SOLVING PROBLEMS
A crisis brings out
the best in the best of us, and the worst in the worst of us.
We are surrounded by
insurmountable opportunites.
A well adjusted person
is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous.
- Unknown
All things are difficult
before they are easy.
- Thomas Fuller
Difficulties are meant
to rouse, not discourage.
- William Ellery Channing
It is by presence of
mind in untried emergencies that the native metal of a man is tested.
- James Russell Lowell
If knowledge can create
problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.
- Isaac Asimov
With the ability to
correct our mistakes comes the confidence to risk failure, to experiment
with, abandon and to generally give the boundaries enough of a kicking
to advance them on a bit.
- Paul Parsons
No problem can stand
the assault of sustained thinking.
- Voltaire
Intelligence is what you
use when you don't know what to do.
- William H. Calvin
I never make stupid
mistakes. Only very, very clever ones.
- The Doctor, In
John Peel's "Timewyrm: Genesys"
Be warned that being an
expert is more than understanding how a system is supposed to work. Expertise
is gained by investigating why a system doesn't work.
- Brian Redman
Beady's Corollary to Occam's
Razor: "The likeliest explanation of any phenomenon is almost always the
most boring."
- John "Beady" Beaderstadt
"I don't know, er,
I'd never thought about it, do you?"
"I don't know, I've
thought about it too much."
- Doctor Frank Reeves, "A Matter of Life and Death"
Desperate times breed
desperate measures
- Shakespeare, Macbeth
I don't have any solution,
but I certainly admire the problem.
- Ashleigh Brilliant
Be thankful for problems.
If they were less difficult, someone with less ability might have your
job.
- 'Bits & Pieces'
A professional is a person
who can do his best at a time when he doesn't particularly feel like it.
- Alistair Cooke
The greater the difficulty
the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation
from storms and tempests.
- Epicurus
Difficulties show men
what they are. In case of any difficulty remember that God has pitted you
against a rough antagonist that you may be a conqueror, and this cannot
be without toil.
- Epicetus
Curiosity will conquer
fear even more than bravery will.
- James Stephens
A crisis brings out the
best in the best of us, and the worst in the worst of us.
- Unknown
I have not failed. I have
discovered 1000 things that do not work.
- Thomas Alva Edison
The pursuit of perfection
often impedes improvement.
- George Will
Never tell people how
to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their
ingenuity.
- George Patton
Confidence is the feeling
you have before you understand the situation.
Experience is what
allows us to recognize a mistake the second time we make it. I don't mind
you making mistakes, as long as you make new ones.
There are no personal
problems which cannot be solved through suitable application of high explosives.
- Unknown
No pressure, no diamonds.
-Mary Case
If you can keep your head
about you while others about you are losing theirs, then perhaps you've
misunderstood the situation.
- Daniel Keyes Moran
I have yet to see any
problem, however complicated, which, when you looked at it in the right
way, did not become still more complicated.
- Poul Anderson
The trouble with doing
something right the first time is that nobody appreciates how difficult
it
was.
- Walt West
No problem is too big
it can't be run away from
- Linus
In any organisation, there
will always be one person who knows what is going on.This person must be
fired.
- Colin J. Wynne.
The secret of managing
is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided.
- Casey Stengel.
Experience is a hard teacher
because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward.
- Unknown
If you only have a hammer,
you tend to see every problem as a nail.
- Unknown
It is amazing what you
can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
- Harry S Truman
Nothing is particularly
hard if you divide it into small jobs.
- Henry Ford
Never hire or promote
in your own image. It is foolish to replicate your strength and idiotic
to replicate your weakness. It is essential to employ, trust, and reward
those whose perspective, ability, and judgment are radically different
from yours. It is also rare, for it requires uncommon humility, tolerance,
and wisdom.
- Dee W. Hock, Fast
Company
1. The world is more complicated
than most of our theories make it out to be.
2. Ignorance is no
excuse.
3. Never decide to
buy something while listening to the salesman.
4. Most problems have
either many answers or no answer. Only a few problems have a single answer.
5. Most general statements
are false, including this one.
6. An exception tests
a rule; it never proves it.
7. The moment you
have worked out an answer, start checking it; it probably isn't right.
8. If there is an
opportunity to make a mistake, sooner or later the mistake will be made.
9. Check the answer
you have worked out once more - before you tell anybody.
- Edmund C. Berkeley
#
Return to Quotes
index, or Site homepage.