Quotable Quotes (18 page)

—
M
EXICAN PROVERB

 

Compromise makes a good umbrella, but a poor roof.

—
J
AMES
R
USSELL
L
OWELL

 

A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.

—
T
HOMAS
P
AINE

 

He that always gives way to others will end in having no principles of his own.

—
A
ESOP

 

Middleness is the very enemy of the bold.

—
C
HARLES
K
RAUTHAMMER

 

You've got to stand for somethin' or you're gonna fall for anything.

—
J
OHN
C
OUGAR
M
ELLENCAMP

“You've Got to Stand for Somethin'”

 

Learn to say no. It will be of more use to you than to be able to read Latin.

—
C
HARLES
H
ADDON
S
PURGEON

 

One-half the troubles of this life can be traced to saying yes too quickly and not saying no soon enough.

—
J
OSH
B
ILLINGS

 

It's important that people should know what you stand for. It's equally important that they know what you won't stand for.

—
M
ARY
H
.
W
ALDRIP

 

Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides.

—
M
ARGARET
T
HATCHER

 

The main discomfort in being a middle-of-the-roader is that you get sideswiped by partisans going in both directions.

—
S
YDNEY
J
.
H
ARRIS

 

The most prominent place in hell is reserved for those who are neutral on the great issues of life.

—
R
EV.
B
ILLY
G
RAHAM

 

Never “for the sake of peace and quiet” deny your own experience or convictions.

—
D
AG
H
AMMARSKJOLD

 

When something important is going on, silence is a lie.

—
A
.
M
.
R
OSENTHAL

in
The New York Times

 

Please all and you please none.

—
A
ESOP

 

He who turns the other cheek too far gets it in the neck.

—
H
.
H
ERT

 

You can lean over backward so far that you fall flat on your face.

—
B
EN
H
.
B
AGDIKIAN

 

In the end it will not matter to us whether we fought with flails or reeds. It will matter to us greatly on what side we fought.

—
G
.
K
.
C
HESTERTON

 

A man's judgment is best when he can forget himself and any reputation he may have acquired and can concentrate wholly on making the right decisions.

—
A
DM.
R
AYMOND
A
.
S
PRUANCE

 

O
PPORTUNITIES ARE NEVER LOST 
. . .

 

Opportunities are never lost. The other fellow takes those you miss.

—
A
NONYMOUS

 

Not many sounds in life, and I include all urban and all rural sounds, exceed in interest a knock at the door.

—
C
HARLES
L
AMB

 

The world is before you, and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in.

—
J
AMES
B
ALDWIN

 

Opportunity is often difficult to recognize; we usually expect it to beckon us with beepers and billboards.

—
W
ILLIAM
A
RTHUR
W
ARD

 

If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.

—
M
ILTON
B
ERLE

 

It is often hard to distinguish between the hard knocks in life and those of opportunity.

—
F
REDERICK
P
HILLIPS

 

Life is always walking up to us and saying, “Come on in, the living's fine,” and what do we do? Back off and take its picture.

—
R
USSELL
B
AKER

 

Opportunity is sometimes hard to recognize if you're only looking for a lucky break.

—
M
ONTA
C
RANE

 

Opportunity's favorite disguise is trouble.

—
F
RANK
T
YGER

in Rotary “Scandal Sheet” (Graham, Texas)

 

Opportunities are often things you haven't noticed the first time around.

—
C
ATHERINE
D
ENEUVE

 

Wherever we look upon this earth, the opportunities take shape within the problems.

—
N
ELSON
A
.
R
OCKEFELLER

 

If a window of opportunity appears, don't pull down the shade.

—
T
OM
P
ETERS

The Pursuit of Wow!

 

A problem is a chance for you to do your best.

—
D
UKE
E
LLINGTON

 

Jumping at several small opportunities may get us there more quickly than waiting for one big one to come along.

—
H
UGH
A
LLEN

 

Problems are only opportunities with thorns on them.

—
H
UGH
M
ILLER

Snow on the Wind

 

Opportunity is a bird that never perches.

—
C
LAUDE
M
C
D
ONALD

 

One of the secrets of life is to make stepping stones out of stumbling blocks.

—
J
ACK
P
ENN

 

Today's opportunities erase yesterday's failures.

—
G
ENE
B
ROWN

in
News-Times (
Danbury, Connecticut)

 

I make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes.

—
S
ARA
T
EASDALE

“The Philosopher,” in
Poems That Touch the Heart
, edited by A. L. Alexander

 

O
UT ON A LIMB 
. . .

 

Why not go out on a limb? Isn't that where the fruit is?

—
F
RANK
S
CULLY

 

All growth, including political growth, is the result of risk-taking.

—
J
UDE
W
ANNISKI

 

What isn't tried won't work.

—
C
LAUDE
M
C
D
ONALD

in
The Christian Word

 

What is more mortifying than to feel that you have missed the plum for want of courage to shake the tree?

—
L
OGAN
P
EARSALL
S
MITH

 

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.

—
S
ENECA

 

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?

—
V
INCENT VAN
G
OGH

 

A coward meets his fate in his own hideout.

—
J
ORGE
S
ALVADOR
L
ARA

El Comercio

 

All serious daring starts from within.

—
E
UDORA
W
ELTY

One Writer's Beginnings

 

If you risk nothing, then you risk everything.

—
G
EENA
D
AVIS

 

Worry is like a rocking chair. It will give you something to do, but it won't get you anywhere.

—
The United Church Observer

 

Progress always involves risks. You can't steal second base and keep your foot on first.

—
F
REDERICK
B
.
W
ILCOX

 

Yes, risk-taking is inherently failure-prone. Otherwise, it would be called sure-thing-taking.

—
T
IM
M
C
M
AHON

 

Take a chance! All life is a chance. The man who goes furthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare.

—
Dale Carnegie's Scrapbook
, edited by Dorothy Carnegie

 

People wish to learn to swim and at the same time to keep one foot on the ground.

—
M
ARCEL
P
ROUST

Remembrance of Things Past

 

High expectations are the key to everything.

—
S
AM
W
ALTON

 

If you're never scared or embarrassed or hurt, it means you never take any chances.

—
J
ULIA
S
OREL

 

When you're skating on thin ice, you may as well tap-dance.

—
B
RYCE
C
OURTENAY

 

It's better to plunge into the unknown than to try to make sure of everything.

—
G
ERALD
L
ESCARBEAULT

 

Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.

—
G
EN.
G
EORGE
S
.
P
ATTON
J
R.

 

We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.

—
M
AX
D
E
P
REE

Leadership Is an Art

 

When you reach for the stars, you may not quite get one, but you won't come up with a handful of mud either.

—
L
EO
B
URNETT

 

In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed.

—
R
ALPH
W
ALDO
E
MERSON

 

You are permitted in time of great danger to walk with the devil until you have crossed the bridge.

—
B
ULGARIAN PROVERB

 

If you don't place your foot on the rope, you'll never cross the chasm.

—
L
IZ
S
MITH

 

Necessity is the mother of taking chances.

—
M
ARK
T
WAIN

 

If necessity is the mother of invention, discontent is the father of progress.

—
D
AVID
R
OCKEFELLER

 

Sometimes the fool who rushes in gets the job done.

—
A
L
B
ERNSTEIN

 

A man sits as many risks as he runs.

—
H
ENRY
D
AVID
T
HOREAU

 

A ship in harbor is safe—but that is not what ships are for.

—
J
OHN
A
.
S
HEDD

 

A
ROAD TWICE TRAVELED 
. . .

 

A road twice traveled is never as long.

—
R
OSALIE
G
RAHAM

 

The meaning of life cannot be told; it has to happen to a person.

—
I
RA
P
ROGOFF

The Symbolic & the Real

 

The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.

—
E
DWARD
G
IBBON

 

The person who has had a bull by the tail once has learned 60 or 70 times as much as a person who hasn't.

—
M
ARK
T
WAIN

 

The work will teach you how to do it.

—
E
STONIAN PROVERB

 

Sometimes you earn more doing the jobs that pay nothing.

—
T
ODD
R
UTHMAN

 

When you fall in a river, you're no longer a fisherman; you're a swimmer.