I’m not so think as you drunk I am.
J.C. Squire
You’re not drunk
if you can lie on the floor without holding on.
Dean Martin
When angry, count to four;
when very angry, swear.
Mark Twain (1835-1910), American author and humourist
I kissed my first girl
and smoked my first cigarette
on the same day.
I haven’t had time for tobacco since.
Arturo Toscanini
Chains of habit are too light to be felt
until they are too heavy to be broken.
Warren Buffett (1930- ), one of the wealthiest people in the world
A human being has a natural desire to have
more of a good thing than he needs.
Mark Twain (1835-1910), Following the Equator
Wine laughs at you,
and strong drink shouts at you in anger.
The Bible, Proverbs 20:1
At the first cup, you drink wine.
At the second cup, wine drinks wine.
After that, wine drinks you.
Author unknown
Free yourselves from the slavery of
tea and coffee and other kettle waste.
William Cobbett
That’s all that drugs and alcohol do.
They cut off your emotions in the end.
Ringo Star (1940- )
It is best to hide that we are stupid,
but it is hard to do this
when we relax over wine.
Heraclitus (540-480 BC), On the Universe
Smoking is ugly to the eye,
bad to the nose,
and dangerous to the brain and lungs.
James I (James VI of Scotland), (1566-1625),
A Counterblast to Tobacco (1604),
What you’ve done becomes the judge
of what you’re going to do –
especially in other people’s minds.
William Least Heat Moon (1939- ), American travel writer
of part Osage Nation origin
A tree is known by its fruit.
Jesus, Matthew 12:33
Think before you act;
but think after you act too.
Vinobha Bhave (1895-1982), Indian advocate of nonviolence,
and successor to Gandhi
Thinking well is good;
planning well is better;
doing well is best.
Persian proverb
Being smart is understanding quickly;
but ability is acting well on the thing
after you understand it.
Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947), English mathematician,
Dialogues (1954), 15 December, 1939
There is much that one can do
who does both act and know.
Andrew Marvell (1621-1678), English poet and parliamentarian,
An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell’s Return from Ireland (1650),
Let him that would move the world,
first move himself.
Socrates (469-399 BC), Greek philosopher
Starting is half the job.
Horace (65-8 BC), Roman poet, Epistles book no. 2, line 1
It is better to wear out than to rust out.
Richard Cumberland (1631-1718), English philosopher and bishop
Good is best when you do it quickly.
Waiting to do it will come to nothing.
Robert Southwell (c. 1561-1595), Loss in Delays (1595)
Think globally; act locally.
Patrick Geddes (1854-1932), Scottish biologist and town planner
Faith without works is dead.
The Bible, James 2:20
History is philosophy in action.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus (60-7 BC), Greek historian and teacher
Never confuse movement with action.
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), American author and journalist
I will travel through this life but one time.
Any good thing that I can do
or any kind act that I can show
to any other person, I must do now.
I must not put it off, or choose not to do it,
for I will not come this way again.
Stephen Grellet (1773-1855), Quaker missionary
The world is divided into people who
do things and people who get the credit.
Try, if you can, to belong to the first group.
There’s far less competition.
Dwight Morrow (1873-1931), American politician and businessman
Our bodies are our gardens.
Our wills are gardeners.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), English playwright
Where there’s a will there’s a way.
Mid seventeenth century proverb
Man is made great or small by his own will.
J.C.F. von Schiller (1759-1805), German historian, poet, playwright
Moving mountains starts with a good shovel.
Anonymous
Work is life and good work is good life.
J. W. Elliot (1833-1915), English composer
Far and away the best that life can give
is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), 26th President of the U.S.
If you have much ability,
work will make it better.
If you have little ability,
work will make up the difference.
Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), Discourses on Art (1769)
Give your heart to God,
and your hand to work.
Swami Omkar (1895-1982), Indian holy man
Work is love that we can see.
Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931), The Prophet (1923), ‘On Work’
A smart person who will not work
is like a cloud without rain.
Author unknown
The only place where success
comes before work is in the dictionary.
Donald Kendall (1921- ), former CEO of Pepsi Cola
It is good for a man that he carry the yoke
when he is young.
The Bible, Lamentations 3:27
Change yourself,
and your work will seem different.
Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993), American minister and author
Put your shoulder to the wheel.
Aesop (620 BC - 560 BC), Hercules and the Wagoner
The more we do,
the more we can do.
William Hazlitt (1778-1830), English essayist and literary criic
There is no such thing as a free lunch.
Milton Friedman (1912-2006), American economist and author
If you ever need a helping hand,
you’ll find one at the end of your arm.
Sam Levenson (1911-1980), American humourist, writer, and TV host
Some people work hard...
at finding ways to get others to do the work.
Anonymous
God gives every bird his worm;
but he does not throw it into the nest.
Swedish Proverb
I have nothing left to give but
blood, labour, tears and sweat.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965), former British Prime Minister
Shallow men believe in luck.
Strong men believe in cause and effect.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), American writer and lecturer
I’m a great believer in luck, and I find
the harder I work the more I have of it.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), third U.S. President
Luck sometimes visits a fool,
but it never sits down with him.
German Proverb
If I find ten thousand ways
that something won’t work,
I haven’t failed. I am not discouraged,
because everything I try that is wrong
is another step forward.
Thomas Edison (1847-1931), inventor and scientist
If people only knew how hard I have worked
to get this ability,
it would not seem so wonderful at all.
Michelangelo (1475-1564), Italian painter, engineer, poet, architect
A problem is your chance to do your best.
Duke Ellington (1899-1974), American composer and pianist
Start by doing what is needed;
then do what is possible;
and soon you will be doing the impossible.
Francis of Assisi (1181-1226), Italian Catholic preacher
The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Jesus, Matthew 26:41
The rest of a labouring man is sweet.
The Bible, Ecclesiastes 5:12
All work and no play makes Jack a boring boy
and Jill a rich widow.
Evan Esar (1899-1995), American humourist
Work liberates.
words on the gates of Dachau concentration camp, 1933,
and later on those of Auschwitz
Early to rise and early to bed
makes a male healthy, wealthy and dead.
James Thurber (1894-1961), American author and cartoonist
It’s true hard work never killed anyone;
but I say why take the chance?
Ronald Reagan (1911-2004), actor and 40th U.S. President
By working faithfully eight hours a day
you may one day get to be boss
and work twelve hours a day.
Robert Frost (1874-1963), American poet
No man would choose to work on a ship if he was
smart enough to get himself put into a prison;
for being in a ship is like being in a prison
with the added chance of drowning.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), Boswell's Life of Johnson
A man is not lazy just because he is thinking.
There is work that can be seen
and there is invisible work.
Victor Hugo (1802-1885), French writer and statesman
Come to me, all you who labour and are tired;
and I will give you rest.
Jesus, Matthew 11:28
My yoke is easy
and what I ask you to carry is light.
Jesus, Matthew 11:30
I’m lazy. But it’s the lazy people who invented
the wheel and the bicycle because they didn’t
like walking or carrying things.
Lech Walesa (1943- ), Polish human rights activist
We will go early to a job that we love,
and we will go happily.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Antony and Cleopatra act 4
There’s no need to do house work at all.
After the first four years,
the dirt does not become any worse.
Quentin Crisp (1908- ), The Naked Civil Servant (1968), chapter 15
The fastest way to do many things
is to do them one at a time.
Samuel Smiles (1812-1904), Self-Help (1859), chapter 9
Easy come, easy go.
title of a 1967 musical starring Elvis Presley
Don't open a shop unless you like to smile.
Chinese proverb
If your business keeps you so busy
that you have no time for anything else,
there must be something wrong,
either with you or with your business.
William J. H. Boetcker (1873-1962), Presbyterian minister
To really serve you must add something
which one cannot buy or measure with money,
and that is sincerity and integrity.
Donald A. Adams, 15th President of Rotary International
Whoever does not love his work
cannot hope that it will please others.
Author unknown
The first rule in business is not to get caught.
Anonymous
Eat and drink with relatives;
but only do business with strangers.
Greek proverb
If your desk isn’t messy,
you probably aren’t doing your job.
Harold Geneen (1910-1997), American businessman
The most successful businessman is the one
who holds onto the old just as long as it is good,
and takes the new just as soon as it is better.
Lee Iacocca (1924- ), American businessman
No people can become rich until they learn that
there is as much worth in ploughing a field
as in writing a rhyme.
Booker T. Washington (1856-1915), educator, author, and speaker
No one has ever had an idea in a dress suit.
Frederick G. Banting (1891-1941), Canadian doctor and Nobel laureate
Ideas are like rabbits.
You get a couple and learn how to handle them,
and soon you have a lot of them.
John Steinbeck (1902-1968), American author and Nobel laureate
The more you look for security,
the less of it you have.
But the more you look for a way to grow,
the more likely it is
that you will get the security that you desire.
Brian Tracy (1944- ), Canadian self-help author
Nothing is against the law
if a hundred businessmen choose to do it.
Andrew Young (1932- ), American politician, activist, and pastor
If you are in a job you hate,
face the truth squarely and get out.
Michael Korda (1933- ), author and novellist
A good newspaper
is a country talking to itself.
Arthur Miller (1915-2005), American writer, Observer, 26 Nov., 1961
Do not kill the goose that lays the gold egg.
Author unknown (reference to one of Aesop's fables)
Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
H.M. Markowitz (1927- ), American economist and Nobel laureate
Price is what you pay. Worth is what you get.
Warren Buffett (1930- ), one of the wealthiest people in the world
A rich man
is nothing but a poor man with money.
W.C. Fields (1880-1946), comedian, juggler, actor, writer
Like dogs running in a wheel, greedy men
still climb and climb, but never reach the top.
Robert Burton (1577-1640), English scholar at Oxford University
The trouble with the rat race
is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.
Lily Tomlin (1939- ), actress, comedienne, writer
Do not be fooled into believing
that because a man is rich he is smart.
There is enough proof to show the opposite.
Julius Rosenwald (1862-1932), U.S. businessman and philanthropist
The person who dies rich
dies a loser.
Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919),
North American Review June, 1889 ‘Wealth’
People who work sitting down get paid more
than people who work standing up.
Ogden Nash (1902-1971), American poet
Let them eat cake.
Marie Antoinette, when she learned that the peasants had no bread
A man without money need no more fear a
crowd of lawyers than a crowd of pickpockets.
William Wycherley (c. 1640-1715), English dramatist
Without a rich heart, wealth is an ugly beggar.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), American writer and lecturer
There is no real use for wealth,
but to give it to others.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English scientist, lawyer, and statesman,
Of Riches
A bank is a place that will lend you money
if you can prove that you don’t need it.
Bob Hope (1903-2003), American comedian and actor
There is some magic in wealth,
that a fool who is rich should be given
more honour by the world
than a good man or a wise man who is poor!
Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823), The Mysteries of Edolpho
The love of money
is the root of all evil.
The Bible, I Timothy 6:10
All animals are equal,
but some animals
are more equal than others.
George Orwell (1903-1950), Animal Farm (1945), chapter 10
No one can serve two masters at the same time.
You cannot work for God and for money.
Jesus, Matthew 6:24
God’s people work for love.
The devil’s people work for money.
Anonymous
The rich think of money.
The poor think of God.
Author unknown
Too much has made me poor.
Ovid (43 BC-17 AD), Roman poet, Metamorphoses, book 2
To be smart enough to get all that money,
one must be stupid enough to want it.
G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936), English writer and Christian apologist
It is harder for a rich man
to go into the kingdom of heaven
than it is for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle.
Jesus, Matthew 19:24
Does not God choose the poor
to be his people?
Do not the rich fight against
the teachings of Jesus?
The Bible, James 2:5-7
I sit on a man’s back, hurting him
and forcing him to carry me,
and I tell myself and others
that I feel sad for him,
and want to help him in any way that I can.
...in any way, that is, but to get off his back.
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), What Then Must We Do? (1886),
chapter 16
He who is carried on another's back
does not think about how far off the town is.
African proverb
You can hold money,
but money should not hold you.
Author unknown
They have mouths but do not talk,
eyes but cannot see,
ears but cannot hear,
noses but cannot smell,
hands but cannot touch,
and feet but cannot walk.
The Bible, Psalm 115:5 (about idols)
