Selected Quotes from "Ready For Anything"


All intellectual improvement arises from leisure. --Samuel Johnson

It's possible to own too much. A man with one watch knows what time it is; a man with two watches is never sure. --Lee Segall

Lots of folks confuse bad management with destiny. --Kin Hubbard

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. --Thomas Edison

I know that you have nothing. That is why I ask you for everything. So that you will have everything. --Antonio Porchia

There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the real labor of thinking. --Thomas Edison

Anyone who waits to be struck with a good idea has a long wait coming. If I have a deadline for a column or a television script, I sit down at the typewriter and damn well decide to have an idea. --Andy Rooney

When hungry, eat your rice; when tired, close your eyes. Fools may laugh at me, but wise men will know what I mean. - Lin-Chi

The mere formulation of a problem is far more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skills. To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle requires creative imagination and marks real advances in science. --Albert Einstein

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. --Albert Einstein

Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things. --Robert Heinlein

I'd like people to remember me for a diligent expert workman. I think a poet is a workman. I think Shakespeare was a workman. And God's a workman. I don't think there's anything better than a workman. --Laurence Olivier

Man is not a creature of circumstances. Circumstances are the creatures of men. --Benjamin Disraeli

The work will teach you how to do it. --Estonian proverb

The ability to convert ideas to things is the secret of outward success. -- Henry Ward Beecher

When you're up to your ass in alligators, it's hard to remember that your purpose is draining the swamp. --George Napper

Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise to complex and intelligent behavior. Complex rules and regulations give rise to simple and stupid behavior. --Dee Hock

No great invention started with a business plan. --unknown

When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that individual is crazy. --Dave Barry

If everything's under control, you're going too slow. --Mario Andretti

The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails. --William A. Ward

In the end, it is attention to detail that makes all the difference. It's the center fielder's extra two steps to the left, the salesman's memory for names, the lover's phone call, the soldier's clean weapon. It is the thing that separates the winners from the losers, the men from the boys, and very often, the living from the dead. --David Noonan

I don't think necessity is the mother of invention. Invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness. To save oneself trouble. --Agatha Christie


source: "Ready For Anything", David Allen
keywords: quotes,gtd
date: 12/31/2004