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Kamala Harris: When your breath stinks
“Surround yourself with really good friends. Have people around you who cheer you on, and applaud you, and support you, and are honest with you, and tell you, you know, when your breath stinks.” —Kamala Harris.
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Jefferson Davis: Never be haughty to the humble
“Never be haughty to the humble or humble to the haughty.” —Jefferson Davis.
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Carol Shields: Open a book
“Open a book this minute and start reading. Don’t move until you’ve reached page fifty. Until you’ve buried your thoughts in print. Cover yourself with words. Wash yourself away. Dissolve.” —Carol Shields, The Republic of Love.
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Ron Jeffries: When you actually need them
“Always implement things when you actually need them, never when you just foresee that you need them.” —Ron Jeffries.
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W T Sherman: Only those
“It is only those who have never fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation”. The American Civil War General, W. T. Sherman, speaking in 1879.
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Thomas Kempis: Greater measure
“The man who ranks himself below all others and counts himself unworthy of God’s favour is better fitted for receiving that favour in greater measure.” —Thomas Kempis.
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Morgan Freeman: Be still
“Learning how to be still, to really be still and let life happen – that stillness becomes a radiance.” —Morgan Freeman.
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Walt Whitman: Journey-work of the stars
“I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.” —Walt Whitman, poet (31 May 1819-1892).
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Thomas Fuchs: Best error message
“The best error message is the one that never shows up.” —Thomas Fuchs.
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Andrew Carnegie: Thine own reproach alone do fear
‘I think my optimistic nature, my ability to shed trouble and to laugh through life, making “all my ducks swans,” as friends say I do, must have been inherited from this delightful old masquerading grandfather whose name I am proud to bear. A sunny disposition is worth more than fortune. Young people should know that…
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Clint Eastwood: Take things into your own hands
“Sometimes if you want to see a change for the better, you have to take things into your own hands.” —Clint Eastwood.
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Clint Eastwood: Take things into your own hands
“Sometimes if you want to see a change for the better, you have to take things into your own hands.” —Clint Eastwood.
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Simon Sinek: Greatness
“Before we can build the world we want to live in, we have to imagine it. Greatness starts with a clear vision of the future.” —Simon Sinek.
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Hal Clement: Speculation
“Speculation is perfectly all right, but if you stay there you’ve only founded a superstition. If you test it, you’ve started a science.” —Hal Clement, science fiction author (30 May 1922-2003).
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Benjamin Franklin: Eyes of other people
“Almost all the parts of our bodies require some expense. The feet demand shoes, the legs stockings, the rest of the body clothing, and the belly a good deal of victuals. Our eyes, though exceedingly useful, ask when reasonable, only the cheap assistance of spectacles, which could not much impair our finances. But the eyes…
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Charlie Munger: Envy
“The idea of caring that someone is making money faster [than you] is one of the deadly sins. Envy is a really stupid sin because it’s the only one you could never possibly have any fun at. There’s a lot of pain and no fun. Why would you want to get on that trolley?” —Charlie…
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Warren Buffett: Envy
“It is not greed that drives the world, but envy.” —Warren Buffett.
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Tsar Peter the Great: Words spoken to the wind
“How often have I not scolded you for this, and not merely scolded you but beaten you… but nothing has succeeded, nothing is any use, all is to no purpose, all is words spoken to the wind, and you want to do nothing but sit at home and enjoy yourself.” —Tsar Peter the Great.
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Damian Conway: Documentation
“Documentation is a love letter that you write to your future self.” —Damian Conway.
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Simon Sinek: Lead people
“We cannot lead an organization, we can run an organization. We can only lead people.” —Simon Sinek.
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John F Kennedy: Conscientious objector
“War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.” —John F. Kennedy, 35th US president (29 May 1917-1963).
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Warren Buffett: Permanent earning power
“We don’t like having excess cash around. We like even less doing dumb deals because we do them forever. I mean, if we make a dumb deal, it just sits there. We don’t resell it three months later by having an IPO of it or something of the sort. So you’re right to say that…
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Jeff Raikes: No market
“In business, the market gives you feedback in real time. Your sales figures tell you what’s working, what isn’t , and how you need to change. If you don’t listen to the feedback, you go belly up. In philanthropy, there is no market.” —Jeff Raikes.
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G K Chesterton: Optimists in revolt
“We do not hide ourselves in the universal night of pessimism. We are the optimists in revolt. If anyone cares to call us the Conservatives in revolt, the case for our revolt is all the stronger.” —G K Chesterton.
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Simon Sinek: Idealists
“Great leaders are idealists. They are optimists. They overestimate what we are capable of and inspire us to believe the same.” —Simon Sinek.
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Simon Sinek: True friend
“A true friend is someone with whom protocol is no longer necessary.” —Simon Sinek.
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Colin Percival: Secure code
“The most secure code in the world is code which is never written.” – Colin Percival.
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Ted Nelson: User interface
“A user interface should be so simple that a beginner in an emergency can understand it within ten seconds.” – Ted Nelson.
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William Pitt: Necessity
“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” —William Pitt, British prime minister (28 May 1759-1806).
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Joseph Rodman Drake: Beauty weeps the brave
“And they who for their country die shall fill an honored grave, for glory lights the soldier’s tomb, and beauty weeps the brave.” — Joseph Rodman Drake.
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Colbie Caillat: Relationships
“I don’t take relationships too seriously, but everyone else seems to. And when you get your heart broken, it’s like the end of the world. And I look at it as that was one moment in your life, one chapter. That person helped you grow and figure out what kind of person you want to…
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Simon Sinek: Work ethic and passion
“Work ethic is giving great effort to complete a task. Passion is giving great energy to progress an ideal.” —Simon Sinek.
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Simon Sinek: Leaders who care
“The leaders who get the most out of their people are the leaders who care most about their people.” —Simon Sinek.
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G K Chesterton: Test of democracy
“The test of democracy is not whether the people vote, but whether the people rule.” G K Chesterton.
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Shane Parrish: Relationship misery
‘So much relationship misery arises from one person reaching out to another and saying “are you there?… am I important to you” and the other person says “I’m busy right now. I’ll tell you later.”’ —Shane Parrish.
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Hubert Humphrey: Not socialism
“Compassion is not weakness and concern for the unfortunate is not socialism.” —Hubert Humphrey, US Vice President (27 May 1911-1978).
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Julius Caesar: Language
“Language is a powerful weapon, and in the hands of a skilled person, it can be used to manipulate others.” —Julius Caesar.
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Arnold Bennett: As if nothing had happened
“Always behave as if nothing had happened, no matter what has happened.” —Arnold Bennett.
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Tao Te Ching: Example
“The master is content to serve as an example and not to impose her will.” —Tao Te Ching.
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Warren Buffett: Unbelievable heights
“Any asset class that has a big move, that’s based initially on fundamentals, is going to attract speculative participation at some point, and that speculative participation can become dominant as time goes by…. How far it goes, you never know. Some things go on to just unbelievable heights.” —Warren Buffett.
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Cicero: Pain
“There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain…” —Cicero.
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Thucydides: Habit of mankind
“For it is a habit of mankind to entrust to careless hope what they long for and to use sovereign reason to thrust aside what they do not desire.” –– Thucydides.
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Karolina Szczur: Writing software
“Writing software as if we are the only person that ever has to comprehend it is one of the biggest mistakes and false assumptions that can be made.” —Karolina Szczur.
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Dorothea Lange: Photography
“Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.” —Dorothea Lange.
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Jeanne Crain: Prejudice
“I grew up without knowing anything about prejudice, my mother saw to that. If parents would keep prejudice and intolerance to themselves for one generation, we would have a different world.” —Jeanne Crain.
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Simon Sinek: Team sport
“Success is a team sport.” —Simon Sinek.
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Aaron Sorkin: Anonymity
“A mob acts out of emotion, absent facts, absent contemplation, mostly absent responsibility. What they get in return is anonymity. Conscience can be exhausting. It’ll keep you up at night. Mob’s a place where people go to take a break from their conscience.” —Atticus Finch, in Aaron Sorkin’s To Kill a Mocking Bird, played by…
