– John F. Kennedy
If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, sir, should keep his friendship in constant repair.
– Samuel Johnson
The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.
– Albert Einstein
People are never so near playing the fool as when they think themselves wise.
– Mary Wortley Montagu
Light is the task where many share the toil.
– Homer
I not only use all the brains I have, but all I can borrow.
– Woodrow Wilson
Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.
– Helen Keller
Consistency is the last resort of the unimaginative.
– Oscar Wilde
Few things are impossible to diligence and skill.
– Samuel Johnson
There never was in the world two opinions alike, no more than two hairs or two grains; the most universal quality is diversity.
– Michael de Montaigne
The good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and discerns those inner qualities that make all men human and, therefore, brothers.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
HABIT 7
* * *
SHARPEN THE SAW
Sharpening the saw is about constantly renewing ourselves in the four basic areas of life: physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual. It’s the habit that increases our capacity to live all other habits of effectiveness.
— Stephen R. Covey
Bowmen bend their bows when they wish to shoot; unbrace them when the shooting is over. Were they kept always strung they would break and fail the archer in time of need. So it is with men. If they give themselves constantly to serious work, and never indulge awhile in pastime or sport, they lose their senses and become mad.
– Herodotus
I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set I go into the other room and read a book.
– Groucho Marx
Of freedom and life he only is deserving
Who everyday must conquer them anew.
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I have walked with people whose eyes are full of light but who see nothing in sea or sky, nothing in city streets, nothing in oaks. It were far better to sail forever in the night of blindness with sense, and feeling, and mind, than to be content with the mere act of seeing. The only lightless dark is the night of darkness in ignorance and insensibility.
– Helen Keller
One who is serious all day will never have a good time, while one who is frivolous all day will never establish a household.
– Ptahhotep
The marksman hitteth the target partly by pulling, partly by letting go. The boats-man reacheth the landing partly by pulling, partly by letting go.
– Egyptian proverb
Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity and in cold water becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigors if the mind.
– Leonardo da Vinci
Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.
– Søren Kierkegaard
The unexamined life is not worth living.
– Socrates
Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business, is only to be sustained by perpetual neglect of many other things.
– Robert Louis Stevenson
It is sweet to let the mind unbend on occasion.
– Horace
The ass will carry his load, but not a double load; ride not a free horse to death.
– Miguel de Cervantes
Over the years, many executives have said to me with pride: “Boy, I worked so hard last year that I didn’t take any vacation.” I always feel like responding; “You dummy. You mean to tell me that you can take responsibility for an eighty-million-dollar project and you can’t plan two weeks out of the year to have some fun?”
– Lee Iacocca
The hardest knife ill-used doth lose its edge.
– William Shakespeare
Today is yesterday’s pupil.
– Thomas Fuller
To keep a lamp burning we have to keep putting oil in it.
– Mother Teresa
We ought to hear at least one little song every day, read a good poem, see a first-rate painting, and if possible speak a few sensible words.
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it.
– Herodotus
At a certain age some people’s minds close up; they live on their intellectual fat.
– William Lyon Phelps
I love to lose myself in other men’s minds. When I am not walking, I am reading.
– Charles Lamb
“Let your occupations be few,” says the sage, “if you would lead a tranquil life.”
– Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
– T. S. Eliot
Oh, the glory of growth, silent, mighty, persistent, inevitable! To awaken, to open up like a flower to the light of a fuller consciousness!
– Emily Carr
The human organism needs an ample supply of good building material to repair the effects of daily wear and tear.
– Indra Devi
He who wants to keep his garden tidy doesn’t reserve a plot for weeds.
– Dag Hammarskjöld
If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.
– Derek Bok
One is not born a genius, one becomes a genius.
– Simone de Beauvoir
Knowledge is the most precious treasure of all things because it can never be given away nor stolen nor consumed.
– Sanskrit proverb
Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying, or meditating, or endeavoring something for the public good.
– Thomas à Kempis
I do not value wealth or riches,
Wherefore I shall be ever more content
To bring more richness to my mind
And not to keep my mind on riches.
– Juana Inés de la Cruz
I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship.
– Louisa May Alcott
It is the mind that makes the body.
– Sojourner Truth
A man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to care for his tools.
– Spanish proverb
Man’s mind, stretched to a new idea, never goes back to its original dimensions.
– Oliver Wendell Holmes
Self-development is a higher duty than self-sacrifice.
– Elizabeth Cady Stanton
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
– Aristotle
BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
Aesop, Greek fabulist, probably legendary
Alcott, Louisa May, 1832–1888, American author
Anderson, Marian, 1902– , American contralto
Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius, A.D. 121–180, Roman emperor
Appley, Lawrence, 1904– , American businessman
Aristotle, 384–322 B.C., Greek philosopher
Aristophanes, 450–388 B.C., Athenian dramatist
Armey, Dick, 1940– , American statesman
Ashford, Jan, 1932– , American businesswoman
Austen, Jane, 1775–1817, British author
Bacon, Francis, 1561–1626, British philosopher
Barnes, Djuna, 1892–1982, American author
Barton, Bruce, 1886–1967, American author
Beauvoir, Simone de, 1908–1986, French author
Bell, Alexander Graham, 1847–1922, American inventor
Bennett, William J., 1943– , American statesman
Bernbach, William, 1911–1982, American businessman
Bernhardt, Sarah, 1844–1923, French actress
Bok, Derek, 1930– , American educator
Bombeck, Erma, 1927–1997, American author
Bonner, Marita, 1899–1971, American author
Brower, Charles, 1863–1945, American adventurer
Browning, Robert, 1812–1889, British poet
Bryan, William Jennings, 1860–1925, American lawyer
Buck, Pearl S., 1892–1973, American author
Burke, Edmund, 1729–1797, British statesman
Burr, Amelia, 1878–1940, American author, poet
Bush, Barbara, 1925– , American First Lady
Carlyle, Thomas, 1795–1881, Scottish historian
Carnegie, Dale, 1888–1955, American businessman, author
Carr, Emily, 1871–1945, Canadian painter, author
Carter, Jimmy, 1924– , 39th American president
Cather, Willa, 1873–1947, American author
Catherine II of Russia, 1729–1796, Russian empress
Cervantes, Miguel de, 1547–1616, Spanish author
Chanel, Coco, 1883–1971, French fashion designer
Chuang tse, 3rd century B.C., Chinese author
Confucius, 551–479 B.C., Chinese philosopher
Coolidge, Calvin, 1872–1933, 30th American president
Crockett, Davy, 1786–1836, American frontiersman
Cruz, Juana Inés de la, 1651–1695, Mexican nun, poet
Curie, Marie, 1867–1934, Polish-born French chemist
Dalai Lama, 1935– , Tibetan spiritual leader
Davies, Robertson, 1913– , Canadian author
Davis, Bette, 1908–1989, American actress
Devi, Indra, 1899— , Russian American author, yogini
Dickens, Charles 1812–1870, British author
Dickinson, Emily 1830–1886, American poet
Dimock, Marshall E., 1903– , American author
Disraeli, Benjamin, 1804–1881, British prime minister
Donne, John, 1572–1631, British poet
Drabble, Margaret, 1939– , British author
Drucker, Peter, 1909– , American businessman, author
Earhart, Amelia, 1897–1937, American aviator
Ebner-Eschenbach, Marie von, 1830–1916, Austrian author
Edelman, Marian Wright, 1937– , American civil rights activist
Einstein, Albert, 1879–1955, German American physicist
Eisenhower, Dwight D., 1890–1969, 34th American president
Eliot, T. S., 1888–1964, American-born British author, poet
Eliot, George, 1819–1880, British author, pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803–1882, American author, poet
Epictetus, A.D. 55–135, Greek philosopher
Erskine, John, 1509–1591, Scottish Calvinist reformer
Fisher, Dorothy Canfield 1879–1958, American author
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, 1896–1940, American author
Ford, Henry, 1863–1947, American automobile manufacturer