The quote library
Frankisms
Short truths, collected over a lifetime of writing and teaching. Read a few, or lose an afternoon.
- Collected
- 1,993
“Confidence relates to a sense that your skills are suited to the task. — Susan K. Perry”
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“Constantly, we need encouragement and reassurance. We yearn for some small demonstration that it’s worth our while to go on fighting. — Dwight V. Swain”
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“Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved. — William Jennings Bryan”
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“Diligence is the mother of good luck. — Benjamin Franklin”
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“Discover what you do well and do more of it. — Cecil Murphey”
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“Do a good job because you want to, not because you have to. This puts you in charge instead of your boss. — H. Jackson Brown Jr”
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“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. — Ralph Waldo Emerson”
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“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. — John Wooden”
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“Do not suppose opportunity will knock twice at your door. — Sebastien Chamfort”
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“Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is. — Arthur F. Lenehan”
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“Don’t expect to find you’re doing everything right — the truth often hurts. The goal is to find your inefficiencies in order to eliminate them and to find your strengths so you can multiply them. — Timothy Ferriss”
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“Don’t only evaluate the potential downside of action. It is equally important to measure the atrocious cost of inaction. — Timothy Ferriss”
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“Enthusiasm is the greatest asset in the world. It beats money and power and influence. — Henry Chester”
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“Every choice to do one thing means a choice to not do something else. But it also costs you the anxiety of waiting, freeing you from the trap of decision paralysis. Committing to a cause sets you free. — Jeff Goins”
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“Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits. — Thomas Alva Edison”
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“Excitement is the more practical synonym for happiness, and it is precisely what you should strive to chase. — Timothy Ferriss”
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“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor. — Truman Capote”
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“Fear itself is quite fear-inducing. Most intelligent people in the world dress it up as something else: optimistic denial. — Timothy Ferriss”
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“Find out what you cannot do and discard it. Find another way. — Dr. Florence Haseltine”
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“First know where you want to go, then consider how to get there. — Robert Fritz”
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“Focus on being productive instead of busy. — Timothy Ferriss”
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“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”
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“Generous risks must be taken for progress. — Helen Keller”
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“Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. — Thomas Edison”
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“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”
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“Getting it wrong is part of getting it right. — Charles Handy”
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“Goals are of two kinds: goals of achievement, and goals of resistance. — Dwight V. Swain”
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“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”
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“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”
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“How do you earn followers? Set yourself on fire. — Thomas Umstattd”
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“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”
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“I do not pray for a lighter load, but for a stronger back. — Phillips Brooks”
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“I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living, or get busy dying. — Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption”
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“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]”
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“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”
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“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”
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