Laws are spider webs through which the big flies pass and the little ones get caught. -Honore’ de Balzac
According to the law a man is guilty ‘til he gets a good lawyer. – Lisa Douglas in Green Acres
The purpose of each conductor should be to make himself unnecessary. – Herbert von Karajan
Wisdom comes from experience, and experience comes from mistakes. I am very wise.*
I don’t want to go up on the podium. I sit in the back row with my trumpet, and I conduct from there. – Bud Herseth
Problems, Ted, problems. Plural. They are threefold. One, the information we know that we need to make sure no one else knows. Two, the information we don’t know that we need to make sure stays unknown. Three, the information that you have already admitted to that we need to make people forget. -the character Robert McNamara in the movie Chappaquiddick
We tell the truth, or at least our version of it. -the character Ted Kennedy in the movie Chappaquiddick
Be brief. Above all, be brief. -Massachusetts Senate President and future US President Calvin Coolidge
It’s good to have an attorney on speed dial. -A client
One should order one’s life so as never to stand in need of a drowsy judge. -Plato
Rely on what is right, and you can rest at night.*
God likes people in sailboats much better than people in motor boats. – Kurt Vonnegut in Cat’s Cradle
No man can make a successful career on his own. He needs help. -Mamie Eisenhower.
Things gained through unjust fraud are never secure. -Sophocles
Australia sent us a swarm of bandits who dedicated themselves exclusively to robbery and assault. France, desiring to be rid of several thousand lying men and corrupt women embarked them on ships which brought them to San Francisco. China poured upon our shores clouds and more clouds of Asiatics.… But all these evils became negligible with the swollen torrents of shysters who came from Missouri and other states of the union. These legal thieves, clothed in the robes of the law, took from us our lands and, without the least scruple, enthroned themselves in our homes like so many powerful Kings. – Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, whose 250,000 acres were reduced to 300 by the referenced lawyers, quoted in the Ken Burns documentary, The West.
The mind replaces the laws of chance with rules of thumb. –The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis. He refers to the word heuristics to describe this process.
Nobody ever made a decision because of a number. They need a story. -Michael Lewis The Undoing Project quoting Daniel Kahneman, PhD, Nobel laureate
Evil will succeed when good people do nothing.
No Bucks, no Buck Rogers -The Right Stuff
The best way to predict the future is to build it. -Alan Kay, Visionary
Don’t believe anything you hear and half of what you see. -Ripon College Swimming Coach Chuck Larson
When you’re up to your neck in alligators it’s hard to remember that your original intention was to drain the swamp.
If all you have is a hammer, all problems look like nail.
Money does not come with instructions
Don’t forget those who helped you become who you are today!
The harder I work, the luckier I get.
The only process is a repeatable process.
If you do not know where you are going, any road will do.
It used to be that if you built a better mousetrap the world would beat a path to your door. Today, if you build a better mousetrap, the government builds a better mouse. -Ronald Regan
That dog will not hunt.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Even a blind squirrel will find a nut.
90% of Success is just showing up. -Woody Allen
Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re no out to get you.
I see the light at the end of the tunnel, I just hope it‘s not an onrushing train!
If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door. -Milton Berle
All of our dreams can come true if we just have the courage to pursue them. -Walt Disney
Change is inevitable. Progress is optional. -Tony Robbins
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. -Lao Tzu
The Parade – Lead it, march in it, watch it and cheer it on. How many do not know there is a Parade? The opportunities for achievement and teamwork never end.
The only difference between this project and the Titanic – The Titanic had a band.
Never give up, never surrender! The movie Galaxy Quest (1999)
We’ve got to get organized. We’ve got to get organized. -Dom DeLouise in The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming!
Economic Competition: You are either at the table or on the menu.
Innovation: Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast!
Exciting and successful times ahead. -Bill Brucato
I want to do good things faster. –Bill Brucato
Never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. -Winston Churchill
I don’t know what you could say about a day in which you have seen four beautiful sunsets. – John Glenn
Failure in not an option. -Gene Krantz NASA Flight Director
Accept the challenges, so you may feel the exhilaration of victory. -General George S. Patton
We are standing on the shoulders of Giants -General Colin Powell
You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else. -Albert Einstein
The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus. -Bruce Lee
Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. -Steve Jobs
You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. -Steve Jobs
noscitur a sociis—i.e., “a word is known by the company that it keeps.”
If all I have is my legal work, I would be mentally dead in two years and physically dead in four. -Richard Nixon
Ah, ’tis midsummer madness, the music is in my temples, the hot blood of youth! Come, Kapellmeister, let the violas throb. My regiment leaves at dawn! -Groucho (with apologies to Alexander Weaver)
I’m a liar and a phony, a saxophone player. One of those no-good-nicks you keep running away from. -Tony Curtis to Marilyn Monroe in Some Like it Hot (with apologies to Bob Black)
*A saying by Michael Poulos