Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you’ll be able to see farther. – J. P. Morgan What does that mean? This quote seems to be saying that the horizon moves with you. No matter where you are, you can see only so far. When you move forward to the horizon,…
He who deliberates fully before taking a step will spend his entire life on one leg. – Chinese Proverb What does that mean? The quote opens by considering someone who spends the time to fully deliberate all possible outcomes and ramifications of an action before acting. The implied question is ‘How long will that take…
You can tell a man is clever by his answers. You can tell a man is wise by his questions. – Naguib Mahfouz What does that mean? Clever answers are one of my favorite things. But, according the quote, all that clever answers tells us is how clever the person providing the answers happens to…
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. – Aristotle What does that mean? I’m not sure ‘educated’ is the word I would use (it might be an artifact of the translation), but I would consider it as a measure of how open-minded a person is….
Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. – Confucius What does that mean? This quote hit me pretty hard, once I started thinking about it. What if it didn’t matter what kind of car you drove. What if it didn’t matter how nice your house was, so long as it was functional?…
I think of life as a good book. The further you get into it, the more it begins to make sense. – Harold S. Kushner What does that mean? To me, it sounds like the story of my life. When I started out, I knew nothing. 8) Since then I’ve learned a few things about…
Those that are most slow in making a promise are the most faithful in the performance of it. – Rousseau What does that mean? To me, this is as much a cautionary statement as anything. It cautions us to be wary of those who would quickly make promises, as they may back out of them…
Small opportunities are often the beginnings of great enterprises. – Demosthenes What does that mean? Just ask Kinko’s or Fed Ex or Apple. Each started as something small. Each is now a major or dominant player in it’s chosen field. Some even invented whole new fields to dominate. Even a little kiss can lead to…
Everything that happens; happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so. – Marcus Aurelius What does that mean? I debated taking this quote, but decided it was worth doing. It talks of reflection, over time, and concluding that all is as it should be. I have lost…
Everybody has talent, it’s just a matter of moving around until you’ve discovered what it is. – George Lucas What does that mean? To me, he is saying “We’re all good at something.” The trick, he continues, is to figure out what it is. How many of you tried any number of things before you…
One cannot refuse to eat just because there is a chance of being choked. – Chinese Proverbs What does that mean? To me, this speaks to fear – a fear that paralyzes, a fear that stops us dead in our tracks. What would happen to us if we were to stop eating? You’d die pretty…
Anger: an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured. – Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Seneca the Younger) What does that mean? This phrase, in a slightly different wording, is also frequently attributed to Mark Twain, but I think Seneca probably said…
…we don’t really need most of the things we buy. … We just imagine we’d be happier with them. – Virginia Postrel What does that mean? Sometimes the research on the quote is the most interesting part. It was a quote that started with “As many a social critic has preached, …”, so it was…
