Management works within the paradigm. Leadership creates new paradigms. Management works within the system. Leadership works on the system. You manage ‘things’ but you lead people.
Stephen R. Covey (1932-2012) American consultant, author
First Things First, ch. 1 (1994) [with Merrill & Merrill]
(Source)
The only advice I ever give actors is to learn to speak clearly, to project your voice without shouting — and to move about the stage gracefully, without bumping into people.
Noël Coward (1899-1973) English playwright, actor, wit
Quoted in Leonard Lyons, “The Lyons Den” syndicated column (16 Aug 1954)
Variants attributed to Coward:Alternately, another Lyons Den column (24 Jan 1955) quoted Lynn Fontanne, in talking about her acting style with her husband Alfred Lunt:
- "You ask my advice about acting? Speak clearly, don't bump into the furniture and if you must have motivation, think of your pay packet on Friday."
- "Just say the lines and don't trip over the furniture." [Dick Richards, The Wit of Noël Coward (1968)]
We read the lines so that people can hear and understand them; we move about the stage without bumping into the furniture or each other; and, well that’s it.
Coward and Fontanne were good friends, and may well have discussed the concepts here previously, or shared the idea one to the other.
The quote is also attributed to Lunt, and to Spencer Tracy.
More discussion about this quotation:
Extraordinary how potent cheap music is.
Noël Coward (1899-1973) English playwright, actor, wit
Private Lives, Act I (Amanda) (1930)
Freedom has a thousand charms to show that slaves, howe’er contented, cannot know.
William Cowper (1731-1800) English poet
(Attributed)
Habit with him was all the test of truth,
“It must be right: I’ve done it from my youth.”George Crabbe (1754-1832) English poet, writer, surgeon, clergyman
The Borough, Letter 3 “The Vicar,” l. 138 (1810)
Exactness is the sublimity of fools.
[L’exactitude est le sublime des sots.]
William Cowper (1731-1800) English poet
The Task, Book 3, l. 187 (1785)
You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you don’t trust enough.
Frank Crane (1861-1929) American clergyman, journalist
(Attributed)
Love is a fire. But whether it is going to warm your hearth or burn down your house, you can never tell.
Joan Crawford (1908-1977) American actress
(Attributed)
“Think as I think,” said a man,
“Or you are abominably wicked;
You are a toad.”
And after I had thought of it,
I said, “I will, then, be a toad.”Stephen Crane (1871-1900) American writer, poet
“‘Think as I Think,’ Said a Man” (1899)
If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside.
Robert X. Cringely (contemp.) American technology columnist [pseud. for Mark Stephens and others]
“Notes from the Field,” InfoWorld (6 Mar 1989)
HAMMOND: When they opened Disneyland in 1956 nothing worked.
MALCOLM: Yeah, but, John, if the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ breaks down, the pirates don’t eat the tourists.Michael Crichton (1942-2008) American author, producer, director, and screenwriter
Jurassic Park (movie) (1993)
The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at and repair.
Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English writer
Mostly Harmless (1992)
What I love the most about deadlines is the whooshing sound they make as they go by.
Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English writer
The Salmon of Doubt (2002)
We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them.
Abigail Adams (1744-1818) American correspondent, First Lady (1797-1801)
Letter to John Adams (1774)
Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.
John Dalberg, Lord Acton (1834-1902) British historian
Letter (23 Jan 1861)
The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities.
John Dalberg, Lord Acton (1834-1902) British historian
“The History of Freedom in Antiquity,” Speech, Bridgenorth Institute (28 Feb 1877)
There are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities. They will not bear discussion.
John Dalberg, Lord Acton (1834-1902) British historian
Letter (23 Jan 1861)
VENKMAN: Back off, man. I’m a scientist.
Dan Aykroyd (b. 1952) Canadian comedian
Ghostbusters (with Harold Ramis) (1984)
EGON: There’s something very important I forgot to tell you.
VENKMAN: What?
EGON: Don’t cross the streams.
VENKMAN: Why?
EGON: It would be bad.
VENKMAN: I’m fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing. What do you mean “bad”?
EGON: Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.
RAY: Total protonic reversal.
VENKMAN: That’s bad. Okay. All right, important safety tip. Thanks, Egon.Dan Aykroyd (b. 1952) Canadian comedian
Ghostbusters (with Harold Ramis) (1984)
RAY: Everything was fine with our system until the power grid was shut off by dickless here.
PECK: They caused an explosion!
MAYOR: Is this true?
VENKMAN: Yes, it’s true. This man has no dick.Dan Aykroyd (b. 1952) Canadian comedian
Ghostbusters (with Harold Ramis) (1984)
RAY: I think we better split up.
EGON: Good idea.
VENKMAN: Yeah. We can do more damage that way.Dan Aykroyd (b. 1952) Canadian comedian
Ghostbusters (1984) [with Harold Ramis]
RAY: Symmetrical book stacking. Just like the Philadelphia Mass Turbulence of 1947.
VENKMAN: You’re right. No human being would stack books like this.Dan Aykroyd (b. 1952) Canadian comedian
Ghostbusters (with Harold Ramis) (1984)
ELWOOD: It’s 106 miles to Chicago, we’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark and we’re wearing sunglasses.
JAKE: Hit it!Dan Aykroyd (b. 1952) Canadian comedian
The Blues Brothers (with John Landis) (1980)
I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.
Diane Ackerman (b. 1948) American poet, author, naturalist
Newsweek (1986-09-22)
Ackerman was 37 at the time, and had already been a teacher, a cow-hand, and a pilot, as well as having two volumes of her poetry.
The test for whether or not you can hold a job should not be the arrangement of your chromosomes.
Bella Abzug (1920-1998) American politician
Bella! (1972)
The establishment is made up of little men, very frightened.
Bella Abzug (1920-1998) American politician
(Attributed)
Our struggle today is not to have a female Einstein get appointed as an assistant professor. It is for a woman schlemiel to get as quickly promoted as a male schlemiel.
Bella Abzug (1920-1998) American politician
(Attributed)
While I have an almost insatiable craving for knowledge, I believe death to be the final and perhaps greatest teacher — the one that provides the key to the ultimate questions life has never answered. In my darkest hours I have been consoled by the thought that death at least is a payment for the answer of life’s haunting secrets.
Morris B. Abram (1918-2000) American diplomat, civil rights lawyer
The Wall Street Journal
A painting on a canvas of infinite size, worked on eternally, would be without focus, meaning and probably without beauty. A painting, as life, needs limits.
Morris B. Abram (1918-2000) American diplomat, civil rights lawyer
The Wall Street Journal
As a confirmed melancholic, I can testify that the best and maybe only antidote for melancholia is action. However, like most melancholics, I suffer also from sloth.
Edward Abbey (1927-1989) American anarchist, writer, environmentalist
A Voice Crying in the Wilderness, ch. 4, “Life and Death and All That” (1989)
(Source)
When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist, a woman in the audience stood up and said, ‘Yes, but is it the God of the Catholics or the God of the Protestants in whom you don’t believe?’
Quentin Crisp (1908-1999) English writer and raconteur [b. Denis Pratt]
Interview with the author, in Jon Winokur, The Portable Curmudgeon (1992)
Life was a funny thing that happened to me on the way to the grave.
Quentin Crisp (1908-1999) English writer and raconteur [b. Denis Pratt]
The Naked Civil Servant, ch. 18 (1968)
A gentleman doesn’t pounce … he glides.
Quentin Crisp (1908-1999) English writer and raconteur [b. Denis Pratt]
Manners from Heaven, ch. 6 (1984)
I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.
Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) English soldier and statesman
Letter to the General Assembly of the Scottish Kirk (3 Aug. 1650)
Put your trust in God, but mind to keep your powder dry.
Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) English soldier and statesman
(Attributed)
Hayes, Ballads of Ireland, vol. 1; blacker, "oliver's advice" 1834; anecdotal advice at various battles
Necessity hath no law. Feigned necessities, imaginary necessities, are the greatest cozenage men can put upon the Providence of God, and make pretences to break known rules by.
Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) English soldier and statesman
Speech to Parliament (12 Sep. 1654)
Do not trust to the cheering, for those persons would shout as much if you and I were going to be hanged.
Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) English soldier and statesman
(Attributed)
Leadership is generally defined as the capacity to make things happen that would otherwise not happen.
Thomas E. Cronin (b. 1940) American political scientist
The State of the Presidency, 2d Ed., ch. 11 (1980)
What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.
Crowfoot (1821-1890) Blackfoot warrior, statesman [Crow Big Foot]
(1890)
last words; http://www.telusplanet.net/public/mtoll/crow.htm
The most wasted of all days is the one without laughter.
e e cummings (1894-1962) American poet and painter [Edward Estlin Cummings]
(Attributed)
See also Chamfort.
It is better to wear out than to rust out.
Richard Cumberland (1632-1718) English philosopher and cleric (Bishop of Peterborough)
(Attributed)
(Source)
Quoted in G. Horne, "Sermon on the Duty of Contending for the Truth" (1786).
A friend is one who knows us, but loves us anyway.
Jerome Cummings (d. 1997) American Catholic priest
(Attributed)
Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer.
Ed Cunningham (contemp.)
(Attributed)
Fifteen hundred years ago, everybody “knew” that the earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody “knew” that the earth was flat. And 15 minutes ago, you “knew” that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you’ll “know” tomorrow.
Lowell Cunningham (b. 1959) American writer
Men in Black (1997)
(screenplay with Ed Sullivan)
It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt.
John Philpot Curran (1750-1817) Irish lawyer and politician
Speech before Privy Council, Dublin (10 Jul 1790)
On the right of election of the Lord Mayor of Dublin. Commonly paraphrased: "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."
Assassinate me you may; intimidate me you cannot.
John Philpot Curran (1750-1817) Irish lawyer and politician
Defense of Rebels (1798)
There are two kinds of people who never amount to much: those who cannot do what they are told, and those who can do nothing else.
Cyrus Curtis (1850-1933) American publisher
(Attributed)
BLACKADDER: I, on the other hand, have a degree from the University of Life, a diploma from the School of Hard Knocks, and three gold stars from the Kindergarten of Getting the Shit Kicked Out of Me.
Richard Curtis (b. 1956) English screenwriter
Blackadder Goes Forth, “Captain Cook” (1984)
(with Ben Elton)
EBENEZER BLACKADDER: HA! Got him with my subtle plan!
BALDRICK: I can’t see any subtle plan!
EBENEZER BLACKADDER: Baldrick, you wouldn’t see a subtle plan if it painted itself purple and danced naked on top of a harpsichord, singing “Subtle plans are here again!”Richard Curtis (b. 1956) English screenwriter
Blackadder’s Christmas Carol (1988)
(with Ben Elton)
ANNA: Happiness wouldn’t be happiness without a violin-playing goat.
Richard Curtis (b. 1956) English screenwriter
Notting Hill (1999)
This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.
The Dalai Lama (b. 1935) Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader [The 14th Dalai Lama; a/k/a Lhama Thondup / Lhama Dhondrub; b. Tenzin Gyatso]
(Attributed)
If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.
The Dalai Lama (b. 1935) Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader [The 14th Dalai Lama; a/k/a Lhama Thondup / Lhama Dhondrub; b. Tenzin Gyatso]
“Educating Heart Summit,” Portland, OR, asked by a girl about school shootings (15 May 2001)
SeattleTimes
I have observed that religious practice is not a precondition either of ethical conduct or of happiness itself. I have also suggested that, whether a person practices religion or not, the spiritual qualities of love and compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, humility and so on are indispensable.
The Dalai Lama (b. 1935) Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader [The 14th Dalai Lama; a/k/a Lhama Thondup / Lhama Dhondrub; b. Tenzin Gyatso]
Ancient Wisdom, Modern World (2001)
We live very close together. So our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.
The Dalai Lama (b. 1935) Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader [The 14th Dalai Lama; a/k/a Lhama Thondup / Lhama Dhondrub; b. Tenzin Gyatso]
(Attributed)
Do not condemn the judgment of another because it differs from your own. You may both be wrong.
Dandamis (fl. 4th C BC) Indian philosopher [Dandi-Svami, Mandanes]
(Attributed)
