Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

William Feather

American Publisher and Author

"Change, not habit, is what gets most of us down; habit is the stabilizer of human society, change accounts for its progress."

"Getting alone with others is the essence of getting ahead, success being linked with cooperation."

"He that succeeds makes an important thing of the immediate task."

"If we conducted ourselves as sensibly in good times as we do in hard times, we could all acquire a competence."

"Laziness is the one common deficiency in mankind that blocks the establishment of a perfect world in which everyone leads a happy life."

"Only the man who can impose discipline on himself is fit to discipline others or can impose discipline on others."

"The sweaty players in the game of life always have more fun than the supercilious spectators."

"The way to get ahead is to start now."

"Unless a man has been kicked around a little, you can't really depend upon him to amount to anything."

"Whether it's marriage or business, patience is the first rule of success."

"A determination to succeed is the only way to succeed that I know anything about."

"An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't. It's knowing where to go to find out what you need to know; and it's knowing how to use the information once you get it."

"Before it can be solved, a problem must be clearly stated and defined."

"Improvement of one's economic position is helped more by cool persistence than by hot enthusiasm."

"It must be terrible to have to live among people and not like human beings."

"Loneliness is something you can't walk away from."

"Most of us regard good luck as our right, and bad luck as a betrayal of that right."

"No man is a failure who is enjoying life."

"No task is so humble that it does not offer an outlet for individuality."

"Nobody succeeds in a big way except by risking failure."

"None of us can buy goodwill; we must earn it."

"Not a tenth of us who are in business are doing as well as we could if we merely followed the principles that were known to our grandfathers."

"One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure."

"Problems always appear big when incompetent men are working on them."

"The big things that come our way are seldom the result of long thought or careful planning, but rather they are the fruit of seed planted in the daily routine of our work."

"The happiest people are those who are too busy to notice whether they are or not."

"The rule for every worthwhile man is that no serious job ever shall receive less than his best thought and effort."

"The wise man seeks little joys, knowing that life is long and that his quota of great joys is distinctly limited."

"There isn't much thrill in success unless one has first been close to failure."

"Too many of us vote for our prejudices instead of our desires."

"Too much voting is based on affability rather than on ability."

"We always admire the other fellow more after we have tried to do his job."

"A clear conscience doesn?t mean anything if you haven?t any conscience."

"A good time is seldom had by all."

"A single fact will often spoil an interesting argument."

"A tinfoil wrapper doesn?t make a bum cigar taste any better."

"Also quoted in Every Day Is Father's Day: The Best Things Ever Said About Dear Old Dad (1989), p. 150"

"An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't. It's knowing where to go to find out what you need to know, and it's knowing how to use the information once you get it."

"Anyone who can think clearly can write clearly. But neither is easy."

"Beware of the man who won't be bothered with details."

"Every job has two salaries. One is the pay you get. The other is the mental satisfaction you derive from working for the company."

"Experts never seem to tell us what we?re up against until we?re up against it."

"Flattery must be pretty thick before anybody objects to it."

"He was known to some people as a writer. In his writings he espoused thrift, industry, promptness, perseverance, and dependability. ? As far as was possible, the subject of this sketch practiced what he preached. Some of his enemies point to this trait as his foremost weakness."

"I like business because each day is a fresh, adventure."

"I like business because it compels earnestness. Amateurs and dilettantes are shoved out. Once in you must fight for survival or be carried to the sidelines."

"I like business because It demands faith. Faith in human nature, faith in one's self, faith in one's customers, faith in one's employees."

"I like business because it does not neglect today's task while it is thinking about tomorrow."

"I like business because it is bold in enterprise."

"I like business because it is competitive. Business keeps books. The books are the score cards. Profit is the measure of accomplishment, not the ideal measure, but the most practical that can be devised."