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Babies

Infancy conforms to nobody; all conform to it. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance," 1841

Adam and Eve had many advantages, but the principal one was that they escaped teething. -- Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson, 1894

Balance

There is not much risk that an executive will cut back too much. We usually tend to overrate rather than underrate our importance and to conclude that far too many things can be done only by ourselves. Even very effective executive still do a great many unnecessary, unproductive things.

But the best proof that the danger of overpruning is a bugaboo is the extraordinary effectiveness so often attained by severely ill or severely handicapped people.

A good example was Harry Hopkins, President Roosevelt’s confidential adviser in World War II. A dying, indeed almost a dead man for whom every step was a torment, he could only work a few hours every other day or so. This forced him to cut out everything but truly vital matters. He did not lose effectiveness thereby; on the contrary, he became, as Churchill called him once, ‘Lord Heart of the Matter’ and accomplished more than anyone else in wartime Washington."

(I cannot count the number of times that illustration has come into my mind at critical moments. I determined to ruthlessly cut away whatever was not crucial to the task, asking myself repeatedly, "If I had two hours per day or ten hours per week to this job, what specific things would I do and what would I not do? As Drucker indicates in many , no matter how much wise pruning one does, the information worker will always have much more to do than he can possibly get to. as much as possible must be delegated to others.) Harold Myra, Leaders, Word Books, Waco, TX, p. 21, 1987

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. -- Robert A. Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long

Fear less, hope more;
Whine less, breathe more;
Hate less, love more;
And all good things are yours. -- Anonymous

We aren’t what we eat. We are what we don’t shit. -- Hugh Romney

I have so much to do that I am going to bed. -- Savoyard proverb

Baseball

It could permanently hurt a batter for a long time. – Pete Rose re. Brushback pitch.

Ability is the art of getting credit for all the home runs somebody else hits. - Casey Stengel

There is an old Scottish proverb that says, 'I am wounded but I am not slain. I shall lay me down and bleed a while, then I shall rise and fight again.' That should be the feeling of all of the Yankees. - Owner George Steinbrenner  (after losing the ALDS in 2002)

All I want out of life, is that when I walk down the street folks will say, "There goes the greatest hitter that ever lived." - Ted Williams

I'm convinced that every boy, in his heart, would rather steal second base than an automobile. - Tom Clark

A hot dog at the ball park is better than steak at the Ritz.- Humphrey Bogart

The other sports are just sports. Baseball is a love. - Bryant Gumbel

If a woman has to chose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant's life, she will save the infant's life without even considering if there are men on base. - Dave Barry

Life is like a baseball game. When you think a fastball is coming, You gotta be ready to hit the curve. - Jaja Q.

Kids are always chasing rainbows, but baseball is a world where you can catch them. - Johnny Vander Meer

Baseball is dull only to dull minds. - Red Smith

It's a mere moment in a man's life between the all-star game and an old timer's game. - Vin Scully

Here is one place where caste is lost. Ragamuffins and velvet-breeched, white-collar boys stand in that equality which augurs well for the future of the stars and stripes. Dainty clothes are no bar to the game if their owner is not afraid to soil them. - Zane Grey

Every player, in his secret heart, wants to manage someday. Every fan, in the privacy of his mind, already does. - Leonard Koppett

They expect an umpire to be perfect on opening day and to improve as the season goes on. - Nestor Chylak

If a man can beat you, walk him. - Leroy Robert (Satchel) Paige

Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.- Babe Ruth

Hitting is 50% above the shoulders. - Ted Williams

Hitting is timing. Pitching is upsetting timing. - Warren Spahn

Fundamentals are the most valuable tools a player can possess. Bunt the ball into the ground. Hit the cutoff man. Take the extra base. Learn the fundamentals. - Dick Williams

A hitter's impatience is the pitcher's biggest advantage. - Pete Rose

Mental attitude and concentration are the keys to pitching.  - Ferguson Jenkins

Good fielding and pitching, without hitting, or vice versa, is like Ben Franklin's half pair of scissors - ineffectual. - Moe Berg

The pitcher has to throw a strike sooner or later, so why not hit the pitch you want to hit and not the one he wants you to hit?  - Johnny Mize

Players who commit errors need reassurance from the pitcher, who must harbor no grudges. - Roger Craig

Control is what kept me in the big leagues for twenty-two years. - Cy Young

Playing without the fundamentals is like eating without a knife and fork. You make a mess. - Dick Williams

You can't think and hit at the same time. - Yogi Berra

When you step into the batter's box, have nothing on your mind except baseball. - Pete Rose

The best possible thing in baseball is winning the World Series. The second best thing is losing the World Series.  - Tommy Lasorda

Don't worry about your individual numbers. Worry about the team. If the team is successful, each of you will be successful, too. - Branch Rickey

Managing is like holding a dove in your hand. Squeeze too hard and you kill it, not hard enough and it flies away. - Tommy Lasorda

Pitch within yourself. - Tom Seaver

If you get fooled by a pitch with less than two strikes, take it. - Ted Williams

Be on time. Bust your butt. Play smart. And have some laughs along the way. - Whitey Herzog

Most one-run games are lost, not won. - Gene Mauch

It takes pitching, hitting and defense. Any two can win. All three make you unbeatable. - Joe Garagiola

The saddest day of the year is the day baseball season ends. - Tommy Lasorda

You owe it to yourself to be the best you can possible be  in baseball and in life. - Pete Rose

Nobody ever said, "Work ball!" They say, "Play ball!" To me, that means having fun. - Willie Stargell

I never threw an illegal pitch. The trouble is, once in a while I toss one that ain't never been seen by this generation. - Leroy Robert (Satchel) Paige

Baseball is a slow, sluggish game, with frequent and trivial interruptions, offering the spectator many opportunities to reflect at leisure upon the situation on the field: This is what a fan loves most about the game.- Edward Abbey

I see great things in baseball. It's our game--the American game. It will take our people out of doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism. Tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set. Repair these losses, and be a blessing to us. - Walt Whitman

It (baseball) is an American institution and more lasting than some marriages, war, Supreme Court decisions and even major depressions.- Art Rust

Next to religion, baseball has furnished a greater impact on American life than any other institution. - Herbert Hoover

Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good too.  - Yogi Berra

Baseball is what gets inside you, it lights you up, its supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard everyone would do it. The HARD is what makes it great. - A League of Their Own

You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the goddamn  plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all. - Earl Weaver

Since baseball time is measured only in outs, all you have to do is succeed utterly; keep hitting, keep the rally alive, and you have defeated time. You remain forever young.- Roger Angell

When you think about it, a home run is a mistake. The idea is to hit the ball hard, on a line, so the defense can't react to it. Hit it high in the air, which is how most home runs are hit, and most of the time it will be caught. It's a mistake. - Matt Williams

One thing anyone can go through is a slump. Unless you're Greg Maddux, it's going to happen to everybody. - Mike Piazza

Hello again, everybody. It's a bee-yooo-tiful day for baseball. - Harry Caray

I think a baseball field must be the most beautiful thing in the world. It's so honest and precise. And we play on it. Every star gets humbled. Every mediocre player has a great moment. - Lowell Cohn  

Ninety feet between the bases is the nearest thing to perfection that man has yet achieved. - Red Smith

Any baseball is beautiful. No other small package comes as close to the ideal in design and utility. It is a perfect object for a man's hand. Pick it up and it instantly suggests its purpose: it is meant to be thrown a considerable distance-thrown hard and with precision. - Roger Angell

Man may penetrate the outer reaches of the universe, he may solve the very secret of eternity itself but for me, the ultimate human experience is to witness the flawless execution of the hit-and-run. - Branch Rickey

The clock doesn't matter in baseball. Time stands still or moves backwards. Theoretically, one game could go on forever. Some seem to. - Herb Caen

The great thing about baseball is that there's a crisis every game. - Gabe Paul 

Love America and hate baseball? Hate America and love baseball? Neither is possible, except in the abstract. - John Krich

One of the beautiful things about baseball is that every once in a while you come into a situation where you want to, and where you have to, reach down and prove something. - Nolan Ryan

I'd walk through hell in a gasoline suit to keep playing baseball. - Pete Rose 

No one can stop a home run. No one can understand what it really is, unless you have felt it in your own hands and body.... As the ball makes its high, long arc beyond the playing field, the diamond and the stands suddenly belong to one man. In that brief, brief time, you are free of all demands an complications. - Sadaharu Oh

How hard is hitting? You ever walk into a pitch-black room full of furniture that you've never been in before and try to walk though it without bumping into anything? Well, it's harder than that. - Ted Kluszewski

The greatest thrill in the world is to end the game with a home run and watch everybody else walk off the field while you're running the bases on air. - Al Rosen

You don't save pitchers for tomorrow. Tomorrow it may rain.- Leo Durocher 

It's no fun throwing fastballs to guys who can't hit them. The real challenge is getting them out on stuff they can hit. - Sam McDowell

The two most important things in life are good friends and a strong bullpen. - Bob Lemon

Baseball is like a poker game, nobody wants to quit when he's losing: nobody wants you to quit when you're ahead. - Jackie Robinson

Baseball is a lot like life. The line drives are caught, the squibbers go for base hits. It's an unfair game. - Rod Kanehl

Any time you think you have the game conquered the game will turn around and punch you right in the nose. - Mike Schmidt

When we lost I couldn't sleep at night. When we win I can't sleep at night. But when you win, you wake up feeling better. - Joe Torre 

A ballplayer has two reputations, one with the other players and one with the fans. The first is based on ability. The second the newspapers gives him. - Johnny Evers

Fans don't boo nobodies. - Reggie Jackson  

The guy with the biggest stomach will be the first to take off his shirt at a baseball game. - Glenn Dickey

With those who don't give a damn about baseball I can only sympathize. I do not resent them. I am even willing to concede that many of them are physically clean, good to their mothers and in favor of world peace. But while the game is on, I can't think of anything to say to them. - Art Hill

The majority of American males put themselves to sleep by striking out the batting order of the New York Yankees. - James Thurber

You start chasing a ball and your brain immediately commands your body to Run forward! Bend! Scoop up the ball! Peg it to first! Then your body says who me? - Joe DiMaggio

I'm throwing twice as hard as I ever did. It's just not getting there as fast. - Lefty Gomez

It's a mere moment in a man's life between the all-star game and the old-timer's game. - Vin Scully

I would be lost without baseball. I don't think I could stand being away from it as long as I was alive. - Roberto Clemente

You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time. - Jim Bouton

We didn't lose the game; we just ran out of time.-Vince Lombardi

You look forward to it like a birthday party when you're a kid. You think something wonderful is going to happen.-Joe DiMaggio, on Opening Day

Slump ? I ain't in no slump. I just ain't hittin.-Yogi Berra

You teach me baseball and I'll teach you relativity...No we must not You will learn about relativity faster than I learn baseball.-Albert Einstein

Baseball serves as a good model for democracy in action: Every player is equally important and each has a chance to be a hero. - Edward Abbey

I had it all, and I blew it.  - Mickey Mantle US major league baseball player  reported to be said shortly before dying from cancer and other complications of alcoholism

People ask me what I do in winter when there's  no baseball. I'll tell you what I do.  I stare out the window  and wait for spring. - Rogers Hornsby

Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer.-Ted Williams

Progress always involves risks.  You can't steal second base and keep your foot on first.       - Frederick B. Wilcox

The difference between the old ballplayer and the new ballplayer is the jersey.  The old ballplayer cared about the name on the front.  The new ballplayer cares about the name on the back. - Steve Garvey

When you're in a slump, it's almost as if you look out at the field and it's one big glove.         - Vance Law

Back then, my idol was Bugs Bunny, because I saw a cartoon of him playing ball - you know, the one where he plays every position himself with nobody else on the field but him?  Now that I think of it, Bugs is still my idol.  You have to love a ballplayer like that.      - Nomar Garciaparra

Close don't count in baseball. Close only counts in horseshoes and grenades. - Frank Robinson US baseball player, manager

Baseball is like church. Many attend few understand.- Leo Durocher Baseball player, manager

Baseball is a game of inches.- Branch Rickey US baseball player, manager, executive

I ain't ever had a job. I just always played baseball. - Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige

Baseball is 90% mental, the other half is physical.  Yogi Berra

Baseball is a skilled game. It's America's game -- it, and high taxes.- Will Rogers

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

When I was a little boy, I wanted to be a baseball player, and join  the circus. With the Yankees, I've accomplished both. - Anthony Standen

Beauty

What no beautician would ever tell a woman is that the secret to being beautiful is thinking the right thoughts. -- Panel discussion on women’s issues, WNBC radio, 1979

Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies for instance. -- John Ruskin, The Stones of Venice, 1851

Rarely to great beauty and great virtue dwell together. -- Petrarch (d. 1374), De Remediis utriusque fortunae

Beginnings

The only joy in the world is to begin. -- Cesare Pavese Source: Little Zen Companion, Schiller.

Behavior

The virtue of a man ought to be measured not by his extraordinary exertions, but by his everyday conduct. -- Blaise Pascal

Belief

If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities. -- Voltaire

The abdication of Belief makes the behavior small. – Emily Dickinson

Bible

The Bible --
Know it -- in your head;
Stow it -- in your heart;
Sow it -- in the world;
Show it -- in your life.

The Bible is a stream of running water, where alike the elephant may swim, and the lamb walk without losing its feet. -- Gregory the Great

Bitterness

Bitterness is the poison we swallow, while hoping the other person dies. -- Skip Gray, Navigators missionary

Blame

Don’t find fault. Find a remedy. -- Henry Ford

Everyone is responsible and no one is to blame. -- Will Schutz

The only person I cannot help is one who blames others. -- Carl Jung

Blessing

Bless these walls, so firm and stout, keeping all want and trouble out. -- Christian prayer

If this is a blessing, it is certainly very well disguised. – Winston Churchill upon his defeat in the 1945 elections

Boldness

Be bold -- and mighty forces will come to your aid. -- Basil King

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor to the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure -- Helen Keller

Books

Beware the man of one book. --St. Thomas Aquinas

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. Worthy books are like mentors -- available as companions and as solitude for refreshment. -- Francis Bacon

A good book should leave you... slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it. -- William Styron, interview, Writers at Work, 1958

When I get a little money, I buy books and if any is left, I buy food and clothes. -- Erasmus

The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, all the sweet serenity of books. -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves. --Gilbert Highet

The worst thing about reading new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones. -- Joseph Joubert

The best effect of any book is that it excites the reader to self activity.  -- Thomas Carlyle

Book: A garden carried in a pocket. - Arabian Proverb  

The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read. -- Abraham Lincoln

I keep to old books, for they teach me something; from the new I learn very little. - Voltaire

Everyone who know how to read has it in their power to magnify themselves, multiple the ways in which they exist, to make their life full, significant, and interesting. - Aldous Huxley

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them. -- Mark Twain

A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life. -- John Milton

The most technologically efficient machine that man has ever invented is the book. - Northrup Frye

All the glory of the world would be buried in oblivion, unless God had provided mortals with the remedy of books. -- Richard De Bury

'Tis the good reader that makes the good book. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Beware the man of one book. - Latin Proverb

If minds are truly alive they will seek out books, for books are the human race recounting its memorable experiences, confronting its problems, searching for solutions, drawing the blueprints of it futures. - Harry A. Overstreet

Just the knowledge that a good book is awaiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier. --Kathleen Norris

Books are fatal: they are the curse of the human race. Nine-tenths of existing books are nonsense, and the clever books are the refutation of that nonsense. The greatest misfortune that ever befell man was the invention of printing.  - Benjamin Disraeli

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.  - G. K. Chesterton

Boredom

People not only lose faith in their talents and their dreams or values; some simply tire of them." -- Edward Hoadland, Heart’s Desire

If you are living a hum-drum life, and you do nothing to change it, ten years from now you will be a product of ten more years of hum-drumidness." -- David Campbell

Disorder and procrastination help avoid boredom; one never has the feeling that there is nothing important to do. -- Unknown

Boredom is a sickness the cur for which is work; pleasure is only a palliative. -- Luc Duc de Levis (d. 1787), Memoires

A scholar knows no boredom. -- Jean Paul Richter, Hesperus, 1795

Boundaries

Learn to say no. -- Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Breakfast

 "He that but looketh on a plate of ham and eggs to lust after it, hath already committed breakfast with it in his heart." - C.S. Lewis

Brevity

"I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter." -- Blaise Pascal

Brokenness

Man is born broken. He lives by mending. The grace of God is glue. – Eugene O’Neill

Business

He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of Christ will change the face of the world." -- Benjamin Franklin

Drive thy business, let not thy business drive thee." -- Benjamin Franklin

Busyness

Our two greatest problems are gravity and paper work. We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paper work is overwhelming. -- Dr. Wernher von Braun

"We can talk on the phone as we eat fast food while using the ATM. Not only are we better at multitasking and becoming more productive and efficient, along with the increased pace, more is required of us. And so we hurtle through life faster and faster, becoming busier and busier. The result is that in our busyness we are becoming increasingly efficient at leading meaningless lives." - Don Whitney, professor, Midwestern Seminary

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