Category Archives: Be Your Best

Thoughts

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What we think about when we are free to think about what we will – that is what we are or will soon become.
— A.W. Tozer

Direct your thoughts to those truths that give confidence, hope, joy, love, thanksgiving; turn away from fear, sadness, depression.
— Bertrand Wilberforce

Whatever failures I have known, whatever errors I have committed, whatever follies I have witnessed in public and private life, have been the consequences of action without thought.
— Bernard Baruch

Before he acts, he will pause to weigh the effects of his act in the scales of God.
— Abraham Heschel

A man would do well to carry a pencil in his pocket and write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought are commonly the most valuable and should be secured, because they seldom return.
— Sir Francis Bacon

Order Is Wealth

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I admire well-organized people who finish their work on time.
— David Ogilvy

There’s joy in getting your desk clean and knowing that all your letters are answered – and you can see the wood on it again.
— Lady Bird Johnson

Order marches with weighty and measured strides, disorder is always in a hurry.
— Napoléon Bonaparte

A place for everything, and everything in its place. Order is wealth.
— Samuel Smiles

Straightening a closet, or even just a closet shelf, has been known to help more than a few people work through some of life’s bigger messes.
— Paula Jhung

Solving Problems

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After investigating a problem in all directions, ideas come unexpectedly, without effort, like an inspiration.
— H. L. von Helmholtz

Consider each problem separately. You’re less likely to become rattled.
— Mary Mills

The books and articles on leadership are full of advice on how to make fast, forceful and incisive decisions. But there is no more foolish – and no more wasting – advice than to decide quickly what a problem is.
— Peter Drucker

Don’t duck the most difficult problems. That just insures that the hardest part will be left when you’re most tired. Get the big one done – it’s downhill from then on.
— Norman Vincent Peale

Suppose two people want an orange and only one is available. Once the conflict is established, a compromise seems the only alternative. Each person could have half an orange. But if the problem is probed to discover why each wants the orange, it may be that one wants the juice and the other wants the skin. In this situation, each can achieve his full goal.
— Norman Maier

The Treasure in Books

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Employ your times in improving yourself by other men’s writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for.
— Socrates

We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.
— Ursula Le Guin

A house without books is like a room without windows.
— Horace Mann

Poetry, biographies and all the other great books will greatly enrich your life.
— John Wooden

Make books your companions; let your bookshelves be your gardens: bask in their beauty, gather their fruit, pluck their roses, take their spices and myrrh. And when your soul be weary, change from garden to garden, and from prospect to prospect.
— Ibn Tibbon

The Power of Knowledge

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Those who are successful are those who have known more than the average person considers necessary.
— F.D. Van Ambergh

Try to do what you already know; and in doing so, you will in good time discover the hidden things you now inquire about.
— Rembrandt

Knowledge is like money; to be of value it must circulate, and in circulating it can increase in quantity and, hopefully, in value.
— Louis L’Amour

The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge; the ears of the wise seek it out.
— Proverbs 18:15

Never seem more learned than the people you are with. Wear your learning like a pocket watch and keep it hidden. Do not pull it out to count the hours, but give the time when you are asked.
— Lord Chesterfield

The Downside of Fame

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It’s not that I’m not grateful for all this attention. It’s just that fame and fortune ought to add up to more than fame and fortune.
— Robert Fulgham

If I’m such a legend, why am I so lonely?
— Judy Garland

No matter how hard I try, I’m never going to be the perfect person. The one time I tell somebody that I’m tired and that I don’t want to sign another autograph, that person gets a whole different feeling about Michael Jordan. So my job really never ends.
— Michael Jordan

Fame is a pearl many dive for and only few bring up. Even when they do, it is not perfect and they sigh for more, and lose better things in struggling for them.
— Louisa May Alcott

I love playing tennis and I love winning titles. But I realized I wouldn’t be any happier in my life in general if I won or lost. Sure, in the tennis part of my life I’d be much happier. But winning, money, riches or fame doesn’t make you happy. For my tennis career, this is great. But as far as being Venus, it doesn’t really make a huge difference.
— Venus Williams

Talent

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When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.
— John Ruskin

People do not lack strength; they lack will.
— Victor Hugo

Talent minus hard work equals zero success.
— Earl Woods

People with real talent pay no attention to people who question their dreams. When they fail, they pick themselves up and start chasing the dream again. They understand that they will be happy chasing their dreams even if they don’t achieve them, because a person who is chasing a dream is a person who is excited, vital and alive.
— Dr. Bob Rotella