Motivational Quotes

The best you can do is the right thing.

The second best you can do is the wrong thing.

The worst you can do is nothing.

       Theodore Roosevelt

Teddy was a serious mofo. Giving an entire speech with a .32 cal. bullet in his chest. Good times.

An appropriate snippet from his bio at Wikipedia: “To combat his poor physical condition, his father compelled young Roosevelt to take up exercise at Wood’s Gym and with equipment at his home. A couple of his peers beat him during this time and as a result Roosevelt started boxing lessons.” Niiiiiice.

One more great quote from the man:
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” Sounds like a template for a Dan John program!!

Sweet.

He was one of the original T-Men

Big fan of Teddy Roosevelt. Have one of his most famous quotes up in my cube:

“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly… who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls that know neither victory nor defeat”
Paris, April 23, 1910

My other favorite quote in my cube is from Churchill:

“Never give in–never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”
October 29, 1941, Harrow School

“If you are going to win any battle, you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do… the body is never tired if the mind is not tired.”
-General George S. Patton

Consult not your fears, but your hopes and dreams.

Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfullfilled potential.

Concern yourself not with what you have tried and failed in, but with what is still possible for your to do.

Pope John XXIII

“It’s not whether you win or lose…it’s whether you win.”
Donald Trump

Here goes…

“There is no security on this earth, there is only opportunity.” – General Douglas McArthur

“Decide promptly, but never give your reasons. Your decisions may be right, but your reasons are sure to be wrong”. – Lord Mansfield

“If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect.” – Benjamin Franklin

“The trick is growing up without growing old.” – Casey Stengel
“Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves”. – Abraham Lincoln
“It is all right letting yourself go, as long as you can get yourself back.” – Mick Jagger

“Never take the advice of someone who has not had your kind of trouble” – Sidney J. Harris

“Idealism is what precedes experience; cynicism is what follows.” – David T. Wolf
“Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it.”-- Andre Gide
“The future, according to some scientists, will be exactly like the past, only far more expensive.” – John Sladek
“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” – Henry David Thoreau
“A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.” – Gen. George S. Patton
“By perseverance, study, and eternal desire, any man can become great.” – Gen. George S. Patton
“In case of doubt, attack” – Gen. George S. Patton
“You get paid for the results not the efforts” – Richard ‘Dick’ Marcinko
“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” – Theodore Roosevelt

“The weak are more likely to make the strong weak than the strong are likely to make the weak strong.” - Marlene Dietrich

“Much is said by those who know little.” – Unknown
“A bore is a person who opens his mouth and puts his feats in it.” – Henry Ford
“Honesty pays, but it doesn’t seem to pay enough to suit some people.” – F. M. Hubbard
“To find fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.” – Plutarch
“Reason is the slow and torturous method by which those who do not know the truth discover it.” – Blaise Pascal
“The only time people dislike gossip is when you gossip about them.” – Will Rogers
“If you keep your mind sufficiently open, people will throw a lot of rubbish into it”. – William Ornton

“To be successful you have to be selfish, or else you never achieve. And once you get to your highest level, then you have to be unselfish. Stay reachable. Stay in touch. Don’t isolate.”–Michael Jordan

“The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.” – Robert Frost

“The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase; if you pursue happiness you’ll never find it.” –
C. P. Snow

“Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.” – Theodore Roosevelt

“The true test of civilizations is not the census, nor the size of cities, nor the crops. It is the kind of man that the country turns out.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.” – Winston Churchill

“If you don’t have enemies, you don’t have character.” – Paul Newman
“If you’re serious about improving your play, be brutally honest with yourself.” – Greg Norman
“We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.” – Lee Iacocca
“But life is a great school. It thrashes and bangs and teaches you.” – Nikita Khrushchev
“It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated.” – Alec Bourne
“Saying what we think gives us a wider conversational range than saying what we know.” – Cullen Hightower
“It is all right to hold a conversation but you should let go of it now and then.” – Richard Armour
“Adversity makes a man wise, not rich.” – Rumanian proverb
“History repeats itself. That’s one of the things wrong with history”. --Clarence Darrow
“Take what you can use and let the rest go by.” – Ken Kesey

“Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood…Make big plans, aim high in hope and work.” – Daniel H. Burnham
“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States

“Learning to curb your desires unless and until they are appropriate is not repression, it’s responsibility.” (Found in an internet forum.)

“Life is just a mirror, and what you see out there, you must first see inside of you.” – Wally “Famous” Amos
“A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.” --Herm Albright
“Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.” --Vernon Sanders Law
“Turbulence is life force. It is opportunity. Let’s love turbulence and use it for change.” – Ramsay Clark
“I’m extraordinarily patient provided I get my own way in the end.” – Margaret Thatcher
“What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.” – Abraham Lincoln
“You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” – Zig Ziglar

“First ask yourself: What is the worst that can happen? Then prepare to accept it. Then proceed to improve on the worst.” – Dale Carnegie

"Act as if it is impossible to fail.:

“Sometimes it takes failure to reach our greatest potential.”

“Act like you got a pair” -Full Metal Jacket

Is it not “Sound off like you gotta pair”?

run like a scared rabbit.
-Barry Sander’s father

WHAT I HAD LEARNED;

  1. No good deed goes unpunished…

  2. Remember, what you are saying is probably more interesting to you than anyone else…

  3. The difference between ignorance and stupidity, is stupidity knows no bounds…

  4. A tatoo is permanant proof of temporary insanity…

  5. You can’t learn anything with your mouth open… and…

  6. A closed mouth gathers no fist…

[quote]ConorM wrote:
Is it not “Sound off like you gotta pair”?[/quote]

Maybe, but he meant “act like”.

I’m paraphasing, “It’s not the duty of a soldier to die for his country, it’s to make the other son of a bitch die for his.” Gen. George Patton

“i think if you’re happy all the time you’re not trying hard enough.”-henry rollins

On a slightly more somber note, Teddy’s last words: “Please put out the light.”

The more we sweat in peace, the less we bleed in war.

A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.
Yogi Berra

All pitchers are liars or crybabies.
Yogi Berra

Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t come to yours.
Yogi Berra

Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical.
Yogi Berra

Bill Dickey is learning me his experience.
Yogi Berra

Congratulations. I knew the record would stand until it was broken.
Yogi Berra

Even Napoleon had his Watergate.
Yogi Berra

Half the lies they tell about me aren’t true.
Yogi Berra

He hits from both sides of the plate. He’s amphibious.
Yogi Berra

How can you think and hit at the same time?
Yogi Berra

I always thought that record would stand until it was broken.
Yogi Berra

I just want to thank everyone who made this day necessary.
Yogi Berra

I never blame myself when I’m not hitting. I just blame the bat and if it keeps up, I change bats. After all, if I know it isn’t my fault that I’m not hitting, how can I get mad at myself?
Yogi Berra

I never said most of the things I said.
Yogi Berra

I think Little League is wonderful. It keeps the kids out of the house.
Yogi Berra

I wish everybody had the drive he had. He never did anything wrong on the field. I’d never seen him dive for a ball, everything was a chest-high catch, and he never walked off the field.
Yogi Berra

I wish I had an answer to that because I’m tired of answering that question.
Yogi Berra

I’m a lucky guy and I’m happy to be with the Yankees. And I want to thank everyone for making this night necessary.
Yogi Berra

I’m not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did.
Yogi Berra

If people don’t want to come out to the ball park, nobody’s gonna stop 'em.
Yogi Berra

If you ask me anything I don’t know, I’m not going to answer.
Yogi Berra

If you come to a fork in the road, take it.
Yogi Berra

In baseball, you don’t know nothing.
Yogi Berra

In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.
Yogi Berra

It ain’t over till it’s over.
Yogi Berra

It ain’t the heat, it’s the humility.
Yogi Berra

It gets late early out there.
Yogi Berra

It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much.
Yogi Berra

It’s like deja-vu, all over again.
Yogi Berra

Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets.
Yogi Berra

Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.
Yogi Berra

Slump? I ain’t in no slump… I just ain’t hitting.
Yogi Berra

So I’m ugly. So what? I never saw anyone hit with his face.
Yogi Berra

Take it with a grin of salt.
Yogi Berra

The future ain’t what it used to be.
Yogi Berra

The only color I don’t have is navy brown.
Yogi Berra

The other teams could make trouble for us if they win.
Yogi Berra

The towels were so thick there I could hardly close my suitcase.
Yogi Berra

There are some people who, if they don’t already know, you can’t tell 'em.
Yogi Berra

We have deep depth.
Yogi Berra

We made too many wrong mistakes.
Yogi Berra

When you arrive at a fork in the road, take it.
Yogi Berra

You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six.
Yogi Berra

You can observe a lot by just watching.
Yogi Berra

You got to be careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

You got to be very careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

You should always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise, they won’t come to yours.
Yogi Berra

You wouldn’t have won if we’d beaten you.
Yogi Berra

You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Even though I’m not a fan of Russel Crowe, I like this line from Gladiator:

“What we do in life echoes in eternity.”