for what does not exist you will never find it.
- When the going gets tough, those who either are or are going to be
successful get going.
- When the going gets tough, those who either are or are going to be
failures quit.
- If you do not learn from your mistakes then you are condemned to repeat
them.
- "Success without effort" seems to be the new motto.
- If you are not receptive to information then people will not give you
information.
- Do not complain about someone else doing exactly what you would do.
- If you ask the wrong questions then you get the wrong answers.
- Doing the wrong thing the easy way is not a substitute for doing something
the right way.
- Some people know nothing about everything.
- It is never wrong to get a taste of your own medicine.
- If people only have good ideas then where do all the bad ideas come from?
- I have an idea! Therefore it must be a good one.
- If you can not help someone then do not hinder them.
- Every con job is crafted to sound so logical than you would be a fool not
to fall for it.
- Why does it always seem that everyone who is not doing the work has the
time and expertise to tell the person doing the work how to do it differently?
- If you are determined to get all or nothing then nothing is what you will
always get.
- Energy rightfully applied can accomplish anything. Nelly Bly
- Life is much better when you have the ability to deal with and accept
minor imperfections.
- Bitterness is a poison one drinks in hopes that someone else will die.
- You will never succeed if your goal is to only be mediocre.
- The easiest goal to meet in life is that of doing nothing.
- It does no good to get to the wrong place fast and efficiently.
- You can do the right thing the wrong way and still get the wrong result.
- Some people dedicate their lives to doing everything the wrong way in
hopes of proving to the world that the wrong way can work.
- Some people are the quintessence of pseudo-intellectualism.
- If you discourage someone from doing something then do not complain when
they fail to do that something
- If a venture fails is that proof that it should not have been undertaken?
- It is the lazy person who works the hardest.
- Those that commit violence should have violence done unto them.
- He who checks under the bed has been there himself.
- If anything is done to lower the death rate then something must be done to
impose a corresponding lower birth rate lest the death rate ultimately climb
back and beyond.
- Some women tend to spend the majority of their lives trying to change the
past.
- When you have nothing to lose you do not have to worry about losing
anything.
- Those who do not earn money themselves have a lot of time to figure out
how to expropriate it from those who do.
- You can work hard to build your status. Then, those who did not will be
jealous and will not like you until you give them what they consider to be
their fair share of your work. You are greedy, they are needy.
- Money in of itself can not purchase happiness but it can purchase misery.
Only when money is wisely spent can happiness be purchased. Money is only a
tool. The result depends on how it is used.
- It is ironic that those who think it is wrong to have money, want money.
- Greedy people want to live on subsidies from the wealthy while cursing the
wealthy.
- How is subsidizing someone not to work going to encourage them to work?
- If I can receive a sufficient subsidy for being ignorant then what is the
point of working to get an education? That would lead to my having to work for
an income.
- It is interesting how some people who complain that doctors, business
people, and other professional people make too much money gladly pay their own
money to support entertainers who make many times more.
- A hard way to do something is often the obvious easy way.
- If you have to lie or deceive to make your case then you do not have a
case.
- Do not wait for your ship to come in if your ship never left the harbor.
- It is pointless to wait for your ship to come in if it never left port.
- The road to failure often begins with a "good" idea.
- Strive for perfection. Deal with reality.
- If you do not do something for fear of failure then you definitely will.
- If you argue that something should not be done unless it has a 100 percent
chance of success, then consider the farmer. He can not know with absolute
certainty that each seed he plants will grow. But he plants seeds anyway. He
is confident that enough seeds will grow to make it worth his while. Do not
worry about winning every battle. Focus on winning the war.
- If you subsidize people to do wrong things, they will do more wrong
things. If you penalize people for doing right things, they may continue to do
right things in spite of the penalty.
- Some peoples idea of the American dream is to collect enough of a subsidy
so that they do not have to work.
- Things that come for free tend not to be appreciated.
- Appreciation is proportional to effort.
- Money does not affect a person's character. It only reveals that person's
real character.
- Some people maintain no reserves. It is their intention to use someone
else's reserves when a crisis strikes.
- If you are determined to help someone get nothing done then there is no
point in helping them.
- Those who are truly needy generally do not have time (and probably not the
ability) to figure out how to cheat the system of assistance. Those who are
just lazy have all the time (and usually the ability) to conspire to cheat -
in essence, stealing from the funds that could go to those in true need.
- Some people are willing to gamble and not take out insurance to minimize
loss if a catastrophe occurs. They prefer to spend the money on immediate
wants. Then, when catastrophe happens, they cry boo-hoo-hoo, life is unfair.
They are then jealous of those who sacrificed short term immediate wants in
favor of long term security. It is then expected of those who bought insurance
to fund the bail out of those who did not.
- While many low-income people are complaining about the cost of one child,
they have three more.
- People who receive subsidies often forget it.
- Lusting for money is the surest way not to get it.
- In general, those who are wealthy minded work for money and those who are
poor minded lust for money.
- For some people it is not that they can't do something - it is that they
won't do something.
- Won't supersedes can't.
- When you do not realize that the ball is in your court, it will likely
pass you by.
- It does not matter what you could do. It is what you actually do that
counts.
- If you are afraid that you are not going to like the answer, then do not
ask the question.
- That you are adamant does not make you right.
- People who do not put forth effort generally have the time to develop a
negative attitude towards those who do.
- Be aware that someone may be trying to get a reaction out of you. Then
frustrate them by avoiding any reaction.
- The more welfare you give someone, the more dependent on welfare they
become.
- If you do not develop skill then you are dependent on luck. But, luck will
do you little good if you do not have the skill to capitalize on it.
- It is interesting that greedy people who not only pay no taxes but receive
various welfare subsidies have the audacity to complain that the wealthy do
not pay taxes. Where do these lazy people think their subsidies came from?
- It is odd that high taxes on the wealthy are called tax breaks and low or
negative taxes or the non-wealthy are called tax burdens.
- What is the rationale behind endless subsidies for failure and endless
taxes for success?
- You have to realize that you have failed before you can take the necessary
action to succeed.
On Everyday Life
- If there was money in watching TV, a lot of people would be very rich.
- Success is generally inversely proportional to time spent watching TV.
- Busy people are generally successful people.
- A lot of people want to get ahead as long as it does not require any work.
- Always look both ways before crossing a one way street.
- Asking dumb questions is much easier than correcting dumb mistakes.
- Never drive faster than you can stop.
- A good driver does not cause other drivers to use their brakes.
- Do not force someone to accept your help.
- A shy man who walks with his head down will bump his head into a low
branch. A pious man who walks with his head high will walk into a ditch. A
wise man walks with his head straight so he will see both the branch and the
ditch.
- Why waste time putting on an act? No one will believe it anyway.
- Sooner or later everybody gets what they deserve.
- Do not try to cheer up someone who enjoys being miserable.
- You cannot win an argument with an idiot.
- People try to avoid lonely people - for a good reason.
- Most people can be fooled most of the time.
- If you want to know what can not be done, ask a negative expert.
- There are many proud negative experts in the world but interestingly,
there are no want ads for them.
- Why is it that the bigger the job the more stupid the approach taken to do
it?
- He who knows everything learns nothing.
- The road to failure is paved with good intentions.
- It is a funny thing - you never have time to do it right but you always
have time to do it over.
- An easy way to become an "expert" is to say what people want to hear.
- When a problem occurs the first thing fixed is usually the blame.
- The problem with a superiority complex is that people expect you to be
superior.
- He who is in love with himself is only loved by himself.
- Although the end result is the same, there is a big difference between
doing something intentionally or accidentally.
- It is better to judge people by their intent than their deeds.
- Something that is not especially good but is working is far superior to
something that is excellent but is not working.
- No one trusts anyone who lives a secret life.
- Written words are much more powerful than spoken words.
- People should be judged relative to an average standard, not a perfect
standard.
- Never forget that judgment is by definition a relative opinion.
- There are those who become experts by the experience of doing the detail
work and then there are those who become "experts" by associating themselves
with those who do the detail work.
- Experience is a very strong platform.
- It is easy to overlook the evil in something when you are benefiting from
that something.
- A half truth is a full lie.
- Idealism is the standard by which realism is compared.
- When in doubt as to what to say, say nothing.
- Sometimes the smartest thing to do is to let people live with their
ignorance.
- To do the RIGHT thing the WRONG way is to do the WRONG thing.
- Just because your way of doing something does not work does not mean that
my way will not work.
- Real problems are hard enough to solve without creating artificial
problems to be solved in conjunction.
- Before solving a problem, first determine if you have a problem. The
"solutions" to a non-existent problem are often the causes of real problems.
- Uncalculated overkill to solve all problems is usually a sure way to
overlook the real problem.
- The road to disaster is paved with overkill.
- A problem in one application may be an attribute in another.
- Some problems are global. Most are regional.
- If you believe that your group has the right to impose its beliefs on
society, then do not complain when another group imposes its beliefs on you.
- Determination to do right does not mean that right will be done.
- Determination to do right is not a substitute for ignorance of what is
wrong.
- There are few right ways to do something and many wrong ways.
- Obsession with doing RIGHT leads to doing WRONG.
- Obsession with GOOD becomes an EVIL.
- Single-mindedness sacrifices flexibility for simplicity.
- Open-mindedness seeks simplicity through flexibility.
- You will always be helped in building your true reputation.
- You may never realize that you do not need to do something until you are
faced with the fact that you can not do that something.
- Even a monkey can chew with its mouth closed.
- Enthusiasm is contagious. Negativity is epidemic. - Greg Houston
- It is easy to be generous with someone else's money.
- I can not remember - who was that almost famous surgeon whose patient
almost lived? Who was that almost famous lawyer who almost won the big case?
Who was that almost famous pilot who almost landed the plane? Who was that
almost famous parachutist whose parachute almost opened? Who was that almost
rich and famous businessman who was almost a success? No successful person was
ever almost. All failures were.
- It is amazing how when the going gets tough some people predictably become
sick so as to have an external excuse for failure.
- Why is it that those who can not manage their own lives want to manage the
lives of those around them?
- A fly can not kill an elephant but a lot of flies can drive an elephant
crazy.
- When somebody gives you a justification for doing something based only on
the fact that everybody is doing it so it must be okay, then remind them that
100 billion files can not all be wrong, so eat shit!
- Problems tend to only get worse as long as there is someone else to blame.
It is only when you can put the blame on yourself do the appropriate actions
happen to address the problem.
- The one thing we learn from history is that we do not learn much from
history.
- Never argue with what is working.
- Lonely people tend to be lonely for a very good reason.
- When reality is in conflict with theory it is time to rethink the theory.
- You tend to become good at that which you practice. If you practice
quitting then that is what you will become good at. There are no want ads for
quitters no matter how skilled you are.
- If you practice doing something the wrong way then you tend to develop an
expertise at doing that something the wrong way.
- If you continue to do the same thing the same way then you will get the
same result.
- Doing the right things too late is of no use. You must do the right things
at the right time.
- You can not cheat the game of life for you will only cheat yourself out of
the game.
- A funny thing happens when you know yourself to be smarter than everybody
else - all those dumb people tend to get ahead of you.
- It is not luck when someone persistently does things right - or wrong.
- If an approach does not work then it does not matter how easy it is.
- It is folly to defend a wrong position. Concede the moment you determine
that you are wrong. You will win far more respect by losing with grace than by
winning (or losing) with disgrace and arrogance.
- Sports is about competition and the quest to win. Sportsmanship is about
the quality of the competition without regard to winning.
- There is a huge difference between a mistake and a contrived act. The
mistake should be forgiven. The contrived act should be punished.
- Mistakes are not mistakes if they happen too often.
- The secret of immortality is to create something that people will use long
beyond your years.
- Any time you get something for free you generally end up paying a very
high price.
- The impulse to do something when you do not know what to do is likely to
lead you to do something worse than doing nothing.
- It is amazing how many people manage to spend exactly what they make. They
always say that they would save if only they made more. But when they do they
only spend it too and repeat the comment about saving.
- Just because you were born in the slum does not mean that the slum was
born in you - Jesse Jackson. Kuhn's corollary: Just because you were not born
in the slum does not mean that the slum was not born in you. i.e., people of
reasonable means who litter, live shabbily, have no respect for themselves or
others, etc.
- For some people life is not complete unless there is a problem (real or
imaginary) to help someone else solve.
- Why is it that the people who know the least are the most determined to
give you advice?
- Why is it that people who can not make any judgment calls are determined
to sit in judgment of others?
- Why is it that people keep trying to extrapolate their ignorance into a
broad knowledge?
- You have to live down to the level you can really afford.
- Sociology is the degree of last resort for those who can not earn a degree
in any other field.
- It is not possible for a middle class to exists if the divergent concept
of the rich get richer and the poor get poorer is true. Divergence requires
that the middle class shrink to zero. A thriving middle class proves the
concept wrong.
- It should be noted that no matter what is done that exactly 20 percent of
the population will be in the lowest quintile and exactly 20 percent of the
population will be in the highest quintile.
- You are judged mainly by that which you finish rather than by what you
start.
- Tactics are an implementation of strategy. Tactics do not make up for of
lack of strategy.
- Some people take their problems out on themselves. Some people take their
problems out on others. But some people take their problems out on nobody -
they just deal with their problems.
- Vision and sight are two different things. Sight is just a simple sense.
Vision is seeing what sight is incapable of. One can have vision even if they
do not have sight. That one has sight does not mean that one has vision.
- No one ever got rich worshipping a superstar. Superstars get rich from all
of the worship.
- How many baseball games do you win if you only make it to first, or
second, or even to third base?
- Charity is helping someone with real needs. Welfare is helping someone who
is lazy.
- The adage, much is expected from those whom much has been given does not
seem to apply to those on welfare.
- You do not obtain good results by striving to put forth the minimum of
effort.
- If your main objective is to get money, then your life is going to be
meaningless.
- It is interesting how people who pay no taxes complain about tax cuts for
those who do.
- Do not waste your time worrying about something that has not and may not
happen.
On Politics
- He who plays politics only has political friends.
- The goal of politics is to transform the reality of having accomplished
nothing into the illusion of having accomplished a lot.
- A political solution today will require another political solution
tomorrow, which will require another political solution the next day, etc.
- There is a big difference between politics and diplomacy. Politics always
seeks personal benefit. Diplomacy never seeks personal benefit.
- The greatest lust is that for power.
- Politics leads to power.
- Politics is the art of taking credit for all that is good and assigning
blame for all that is bad.
- Politics is a substitute for competence.
- Politics is the art of getting votes from the poor, money from the rich
while promising both that you will protect each from the other.
- Speaking politically is the art of saying things in such a way that people
will hear what they want to hear without having to commit oneself to a single
opinion.
- People who are against you doing a certain right thing will insist that if
you do it you must do it a certain wrong way so that it will fail - hence
their way of doing it appears right.
- When politics are played, only politicians benefit.
- It is not possible to play politics and do the right thing at the same
time.
- Wars are fought for the benefit of politicians.
- Politics and corruption are one in the same.
- Only people who do not work have time to get into politics.
- Never ask a lawyer for the truth.
- Lawyers like for everything to be as nebulous as possible.
- Politicians always seem to become more wealthy than their salaries would
suggest.
- There is a big difference between being compassionate and being
bamboozled.
- Politician wisdom: Never solve one problem without creating at least one
more.
- ACLU - the All Crooked Lawyer's Union.
On Government
- You cannot win in any system in which you cannot lose.
- The purpose of socialism is to prevent people from succeeding, not to
prevent people from failing.
- The only way to prevent people from failing is to prevent them from
succeeding.
- The basis for socialism is for the hard work of the few to subsidize the
laziness of the many.
- Why is it that everyone who is a socialist tends to be quite wealthy?
- Socialism is only a transitory phase on the road to communism. Balint
Vazsonyi
- The problem of socialism is that it always takes more socialism to solve
the problems of socialism.
- The beneficiaries of socialism are only the socialist party. All the
wealth of the country is transferred to them and the rest of the population
then exists in the utopian state of equality - equally poor.
- The only way a socialist government can survive is to insure that the
overwhelming majority of the population are dependent on the government.
- The only beneficiaries of socialism are the lazy and the socialist party.
Everyone else is a victim.
- Socialism achieves the utopia of everyone being equally rich in a relative
sense by making everyone (except socialist party members) equally poor in an
absolute sense.
- Name one country that built prosperity on socialism.
- A fine is a penalty for doing wrong. A tax is a penalty for doing right.
- The most effective and clever way to tax the poor is to tax the rich who
then pass the tax on to the poor consumer as higher prices for goods. The poor
never figure out what is going on and support tax increases on them selves.
- Any tax on business beyond covering the cost of government services is a
hidden tax on consumers.
- When Milton Friedman was asked how we can elect the right people to
government he responded that we do elect the right people but once elected
they become the wrong people.
- Both the wealthy and the non-wealthy have exactly the same amount of time.
It is largely what people do with their time that determines their wealth or
lack there of.
- Why is it called greed if a person works hard in order to
have the things that make life good and need if a person who
does not work wants the things the working person has?
- Greed is wanting to get for free what someone else had to work for.
- The gap is not between the haves and the have nots. It is between the
doers and the do-nots.
- There is a wide gap between those people who do the right things and do
not do the wrong things and those people who do the wrongs things and do not
do the right things. Your status is largely a matter of the combination of
right and wrong things you do or do not do.
- When the entire population is receiving welfare, what will the money be
able to buy? Who will be working to provide goods or services? Who will be
working to sell them?
- It is easy to be generous with someone else's money.
- Those who are too lazy to work have plenty of time to think about how to
get a free living from those who do work. Could Karl Marx have possibly
written this? He certainly practiced it.
- People capable of running the government are too smart to get into
politics.
- Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution
inevitable. John F. Kennedy
- If death is the only way to remove a politician from office, then death is
a legitimate means to remove a politician from office.
- One way to solve a small problem affecting only a few people is to create
a larger problem affecting many people who will in turn force action to be
taken.
- Having the right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.
- "The end justifies the means" implies that debts incurred to achieve a
"right" will be paid in full plus interest after the "right" is achieved. The
end is not "right" until all debts have been paid.
- Democracy is not a license for the majority opinion to dominate. Democracy
is a method by which the majority opinion is tempered by the minority
opinions.
- Democracy by force is no democracy.
- Why is it that in order not to discriminate based on race that we
must discriminate based on race?
- Any form of government is a bad form when tyrants rule.
- Just because democracy is the "best" form of government does not mean that
other forms should be eliminated.
- Governments are judged on how well they serve the people.
- Law and order is necessary so that we do not have vigilantism. Vigilantism
is necessary when there is no law and order.
- The last person to receive goods or services must pay the entire cost of
delivering those goods or services.
- If you want something to be inexpensive for all then you and everybody
else is going to have to pay a very high price for it.
- A lawyer is a prostitute in reverse.
- If there were no lawyers then there would be no need for lawyers.
- The only good criminal is a dead criminal.
- Beware of agreeing to support something so obviously right that no one
could be against it.
- It is impossible to raise everyone to the top. It is much easier to lower
everyone to the bottom. Thus, the success of socialism in making everyone
equal.
- If you support the change to socialism because you feel that under
socialism you will finally get all that is rightfully yours, then when
socialism finally rules you will get all that you deserve - nothing. But, then
you will no longer have the option of change.
- It is better to be unequally wealthy than equally poor.
- People can be taxed directly, indirectly, or be encouraged to squander
their money.
- The fallacy of over-helping: we should make it easy for them to win so
that will inspire them to work hard.
- An ever bigger government is "needed" to "solve" the problems of making
the government bigger.
- Could it be that one reason so many extremely wealthy in the entertainment
business support giving more money to the "poor" is that they know that the
"poor" will then spend that money on entertainment?
- Could it be that demagogues that speak out against racism make racist
remarks to maintain racism so as to preserve their income and status fighting
racism?
- Rights without responsibility is chaos.
- It is interesting how some people run their yaps about all the rights they
assume to have but never mention anything about the responsibilities they
should have.
- It is interesting that some people who obviously have no understanding of
the Constitution, yet are "experts" on what rights the Constitution supposedly
gives them.
- Compassion is helping people who are not able to help themselves.
Socialism is helping people who are too lazy to help themselves.
- It is easy to vote a socialist system into power. The real issue is can
they ever be voted out of power.
- The battle in America has shifted from taxation without representation to
representation without taxation.
- There is something very hypocritical about women who support Democrats
because of the belief that Democrats are compassionate towards children yet
will only support Democrats because of the party's support for the "right" of
mothers to kill their unborn children. This is compassionate liberalism.
- One of the lowest acts there is, is to claim to be an advocate for the
"poor" while in fact capitalizing on their ignorance for one's own political
(monetary) gain.
- When the government provides a solution, it usually creates a new problem.
Thomas G. Donlan in Barron's
- It is ironic that the government that once was the protector of private
property now is the primary villain in taking private property.
- Social Security is a retirement system run by the government that has such
a low return on investment that if it were a private company, would be heavily
investigated by the government.
- The best indicator that a child will obtain a good education is when the
parents themselves pay high taxes for the education. The best indicator that a
child will obtain only a mediocre education is when the majority of the money
comes from those not related to the child.
- I think it is a shame to maintain a class of professional welfare
recipients whose only purpose in life is to prolifically expand the welfare
population and to be driven to polling places to vote for the Democratic
party. In the science fiction novel, The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
illustrates one possible end result of this.
On Business
- A fool and his money are soon parted. A fool and his money were meant to
be parted. How did the fool get his money in the first place?
- Like water flowing down a hill, money naturally flows away from those who
can not manage it and collects in the basins of those who can.
- A wise business man once said, "You do not make profit by breaking even."
-Scrooge McDuck.
- When the man with money meets the man with experience, the man with
experience gets the money and the man with money gets the experience.
- When wealth is distributed to those who can not handle it, they tend to
distribute it back to where it came from.
- A hundred million dollars in the hands of one person who knows what to do
with it does far more good than a hundred dollars in the hands of one million
people who will only spend it.
- A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity. An optimist sees the
opportunity in every difficulty.
- If you can package and sell emotion, you will make a lot of money.
- When you mix business and religion, you will get more religion and less
business.
- The result of mixing emotion and money is that you will have more emotion
and less money.
On Management
- The act of management is the constant manipulation of the system to make
things appear better than they are for the benefit of a higher management,
etc.
- Leadership is the knowledge, ability, and determination to make things
even better than they appear for the benefit of non-managers.
- Management is focused on the present. Leadership is focused on the future.
- Management is preoccupied with the present. Leadership is preoccupied with
the future.
- There is little difference between management and politics.
- Management effectiveness is makings things be done right. Management
efficiency is doing the right things.
- Success can not be purchased at any price.
- One method to look good is to take credit for solving the problems you
create.
- The more money there is to spend on a problem, the less of a solution will
be obtained. The less money there is to spend on a problem, the more
innovative solution will be found.
- People are either dedicated or not. Money or the lack of it will not
change it.
- One way to get ahead is to take over the work of others.
- Credit for a job well done tends to gravitate towards the individual with
the highest rank.
- If you use your power to be right, then you must always be right.
- Fear makes one a defacto expert on something that one does not know
anything about.
- Proclamation does not alter reality.
- Procedure will never be a substitute for creative thought. Creative
thought does not adhere to any procedure.
- Creativity and individualism are one in the same.
- You can not succeed unless you are willing to risk failure.
- One way to make the PRESENT look good is to forfeit the FUTURE. To make
the FUTURE be good, the PRESENT must be forfeited.
- Fear leads one to do things more dangerous than what is feared.
- When you engineer by fear the approach you take in an attempt to minimize
risk will likely maximize risk.
- Your power obliges people to respect your position. Respect for you
personally can only be earned.
- If you demand respect, then you will only get it on demand.
- You manage things. You lead people. -- Grace Hopper
- Things can do nothing without intelligence.
- Money can buy good impressions.
- Money can not buy success.
- Politics at the top leads to politics at the bottom.
- In the short term, good impressions are a substitute for ability. In the
long term, ability is a substitute for good impressions.
- Credit for a job well done is distributed according to rank.
- Blame is inversely distributed according to rank.
- It is too late to learn management once you are in a management position.
- It is too late to develop leadership once you are in a leadership
position.
- The amount of creative thought passed on to you is inversely proportional
to the amount of creative thought you have rejected.
- Leaders do not copy what the followers are doing.
- The only way to become a good manager/leader is to have worked many years
under a good manager/leader.
- It is difficult to manage secrets to your advantage because you have no
way of knowing who else knows some of the secrets.
- The most complicated problems are those on paper.
- Paper problems require either exact solutions or risky justifications as
to why an exact solution is unattainable.
- The easiest way to solve a non-existent problem is to not create a
solution for it.
- The solution to a non-existent problem will typically be a real problem.
- Sometimes more work is accomplished by doing nothing than by doing
something.
- He who is afraid of making the wrong decision will.
- If you have a hyper temper, people will give you things to have a hyper
temper about.
- Most people will let you step in and do their job in addition to yours.
- Managers take the credit for the good work of subordinates. Subordinates
take the blame for the bad work of managers.
- The surest way not to fail is to do nothing.
- Trying to make things work well by maintaining tight control prevents
things from working well.
- Creativity can not be managed. The greater the attempt to manage it the
less of it will exist.
- Academia is focused on accuracy without regard to cost. Engineering tries
to determine how inaccurate something can be and still work as desired in the
name of minimizing cost.
- The greater the effort you make in projecting a false image of yourself
the more you will be remembered for the bad attributes of your false image.
- The goal of management is to look good before higher management.
- The more paperwork you can create, the less real work you have to do.
- There is a big difference between being in a management position and being
a manager.
- There is a big difference between being in a leadership position and being
a leader.
- There is a big difference between having a plan that is constantly
changing because it is flexible and having a plan that this constantly
changing because it was not thought out.
- A linear increase in performance generally requires an exponential
increase in size and complexity with the exponent proportional to size.
- A manager's job is to make the present look good. A leader's job is to
make the future be good.
- Difficult jobs are generally done right because a lot of thought is put
into them. Easy jobs are generally done wrong because little thought is put
into them.
- You can chastise a person until they publicly agree with you that the sky
is green but privately that person knows that you are an idiot.
- A slogan of a radical manager is "Strength through diversity." Strength is
achieved by allowing and even fostering diversity in thought and deed. While
there is a need for uniformity at the macro level, the micro level benefits
from diversity. Unfortunately, people tend to strive for uniformity in thought
and deed because the outcome is highly predictable - predictability of outcome
is a dominant theme in the management schools - mediocrity and stagnation are
the results. With diversity, everybody learns and thus gains from the
different thoughts and approaches that others have. This may seem chaotic and
the outcome is not predictable other than it will most certainly be better
than that achieved from the uniformity approach. Things that work better
spread throughout the organization and things that do not work well tend to
die out. This is the law of Nature in action. Nature proclaims that there be
diversity - the continuous adaptation to a constantly changing planet demands
it. When will man learn to work with Nature and not against it? There is
absolutely no progress when everybody thinks and does everything the same way.
- If stupidity got us into this mess then why won't stupidity get us out of
it?
- One difference between a leader and a non-leader is that a leader does not
panic when confronted with a problem.
- No progress is made when everyone thinks the same way.
- Losses can not be recovered. Attempts to recover them generally lead to
more losses. The best that can be done is to go forward from the present
situation.
- A loss can not be recovered. A loss can be magnified by naïve attempts to
recoup it.
- If it is labeled as "wrong" to do the right things then it follows
(however absurdly) that it is "right" to do the wrong things.
- The ability to deal with and accept imperfections is the mark of a great
leader.
- If you stifle failure, you stifle success. -- Paul Saffo
- If you complain that people do not tell you things then maybe it is
because you did not listen in the past when they tried.
On Being Managed
- You can never fail if you only do exactly as you are told.
- You will never get credit for foresight.
- Work is for people who are not good enough to be managers.
- What is RIGHT or WRONG is determined by who has the power to proclaim what
is RIGHT or WRONG.
- He is always right who has the power to be right.
- Doing something right and doing something fast are mutually exclusive.
- A job completed on schedule is by default a job well done.
- The easier something is to do, the more likely it will be done wrong. The
harder something is to do, the more likely it will be done right.
- The goal of symptom treating is to hide a problem from current viewpoints.
- Only minimal knowledge is required to treat symptoms. Solving a problem
requires intelligence.
- The "reward" for doing a particularly good job is that hence forth that
level of effort will be expected of you.
- It is better to be non-productive than to be counter-productive.
- It is better to wait until something has to be done than anticipate and
take early action. You do not get credit for foresight.
- Right is determined by might.
On Religion
- Every man who believes that his version of religion is the only right way
is wrong.
- All religions exist because of people. No people exist because of
religion.
- Religion is about principals of living and is not about worship.
- It is no honor to avoid temptation. It is an honor to face temptation and
resist.
- In spite of whatever is professed, everybody lives according to their true
beliefs.
- Do not waste your time being good. Spend your time doing good.
- Do not hide your faults behind a religion.
- You are not good just because you have not been bad.
- If you consider it all right to condemn a man because he does not
subscribe to your beliefs, then you have already been condemned by countless
others for not subscribing to their beliefs.
- No religion has a monopoly on being right.
- One danger of becoming too involved in a religion is that you become
trapped into a way of thinking that precludes you realizing that you could be
mistaken.
- If the example you set in your everyday living does not convince someone
then your words never will.
- Be sure that you never confuse faith and fact.
- A ritual becomes pagan when it must only be performed in a precise manner
lest it be condemned by the deities.
- In the end all things are forgiven.
- You should always be at the center of your own life.
- Do not let religion be an excuse for breaking the laws of man.
- Nobody was created for the purpose of being condemned to hell.
- Never allow a religious leader to do your thinking for you.
- If being different is not permitted then what is the point of being?
- If you are required to worship, then what is the point?
- It is not the purpose of life to only prepare to die.
- The larger a religion becomes the more emphasis is placed on money.
- Religious hierarchy becomes ever richer as the religion grows.
- No legitimate religion imposes its will on non members.
- Illegitimate religions exist to extort money and to enslave the population
for the benefit of the religious hierarchy.
- Legitimate religions are all based on principals of living that remain
true even if the deity is found not to exist.
- In the name of my great loving and compassionate deity, creator of all
good things, I kill you - you heathen.
- It is ironic that an intense desire to do right leads one into doing
wrong.
- If you sit in judgment of others, then do not condemn them for following
your example.
- Good never evolves from evil but evil can evolve from good intentions.
- It is always WRONG to impose RIGHT on the world.
- Great horrors happen when mankind attempts to correct the "mistakes of
God."
- Who is human kind to destroy that which God created?
- The trouble with halos is that they tarnish and corrode rapidly unless
cleaned and polished every minute.
- Religion is the belief in some philosophy which everyone may practice
freely in their private lives.
- Faith is believing in something that under no circumstance can ever be
proved. No religion can be proved - if it could be proved then it would be a
science. Therefore, all religion must be based on faith.
- If you are going to blame God when something bad happens then it is
logical and consistent to credit the devil when something good happens. Thus,
the fallacy of blaming God.
- Science is not anti-religion. Science seeks to discover and understand the
consistent physical rules that explain how the universe and life was created.
Religion tends to be anti-science. Religion often requires that the universe
and life be created and governed by magical forces without the benefit from
any consistent or predictable rules. God is prohibited from creating the
universe and life in any way that violates the religion - i.e. God is
prohibited from using science. After all is said, it ends up that science is
on the side of God.
- The one true religion is Nature. If one will only observe, Nature provides
the answers to all the problems and issues of life. Some of these answers
involve misfortune and even death - perhaps this is why human kind creates
religions with beliefs counter to the laws of Nature - they want to correct
what they see as the mistakes of God. The correct ways of living are found in
Nature. The penalty for living wrong ways is death as Nature illustrates every
day. Perhaps the most difficult law of Nature to understand is that Nature
does not guarantee that if you follow all the rules that you will live long
and prosperous life. Part of Nature is random fortune and misfortune. If you
are having difficulty with man-made religions then I suggest that you take up
the study of Nature. You will not be turning your back on God for God and
Nature are one in the same. The difference is that by studying Nature directly
your thoughts are not corrupted by a man-made religion's attempts to improve
upon the creations of God. Not that man-made religions are bad - quite a few
have strong basis on the laws of Nature - it is just that mankind in his
attempt to play God has added to and altered the laws such that the true
meaning of the universe and life is confused.
- It is important to examine for yourself how your life would change if you
discovered proof that your God and religion were all a hoax. Would you
continue to live by "good" standards or would you degenerate into a
self-centered, live for the moment, rape and pillage beast? The answer to this
can be found by studying Nature. If your life depends on your religion being a
fact, then you are in danger of being dissuaded by those who know how to ask
the difficult questions that could make you question your beliefs. Your faith
is very weak if you are afraid to ask challenging questions of
it.