Fave Quotes

Here are some famous and less so quotes I've found valuable to learn, know and keep close in my development as a person and a project management professional. Here's to hoping you find something in the list below that inspires you! 


Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a man does with what happens to him.
~Aldus Huxley

“I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”
~Dwight D. Eisenhower

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
~Edmund Burke, Irish orator, philosopher, & politician (1729 - 1797)

Tell me how you measure me, and I will tell you how I will behave. If my measurements are not clear, no one can predict how I will behave, not even me.
~Dr. Eli Goldratt Ph.D "Theory of Constraints"

How perfect to get me out of this funk! Do everything with patience, deliberation, decisiveness, style and artistry.
~Kill Bill movie, Quentin Tarantino, Miramax Films

“When I think I already know everything I need to know that is probably the time when I probably know the least.”
~Leyton Collins – re: keeping an open mind to new possibilities, awareness and breakthroughs

“All the treasures and trials I’ve experienced to get me to where I am today won’t help me get me to where I need to be tomorrow or to achieve my next milestone.”
~Mark Meninger

Whoso would be a man must be a non-conformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore what is goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Educate, not just teach, educate . . . to attrite (wear down) extremism. The alternative is to perpetuate conflict.
Lt. Gen. Romeo D'Allaire, Canadian Forces (Retired), Quest for Optimism

Nothing happens in isolation . . .
Simone de Beauvoir, "The Blood of Others", ISBN-10: 0394724119

No man (one) is an island.
Thoreau "On Walden Pond"

Goodness is not found in the act itself but in the context in which the act was performed.
~ Unknown

One man's trash is another man's treasure.
~Unknown

Out of the mouths of babes comes wisdom.
~Unknown

Progress and growth are impossible if you always do things the way you've always done things.
~Unknown

There are three sides to every story. Yours, theirs, and the truth which lays somewhere in the middle.
~Unknown

You're only as good as your worst decision. Recent ones; not from ever.
~Unknown

There's no such thing as a well adjusted slave. So, if you consider yourself well adjusted don't allow yourself to be treated as a slave.
~Dr. Wayne Dyer Ph.D.

“Failing to plan is planning to fail.”
~Winston Churchill, WWII.

I think that if you ride out there with your head up and your eyes open that one day you'll find that you're the hero you've been looking for.
~Wylde Burp character, An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991), Amblin Entertainment

“You can't put lipstick on a pig. It's a waste of time and besides it annoys the pig.” -- I use it in reference to attempts to move a waterfall culture to Agile when thye don't want to make that move.

2 from Bryan Stevenson -- TED2013 talk:
"Keep your eyes on the prize and hold on." -- talking about being resilient.
"As rational people we must eventually believe in things we have never seen." (like clean air)