Famous Quotes at Understand Famous Quotes dot com

Everything has been figured out, except how to live.
~~ Jean-Paul Sartre ~~

That’s a great dig at humans. We definitely think we have figured out everything yet we never seem to know how to live!

Some people fold after making one timid request. They quit too soon. Keep asking until you find the answers. In sales there are usually four or five “no’s” before you get a “yes.”
~~ Jack Canfield ~~

I can relate to that; I myself have done that many a times. I would say not just some people but lots of people give up after just one or two half-hearted attempts. But the key to succeed at anything is to be persistent and, if necessary, to refine or modify your approach and go at it again.

If we study the lives of successful people, we find that most if not all of them, initially failed at least once and some of them failed several times, before becoming a success. And one common factor they all share is that they had a goal or a vision they believed in and they persistently kept going at it in spite of the initial setbacks.

It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.
~~ Mahatma Gandhi ~~

Action is, of course, very important to produce any result. And it’s a great ideal to do the right thing and not to worry about the fruits but, unfortunately, most of us want just the fruits and don’t care much about right or wrong action except perhaps pay a lip service once in a while.

I told the doctor I broke my leg in two places. He told me to quit going to those places.
~~ Henry Youngman ~~ (1906 - 1998)

Good advice, don’t you think? *lol

Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.
~~ Henry Ford ~~ (1863 - 1947)

That’s exactly right and Henry Ford knew what he was talking about as he himself had a few failures before making it big. As a matter of fact most succesful business people fail in at least a few ventures before they succeed. The key here is to learn from the failures, not give up, start again and apply the lessons learned.

Young men think old men are fools; But old men know young men are fools.
~~ George Chapman ~~ (1559 – 1634)

Funny but not true. It’s too much of a generalization. Not all young men think that old men are fools or the vice versa though some do. Or may be it’s a fools world to begin with! *LOL

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
~~ Helen Keller ~~ (1880-1968)

Helen Keller has said it very well and it’s so true. We are never 100% secure at any place at any time. Life just doesn’t lend itself to 100% security. People get injured or even die while eating, walking or driving. While one should take reasonable precautions for ones security, getting paranoid about it is not the way to live. Always shouting that the sky is falling doesn’t enhance our security; it just diminishes the quality of life.

The hard fact of life is that every living creature, not just humans, has to die someday. Nothing can escape that reality; when you gatta go you gotta go. So why not live and explore while we are alive?

Our security, physical and financial, is in the hands of people who cannot be trusted to paddle a canoe across a swimming pool.
~~ Sir Max Hastings ~~

Sir Max Hastings was commenting on the news that two computer disks with private data on 25 million British citizens were lost while being mailed internally between two government departments. The disks contained such private data as names, addresses and bank account details of individuals. One can easily understand the frustration expressed by Sir Max Hastings.

While this happened in Britain, things aren’t much different in our own countries. What can we do? Not much I am afraid. While we should insist that governments make every effort to establish procedures to minimize such slip ups but they are not going to be able to completely eliminate such happenings. I think Sir Max Hastings went a bit overboard to make his point.

I don’t take the movies seriously, and anyone who does is in for a headache.
~~ Bette Davis ~~ (1908 - 1989)

Quite funny and right on. For the most part, movies are for entertainment purposes only and one shouldn’t take them seriously.

If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.
~~ Bertrand Russell ~~ (1872 - 1970)

That is the basic human nature; we tend to believe what our instincts tell us even though our instincts may prove to be wrong. But I am not too sure how that explains the origin of myths.

I don’t think about risks much. I just do what I want to do. If you gotta go, you gotta go.
~~ Lillian Carter ~~ (1898-1983)

Exactly. Everybody gotta go. The only unknown is: When, Where and How? So might as well do what you wanna do.

I’ve had worse press than a pedophile or a murderer and I’ve done nothing but charity for the last 20 years.
~~ Heather Mills McCartney ~~

I can understand her frustration. Many of the press try to intrude too much into other peoples private lives. And sometimes these intrusions result in deadly consequences like it happened to Diana, The Princess of Wales. Just because somebody can make money by selling pictures or gossips about other peoples private lives is not good enough a reason. It’s all done in the name of freedom of the press but it is really an abuse of the press by the press. Something needs to be done to stop this abuse.

The press frenzy has reached such a level that just recently Paul McCartney put this on his website, “in reading the media reports that are coming out, I would urge people not to believe them. Almost everything I’m reading is 100 per cent untrue. I urge people not to read this stuff and support Heather and myself at this difficult time”.

To profit from good advice requires more wisdom than to give it.
~~ John Churton Collins ~~

That’s why lots of people who buy books and ebooks advising them how to make money don’t necessarily end up making money. Many of the authors of such books make money only from the sales of the books. That is, they make money just by giving the advice because to profit from that advice will require more wisdom than to give it. Even though most of these books and ebooks do give good advice and tips but that alone is not enough to make any money. You need the wisdom and smarts to motivate yourself to get anything accomplished.

Hell is other people.
~~ Jean-Paul Sartre ~~

This is a classic. Short and sweet. Funny yet true to the bone! The only problem is that the ‘other people’ think of us as the ‘other people’. If you really think about it, lots of problems occur because of the inability of people to get along with one another. And we all know about school-yard bullies and work-place bullies.

Well, if you were wondering where the hell might be, now you know. And since we are destined to deal with other people so we have to deal with hell whether we like it or not.

To put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right.
~~ Confucius ~~ (551 BC - 479 BC)

So basically we have to start with ourselves first and then work upwards. Just like the song says ‘If you wanna change the World, take a look at the mirror and make the change’. But nobody seems to be interested in setting ourselves right first. We all want to set others right first!

For me, the principal fact of life is the free mind. For good and evil, man is a free creative spirit. This produces the very queer world we live in, a world in continuous creation and therefore continuous change and insecurity. A perpetually new and lively world, but a dangerous one, full of tragedy and injustice. A world in everlasting conflict between the new idea and the old allegiances, new arts and new inventions against the old establishment.
~~ Joyce Cary ~~

This explains very precisely why there always have been conflicts in the world and why there always will be conflicts. But that doesn’t mean we should not try to eliminate or at least minimize these conflicts and human suffering that these conflicts invariably cause.

I went into the business for the money, and the art grew out of it. If people are disillusioned by that remark, I can’t help it. It’s the truth.
~~ Charlie Chaplin ~~ (April 16, 1889 - December 25, 1977)

With this quote, Charlie Chaplin has hit the nail on its head. I think most people go into the business for the money; they are just too timid to admit that and come up with lame excuses.

Some men see things as they are and say, “Why?” I dream of things that never were and say, “Why not?”
~~ George Bernard Shaw ~~

Very interesting thought. I never thought of it. I think most of us are concerned with the ‘why’ of things and never bother to dream up new things and make them happen.

The average golfer’s handicap is his IQ. Girls, believe me, if your hubby keeps golfing, he will soon have the brain frequency of a lower primate.
~~ Kathy Lette ~~

Exactly my sentiment. I have played golf a few times. I fail to understand the fun or logic of this game. All you do is hit a little ball with a stick and then watch how far it goes. And that’s supposed to be fun! And since there is little brain work involved, your IQ is bound to fall *lol. Even more astonishing that some people go to ‘watch’ this game! Humans definitely have sheep mentality; they just follow the herd. At the moment, Golf is the ‘in’ thing, so everybody must get involved. I think it’s just a fad; it’ll go away.

My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.
~~ Hank Aaron ~~

This quote is a good lesson. Even though Hank was referring to his baseball game, the same can be applied to life in general. You got to keep swinging during all the ups and downs of life and doing your best to score as many runs as you possibly can.

Exercise is bunk. If you are healthy, you don’t need it: if you are sick you should not take it.
~~ Henry Ford ~~

This quote is totally invalid. It may have been OK in his times when people used to walk (and walking is an exercise). But now-a-days when people walk very little, if at all, and eat highly processed food, regular exercise is a must if one wants to maintain one’s health. As a matter of fact, in many cases, the exercise is proven to be beneficial even when you are sick. Obviously, when one is sick, one should go according to the doctor’s advice.

I do not think necessity is the mother of invention - invention, in my opinion, arise directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness. To save oneself trouble.
~~ Agatha Christie ~~

That is funny and also explains why lazy people can always come up with an excellent excuse for not doing anything. But necessity indeed is the mother of inventions even if that necessity may be ‘to save oneself trouble!’

I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.
~~ Dwight D. Eisenhower ~~

Alas that day has not come yet nor it seems to be coming any time soon. But there is no question that peace on this planet will come only if people seize the initiative from their governments. If people keep looking to their governments to bring in peace, then it is not likely going to happen.

People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing - that’s why we recommend it daily.
~~ Zig Ziglar ~~

Definitely to accomplish anything, we need to keep ourselves motivated daily. The comparison with bathing is a good one. Just as good hygiene is necessary to keep ourselves healthy, so is motivation to achieve our goals.

I shall be an autocrat, that’s my trade; and that good Lord will forgive me, that’s his.
~~ Catherine the Great ~~

Haha, that’s a smart one! Exactly what one would expect from an autocrat. It is also interesting to note how over the centuries people have been invoking God to justify their actions.

The line between failure and success is so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it; so fine that we are often on the line and do not know it.
~~ Elbert Hubbard ~~

This is so true. If we take a look at the lives of people who we consider as success, we’ll find that many of them failed miserably in one or sometimes many enterprises before they actually succeeded. That shows that the line between success and failure is so fine even successful people could could not see it.

I’ve never been poor, only broke. Being poor is a frame of mind. Being broke is only a temporary situation.
~~ Mike Todd ~~

This quote is only true to an extent. I can say I have never been poor, only ran out of cash temporarily! It all depends on how long that ‘temporary situation’ lasts. It may sometimes turn out to be quite long and will definitely affect the frame of your mind.

Surely, if one does go broke, one should keep a positive frame of mind and make every effort to get out of that situation as quickly as possible.

You have to believe in yourself, that’s the secret. Even when I was in the orphanage, when I was roaming the street trying to find enough to eat, even then I thought of myself as the greatest actor in the world.
~~ Charlie Chaplin ~~

That, of course, is the secret. You have to believe in yourself otherwise nothing happens.

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
~~ Mark Twain ~~

Very true and for a good reason: Really great people are secure and self-assured. They don’t see anybody else as a threat or competition to their greatness. The same could not be said of the small people.

Success is knowing the difference between cornering people and getting them in your corner.
~~ William Taylor (Bill) Copeland ~~

This is so very true and the keyword here is ‘knowing’. If you can master that and bring people in your corner then success is guaranteed.

If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.
~~ Albert Einstein ~~

While I agree that one should have goals (not just a goal), in my view this quote is more theoretical than practical. People and things affect our lives all the time. Any goal you set is almost always tied to some ‘thing’. Attaining goals adds to the overall satisfaction of life but does not necessarily make for a happy life as happiness really is a state of mind which changes from moment to moment; nobody is perpetually happy or perpetually unhappy.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
~~ Confucius ~~

This is a quote that almost everybody has heard of. I remember hearing it way back in school. It is one of those quotes that doesn’t fade with time; it was true in the past, it is true now and it’ll be true in future.

On the surface it seems simple but if you really think about it, one can’t start any journey without taking that first single step. Whether one is headed to the corner store or to the Moon, one must start with that first single step.

I think the author also implies that no matter how far away the destination, one must start with a single step and then keep taking steps in that direction to reach the destination. I intentionally chose this famous quote as my first post as it represents the first step.