ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing. It’s when you’ve had everything to do, and you’ve done it.
—Margaret Thatcher
Most of us can do more than we think we can but usually do less than we think we have.
—Bits & Pieces
All God’s giants have been weak men who did great things for God, because they reckoned on God’s being with them.
—J. Hudson Taylor
If you want to be remembered after you’re dead, write something worth reading, or do something worth writing about.
—Benjamin Franklin
If you can imagine it, you can possess it. If you can dream it, you can become it. If you can envision it, you can attain it. If you can picture it, you can achieve it.
—William Arthur Ward
ACCOUNTABILITY
“What is the greatest thought that has ever passed through your head?” someone asked Daniel Webster. He answered, “My accountability to God.”
ACHIEVEMENT
Whatever a man can conceive and believe, he can achieve.
—Napoleon Hill
You wouldn’t have the desire for a thing if you couldn’t achieve it.
—Earl Nightingale
Rostropovich, the celebrated cellist, was asked to comment on the excellence he has achieved in his field. He said, “If I ever felt I had reached the zenith of musical accomplishment, it would be my death, my musical death.”
ACTION
To look is one thing. To see what you look at is another. To understand what you see is a third. To learn from what you understand is still something else. But to act on what you learn is all that really matters.
—Bits & Pieces
Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.
—Benjamin Disraeli
In Hong Kong, Lee Kai San was not allowed to taste the wedding cake of his brother. So he jumped from a twelve-story building. But on the way down he grabbed a pole and hung on. After firemen rescued him, Lee told them, “After I jumped I realized I’d never taste the cake, so I changed my mind.”
Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation and in cold weather becomes frozen; so inaction saps the vigors of the mind.
—Leonardo da Vinci
The great end of life is not knowledge but action.
—Aldous Huxley
People can be divided into three groups: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened.
—John W. Newbern
Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.
See everything; overlook a lot; deal with a little.
—Pope John XXIII
ADOLESCENCE
Adolescence is like a house on moving day—a temporary mess.
—Julius E. Warren
Adolescence is that period in life when a youngster apologizes to his friends for having old-fashioned parents.
ADULTHOOD
An adult is a person who has stopped growing everywhere except in the middle.
ADVENTURE
While most criminologists can easily explain how slum conditions and broken homes lead to crime, there is still no conclusive answer to another problem: What motivates middle-class or affluent youngsters to commit senseless crimes? From my own unscientific contacts with prison inmates and former offenders, Miss Muriel Gardiner’s theory about one current cause makes a great deal of sense [in her book, The Deadly Innocents, Basic Books, 1976]. She says children in our society have little opportunity for adventure, except vicariously, through watching television, something eminently unsatisfying. It merely whets, in a sometimes disastrous way, a normal appetite for adventure, satisfied often in former days through the dangers of exploration or the vicissitudes of frontier life. Where is the teenage boy or girl to find adventure outside of crime?
—Selwyn Raab, New York Times
ADVICE
Advice from friends is like the weather: some of it is good, some of it is bad.
—Arnold Lobel
Advice to Young Men
Pray every night, and shave every morning.
Keep your conscience clean, also your linen.
Let your light shine, and shine your shoes.
Press your advantages, your opportunities, and your trousers.
Brush the cobwebs from your brain and dandruff from your collar.
Take liberties with grammar, if you will, but not in games of chance.
The polite liar easily becomes a plain liar.
Covet a golden tongue more than a greenback.
Be poor in spirit but not in vocabulary.
Don’t mix your metaphors, but nevertheless be a good mixer.
It is better to establish a good precedent than to follow a bad one.
It is better to lose a good fight than to win a bad one.
Never allow temporal trivialities to displace eternal verities.
Always be content with what you have but never with what you are.
—Advance
I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.
—Harry S. Truman
Socrates was a Greek philosopher who went around giving people good advice. They poisoned him!
It takes a great person to give sound advice tactfully, but it takes a greater person to accept it graciously.
—Bits & Pieces
Lorne Sanny of the Navigators said his father told him all his instruction to Lorne could be summarized in four words: “Get with it, Son.”
The large-caliber executive welcomes suggestions. The small-caliber executive resents them, imagining that he knows it all and that it is presumptuous for anyone to offer him advice. To win promotion, be unselfish, receptive, responsive, always rating first the well-being of the company. To become big, play the game in a big way.
—B. C. Forbes
“Be yourself” is the worst advice you can give to some people.
—Tom Masson
There’s a story about a young bank cashier who was named successor to the retiring bank president. One day the young man went to the senior officer and said, “As you know, I’m going to follow you as president, and I’d be grateful for any advice you might have.” The president said, “Son, sit down. I’ve got two words for you, just two words: right decisions.” “That’s very helpful, sir,” replied the young man, “but how does one go about making right decisions?” “One word—experience.” “That’s also helpful, sir, but how does one gain experience?” “Two words,” said the older man, “wrong decisions.”
—Our Daily Bread
The man who seeks your advice too often is probably looking for praise rather than information.
The best way to succeed in life is to act on the advice we give to others.
There’s a big gap between advice and help.
In his own gentle, procrastinating way, Dr. George Harris did much as president of Amherst College, but the unpleasant duties of such a post he neglected or ignored. He was not really opposed to work, but I never heard him say much in favor of it. One autumn he rose in chapel to address the students at the first assembly of the year, but after a sentence or two he got tired and broke into a happy smile: “I intended to give you some advice, but now I remember how much is left over from last year unused.” With that he took his hat and walked out.
—John Erkskine
Advice is one commodity in which supply always runs ahead of demand.
AGE (Also see MIDDLE AGE and OLD AGE)
A famous naturalist in California began cutting trees to construct a log house. A neighbor who knew his purpose and also his age asked him, “Isn’t that too large an undertaking for one person who is no longer young?”
“It would be,” replied the elderly man, “if I looked beyond the chopping of the trees and sawing of logs and pictured myself laying the foundation and erecting the walls and putting on the roof. Carrying the load all at once would exhaust me. But it isn’t much of a job to cut down this little tree, and that’s all I have to do right now.”
The prime of life is that fleeting time between green and overripe.
It’s What You Do, Not When You Do It
Ted Williams, at age forty-two, slammed a home run in his last official time at bat.
Mickey Mantle, age twenty, hit twenty-three home runs his first full year in the major leagues.
Golda Meir was seventy-one when she became Prime Minister of Israel.
William Pitt II was twenty-four when he became Prime Minister of Great Britain.
George Bernard Shaw was ninety-four when one of his plays was first produced.
Mozart was just seven when his first composition was published.
Now, how about this? Benjamin Franklin was a newspaper columnist at sixteen and a framer of the United States Constitution when he was eighty-one.
—United Technologies Corporation
Dr. C. Ward Crampton says you are as old as the average of your seven ages: the number of years lived (chronological), condition of your tissues (anatomical), functional ability of organs (physiological), mental capacity (psychological), condition of body as a result of diseases (pathological), normal life expectancy (statistical), and average age of ancestors (hereditary). Divinely you are as old as the eternal plan of God; actually you are as old as the time since the cross of Christ; experimentally you are as old as the time back to the moment you were born again; spiritually you are as old as your development through surrender to the Holy Spirit; and in service you are as old as your ability to beget a spiritual posterity.
AGGRESSIVENESS
Be patiently aggressive.
—Edsel B. Ford II
AIMS (Also see DETERMINATION and GOALS)
During a train trip, the renowned jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes was unable to locate his ticket when the conductor asked for it. After watching Holmes fumble through his pockets in growing dismay, the conductor said, “That’s all right, Mr. Holmes. I’m sure you have your ticket somewhere. If you don’t find it until you’ve gotten off, just mail it to us when you get home. We’ll certainly trust you.” Holmes replied, “Young man, my problem isn’t to find my ticket. It’s to find out where I’m going!”
—Ted Engstrom
If your ship doesn’t come in, swim out to it!
—Jonathan Winters
AIRLINES
On a recent trip from Washington, D.C., our plane taxied onto the takeoff runway as usual, then suddenly turned around and returned to the loading ramp. The door opened; pilot, maintenance staff, and flight attendants conferred briefly; the door shut; and within minutes we were in the air on our way to Buffalo. I asked the flight attendant what had happened.
She answered, “The pilot said something was wrong with one of the engines.”
I said amazed, “It certainly didn’t take long to fix!”
“Oh, it wasn’t fixed,” she replied. “We just changed pilots!”
—L. Richard Meeth
ALCOHOLISM
Alcoholic beverages get a lot of positive attention on weekend commercials. But those ads don’t mention the devastating consequences of alcoholism:
Alcoholism is our third worst national health problem, following only cancer and heart disease.
Heavy drinking contributes to an estimated 80 percent of fire and drowning accidents, 60 percent of violent crimes, and 30 percent of suicides.
Someone dies because of drunken driving every twenty-two minutes.
An estimated ten million Americans suffer from alcoholism. Add in the family members and close friends of these alcoholics, and you find that one-fifth of the American population is severely impacted by alcoholism.
AMBITION
If you can’t get what you want, want what you can get!
—Lebanese proverb
Ambition usually progresses through the following states: to be like Dad … to be famous … to be a millionaire … to make enough to pay the bills … to hang on long enough to draw a pension.
—Bits & Pieces
Hard work and ambition can carry us far, even if we don’t have much formal education. A junk dealer who is a millionaire in a northeastern state never got beyond the eighth grade. When asked how he managed to do so well in spite of this, the fellow replied, “Well, it ain’t hard, really. I just buy things for $1 and sell them for $4. You’d be surprised how fast that 3 percent profit piles up.”
Feel discouraged? Remember, the goal worth reaching isn’t reached easily.
There are two kinds of people: those who don’t do what they are told, and those who do only that.
A group of junior high students visited the White House. Later when the class discussed their tour, one boy said, “I was glad to visit my future home.”
Sometimes you can judge a man’s ambition by whether he hates his alarm clock or considers it his best friend.
Be not content with the commonplace in ambition or intellectual attainment. Do not expect that you will make any lasting or very strong impression on the world through intellectual power without the use of an equal amount of conscience and heart.
—William Jewett
Nothing is wrong in seeking great things. But it is wrong to seek great things for yourself.
—J. Oswald Sanders
If thou wilt seek a glory, seek a glory; but seek a glory for that which is immortal.
—Chrysostom
ANGER
He who restrains his anger overcomes his greatest enemy.
—Latin proverb
A chip on the shoulder indicates that there is wood higher up.
Of the seven deadly sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel—both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back—in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.
—Frederick Buechner
Speak when you are angry and you’ll make the best speech you’ll ever regret.
—Henry Ward Beecher
You can’t rid yourself of a bad temper by losing it.
And what is it that makes most of us angry? Usually it’s when someone has shown a lack of respect for us. The image we have of ourselves has been offended. So, conceited souls that we are, we get furious. Instead, we should simply be curious. Is our image that important to us? Is anyone else’s opinion really worth getting angry about? How ridiculous!
—Soundings
It’s not a sin to get angry when you get angry at sin.
An old Englishman known as Father Graham in his village was greatly loved because of his positive influence. One day an angry young man who has just been badly insulted came to see Father Graham. As he explained the situation, he said he was on his way to demand an apology from the one who had wronged him. “My dear boy,” Father Graham said, “take a word of advice from an old man who loves peace. One insult is like mud; it will brush off much better when it is dry. Wait a little, until he and you are both cool, and the problem will be easily solved. If you go now, you will only quarrel.” The young man heeded the wise advice, and soon he was able to go to the other person and resolve the issue.
Anybody can become angry—that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way—that is not easy!
—Aristotle
Getting mad will never get you anything else.
If you lose your temper, it is a sign that you have wrong on your side.
—Chinese proverb
Hate, like acid, does more damage to the vessel in which it is stored than to the object on which it is poured.
—Ann Landers
A man was speeding down a country road late one night when he had a flat tire. Opening the trunk of his car, he discovered he had forgotten his jack. Seeing the lights of a farmhouse in the distance, he walked toward it, saying to himself, “I’ll just knock on the door, tell the farmer I’m in trouble and that I want to borrow a jack. No doubt he’ll just say, ‘Help yourself.’ ” But as he continued walking, he noticed the light in the farmhouse went out, indicating the residents had retired. Continuing his dialog with himself, he said, “They’ve gone to bed and will be angry if I awaken them. Maybe I should offer them a dollar for the use of their jack.” Then the thought occurred to him that the man might be away and his wife would be there alone and would be afraid to answer the door. “I’ll offer her five dollars,” he said to himself. “Five dollars and not a penny more. I won’t let this guy rob me!” As he knocked on the door, the poor farmer stuck his head out the upstairs window and asked, “Who’s there?” From below came an angry voice, “You and your stupid jack! You can keep the wretched thing!”
Surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of man he is. If there are rats in a cellar, you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats: it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make me ill tempered; it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am.
—C. S. Lewis
A monk who had a quick temper was known to “pass the buck” for his fits of anger—always blaming his fellow monastery residents. So he decided to move to a place of absolute solitude in a desert, thinking that if he got away from the others he could be victorious. One morning he accidentally knocked over a pitcher of water. A few minutes later he bumped it again, and once more it fell on its side and spilled its contents. Losing his temper, the monk picked up the pitcher and hurled it to the ground. As it broke into smithereens, the truth hit him: he couldn’t blame others for his flareups. The real trouble was within him.
Someone said to a Scotsman, “My, you have a terrible temper.” The Scotsman replied, “Man, you don’t know how much I’m holding back.”
Anger is just one letter short of danger.
When a man’s temper gets the best of him, it reveals the worst of him.
Anger begins with folly and ends with regret.
A friend told me that he could not possibly control his temper. He attributed his ungovernable explosions of anger to his parents and grandparents. He said there were some people, like himself, who could not be expected to rule their own spirits. I asked him if he were in a heated argument with his wife and the doorbell rang, would he continue shouting. He saw my point that he really could control his temper when he wanted to. You can rule your spirit, and ruling your spirit is essential to developing self-control.
—John Haggai
If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.
—Chinese proverb
Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War under Lincoln, was well known for a highly inflammable temper. The pressure of war kept his nerves frayed and his tongue sharp. Once, when he complained to Lincoln about a certain general, Lincoln told him to write the man a letter. “Tell him off,” Lincoln advised. Stanton, bolstered by the President’s support, promptly wrote a scathing letter in which he tore the man to shreds. He showed the letter to the President. “Good,” said Lincoln, “first rate. You certainly gave it to him.” As Stanton started to leave, Lincoln asked, “What are you going to do with it now?” “Mail it, of course,” said Stanton. “Nonsense,” snorted the President. “You don’t want to send that letter. Put it in the stove! That’s what I do when I have written a letter while I am angry. You had a good time writing that letter. Now write another.”
The American Society of Safety Engineers made a study of factors that contributed to on-the-job accidents. They discovered that anger was a significant factor common to most job accidents. Employees with accidents had been angry with their wives that morning, angry because the morning paper was thrown in the wrong place, angry because of bills they needed to pay, and so forth.
A fable was told by Ralph Woener about a young lion and a mountain goat. Quite thirsty, the animals arrived at a water hole at the same time. They immediately began to argue about who would drink first. The disagreement became so heated that each decided he would rather die than give up the privilege of being first to quench his thirst. As each stubbornly confronted the other, their anger turned to rage. Just then something distracted them, and they both looked up. Circling overhead was a flock of vultures waiting for the loser to fall. That was all they needed to end their quarrel.
Righteous indignation is often nothing more than self-righteous irritation.
—William Arthur Ward
The greatest remedy for anger is delay.
—Seneca
Keep your temper; nobody else wants it.
A man was caught in traffic and couldn’t go anywhere. The man behind him honked and honked. The first driver got out of his car and went back to the driver behind him. He opened the door and yelled at him in some abusive, disrespectful language for honking. The second driver simply replied, “Your bumper sticker says, ‘Honk if you love Jesus.’ ”
They say you should never put off for tomorrow what can be done today. But some things are best postponed, especially an angry retort.
Anyone can become angry—that is easy, but to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way—that is not easy.
—Aristotle
People who fly into a rage always make a bad landing.
When you give someone else a piece of your mind, you will lose your own peace of mind.
The ancients were right when they said, “Anger is a wind that blows out the light of the mind.”
George W. Martin tells the following true story: “I remember a young fellow who one time in a fit of temper wrote a mean letter to his father. As he and I worked in the same office, I advised him not to send it, because he had written it when he was in an angry mood. However, he sealed it and asked me to mail it for him. Instead, I simply dropped it into my pocket until the next day. The following morning he arrived looking very worried. ‘George,’ said he, ‘I wish that I had never written that letter to the old gentleman. It will break his heart. My, I’d give fifty dollars to get it back!’ Removing it from my pocket and handing it to him, I told him what I had done. The young fellow was so overjoyed he actually wanted to pay me the fifty dollars for not mailing his spiteful letter.”
Thomas Jefferson, a great American statesman, worked out a way to handle his anger. He included it in his “Rules of Living,” which describe how he believed adult men and women should live. He wrote this: When angry, count ten before you speak; If very angry, a hundred.