Success and Failure

Prophecy is many times the principal cause of the events foretold.

Thomas Hobbes, in Science and Religion and Success and Failure

Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take Hofstadter's Law into account.

Doug Hofstadter, in Success and Failure

Success is like a fart -- only your own smells nice.

James P. Hogan, in Success and Failure

Action cures fear, inaction creates terror.

Doug Horton, in Success and Failure

Change occurs in direct proportion to dissatisfaction, but dissatisfaction never changes.

Doug Horton, in Success and Failure

Desperation is like stealing from the mafia: you stand a good chance of attracting the wrong attention.

Doug Horton, in Success and Failure

First rule of Economics 101: our desires are insatiable. Second rule: we can stomach only three Big Macs at a time.

Doug Horton, in Success and Failure

Good ideas are a dime a dozen, bad ones are free.

Doug Horton, in Success and Failure

No man who needs a monument ever ought to have one.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, in Success and Failure

Be braver -- you can't cross a chasm in two small jumps.

David Lloyd George, in Success and Failure

If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars.

J. Paul Getty, in Success and Failure and Wealth and Poverty

Things don't go wrong, they simply happen.

Jacob Ghitis, in Success and Failure

The wind and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.

Edward Gibbon, in Success and Failure

Only the mediocre are always at their best.

Jean Giraudoux, in Success and Failure

When ideas fail, words come in very handy.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in Success and Failure

We will burn that bridge when we come to it.

Nick Gorski, in Success and Failure and Work and Recreation

When everyone is against you, it means you are absolutely wrong -- or you are absolutely right.

Albert Guinon, in Success and Failure

You can pretend to be serious; you can't pretend to be witty.

Sacha Guitry, in Success and Failure

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Mark Twain, in Success and Failure

The biggest things are always the easiest to do because there is no competition.

William Van Horne, in Success and Failure