The quote library
Frankisms
Short truths, collected over a lifetime of writing and teaching. Read a few, or lose an afternoon.
- Collected
- 224
“Find out what you cannot do and discard it. Find another way. — Dr. Florence Haseltine”
inspiration
“First know where you want to go, then consider how to get there. — Robert Fritz”
inspiration
“Focus on being productive instead of busy. — Timothy Ferriss”
inspiration
“Focus on creating value in the world around you and for the people around you, and the greatest opportunities will come to you in moments and from places you never expected. — Bob Burg”
inspiration
“Generous risks must be taken for progress. — Helen Keller”
inspiration
“Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. — Thomas Edison”
inspiration
“Getting help is effective only when we are willing to stop looking for magic and participate fully in solving our own problems with the help of our helper. — Thomas Harris”
inspiration
“Getting it wrong is part of getting it right. — Charles Handy”
inspiration
“Goals are of two kinds: goals of achievement, and goals of resistance. — Dwight V. Swain”
inspiration
“God doesn't usually do for you what you can do for yourself. — Cecil Murphey”
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“God will not look you over for medals, degrees or diplomas, but for scars. — Elbert Hubbard”
inspiration
“Great works are performed, not by strength, but by perseverance. — Samuel Johnson”
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“Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning. Once it does, it becomes the kind of thing that makes you grab your wife around the waist and dance a jig. — Malcolm Gladwell, author”
inspiration
“How do you earn followers? Set yourself on fire. — Thomas Umstattd”
inspiration
“I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I wish to be. I am not what I hope to be. But by the grace of God, I am not what I was. — John Newton”
inspiration
“I do not pray for a lighter load, but for a stronger back. — Phillips Brooks”
inspiration
“I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living, or get busy dying. — Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption”
inspiration
“I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues. — Duke Ellington”
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“I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country. — Nathan Hale (17551776), Last words, before being hanged by the British as a spy [September 22, 1776]”
inspiration
“I try to make the light in others’ eyes my sun, the music in others’ ears my symphony, the smile on others’ lips my happiness. — Helen Keller”
inspiration
“I would rather be disliked for who I am than to be admired for who I'm not. — Cecil Murphey”
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“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it. — Thomas Jefferson”
inspiration
“Identify with the guy you want to be: The one who hits the ball out of the ball park; the one who doesn’t conform to the rules; the one who’s exciting; the one you want to be, the non-conformist. — Bill Veeck”
inspiration
“If a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live. — Martin Luther King Jr (19291968), Speech in Detroit [June 23, 1963]”
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“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way. — James F. Clarke”
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“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants. — Sir Isaac Newton (16421727), Letter to Robert Hooke, February 5, 1675/1676”
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“If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing poorly until you can do it well. — Robert Fritz”
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“If we cannot be contented with a little, no wealth will ever satisfy us. — Helen Keller”
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“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant. If we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. — Anne Bradstreet (c. 1612-1672), Meditations Divine and Moral, 14”
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“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one. — Mother Teresa”
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“If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen. — Harry S. Truman”
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“If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not working on hard enough problems. And that’s a big mistake. — Frank Wilczek, 2004 Nobel Prize winner in physics”
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“If you need to be loved, get a dog. — Alan Weiss”
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“If you prioritize properly, there is no need to multitask. — Timothy Ferriss”
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“Impossible is a word only to be found in the dictionary of fools. — Napoleon”
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“In order for people to burn out, they need to have been on fire at some time in the past. — Thomas Armstrong”
inspiration
“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. — Albert Einstein”
inspiration
“Initiative consists of doing the right thing without being told. — Irving Mack”
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“Inspiration, once thought to be the province of only a chosen few, is available to all of us if only we learn to develop our innate capacities. — Gabriele Lusser Rico”
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“Intense focusing on a task can make people effectively blind, even to stimuli that normally attract attention. — Daniel Kahneman”
inspiration