Carl's Quote of the Day

03/31/06

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has his foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.

--Archbishop Desmond Tutu [in SojoMail 07.28.04]

03/30/06

Secularists, both liberal and conservative, fail because they see people as objects—either to be punished or to be serviced—whereas biblical justice is much grander, viewing people as humans made in God's image.

--Charles Colson "What Is Justice?" Christianity Today

03/29/06

Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy.

--Wendell Berry in Daily Dig 11/14/05

03/28/06

Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice.

--H. L. Mencken

03/27/06

What is justice? It's a threshold question for any society. The classic definition handed down through the ages is simply seeing that "each person gets his due." Fair enough. But secular liberals and secular conservatives today interpret this very differently—and their views translate into very different public policies. For modern liberals, "getting their due" means giving benefits to the needy; for conservatives it's punishing wrongdoers.

--Charles Colson "What Is Justice?" Christianity Today

Justice this week – sadly, just as a theme for Carl’s Quote of the Day.

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03/24/06

People everywhere confuse what they read in the newspaper with news.

--A.J. Liebling quoted in Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 12/26/04

03/23/06

Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock.

--Ben Hecht quoted in Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 2/26/06

03/22/06

We are called to be faithful, not famous. Bad behavior sells newspapers. Honesty and integrity honor the Lord. Don't make news!

--David McCasland in Our Daily Bread 11/20/05

03/21/06

I must say that among educated people, politics occupies far too great a proportion of time. All the periodicals, all the newspapers are saturated with politics, although many of the objects they are discussing are very transient and short-term. Of course, many people do occupy themselves with higher themes.... But in general, modern humankind is characterized by the loss of the ability to answer the principal problems of life and death. People are prepared to stuff their heads with anything, and to talk of any subject, but only to block off the contemplation of this subject. This is the reason for the increasing pettiness of our society, the concentration on the small and irrelevant.

--Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn quoted in SojoMail 8/5/04

03/20/06

Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.

---Unknown

Quotes about “the news” this week.

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03/17/06

Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death.

--Harold Wilson quoted in Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 3/5/06

03/16/06

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

03/15/06

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

--Winston Churchill

03/14/06

One man with courage makes a majority.

--Andrew Jackson

03/13/06

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear--not absence of fear.

--Mark Twain

Courage is… our theme this week at Carl’s Quote of the Day.

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03/10/06

Use the past as a springboard, not as a sofa.

--Our Daily Bread 02/03/06

03/09/06

Trust the past to the mercy of God, the present to his love, and the future to his providence.

--St. Augustine

03/08/06

The book’s essential advice: learn from the past, live in the present and plan for the future.

--Jennifer Barrett on Spencer Johnson's The Present at http://www.msnbc.com/news/981215.asp?vts=101620031608

03/07/06

There is a way to look at the past. Don't hide from it.

It will not catch you--if you don't repeat it.

--Pearl Bailey

The past actually happened but history is only what someone wrote down.

--A. Whitney Brown

From the future last week to the past this week. Seems a little backward, but that’s not unusual for Carl’s Quote of the Day.

03/03/06

Life lived for tomorrow will always be just a day away from being realized.

--Leo Buscaglia in John Maxwell's Leadership Wired v8i24

03/02/06

When all else is lost, the future still remains.

--Christian Nestell Bovee

03/01/06

My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there.

--Charles F. Kettering

02/28/06

The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be.

--Paul Valery quoted in Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 7/18/04

02/27/06

The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed.

--William Gibson

Actually, the future is here and Carl’s Quote of the Day emails seem to be stuck there as opposed to being delivered when they’re supposed to be. Oh well, the future is our theme this week. Please visit the archives if you missed those “stuck in cyberspace” Carl’s Quote of the Day emails: www.QuoteOfTheDay.us.

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02/24/06

Everybody kind of perceives me as being angry. It's not anger, it's motivation.

--Roger Clemens

In Spring Training any team can still win the World Series. I know, I know, how can we call it a World Series when we don’t invite the rest of the world? At least this spring we also have the World Baseball Cup. The aforementioned Mr. Motivation is pitching for the US. I’ll root for the US anyway.

02/23/06

When they start the game, they don't yell, "Work ball."

They say, "Play ball."

--Willie Stargell

02/22/06

A baseball game is simply a nervous breakdown divided into nine innings.

--Earl Wilson

02/21/06

More than any other American sport, baseball creates the magnetic, addictive illusion that it can almost be understood.

--Thomas Boswell in Inside Sports

02/20/06

Baseball is a game where a curve is an optical illusion, a screwball can be a pitch or a person, stealing is legal and you can spit anywhere you like except in the umpire's eye or on the ball.

--Jim Murray

It may be snowing and freezing in the northern reaches of North America, but in Florida and here in Arizona it’s warm and sunny. Pitchers and Catchers have reported to spring training and the position players are dribbling in. I love this time of year – Baseball Season!

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02/17/06

Across the United States, there are Saudi-funded mosques, teaching that nation's particularly intolerant brand of Islam. There are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia; they're against the law. In Iraq on Friday, the country's dwindling community of Chaldean Catholics prepared for more of the terrorist attacks that have become routine; there were no reported attacks on Muslims in any of the countries where the Danish caricatures were republished. Muslims in those places may have been affronted, but they are not in fear for their lives.

--Tim Rutten "Drawn into a religious conflict"

02/16/06

Let me get this straight:

Depicting a likeness of the Prophet Mohammed is considered an unspeakable crime in Islam. However, driving a bomb-laden automobile into a group of Muslim schoolchildren, to get at one American soldier, will get you a ticket to heaven with 70 virgins.

And we are the decadent infidels bereft of morality and common decency.

--R. Darrick Johnson, Tempe "Cartoons are bad, but bombs OK?" Letters to the Editor, Arizona Republic

02/15/06

There is no Quranic injunction against images, whether of Muhammad or anyone else.

-- Amir Taheri in his op-ed piece "Bonfire of the Pieties" in the Wall Street Journal quoted by Kobayashi Maru at http://kmaru.blogspot.com/

For contemporary conservative commentary, visit the blog of your fellow subscriber Kobayashi Maru at http://kmaru.blogspot.com/.

02/14/06

At the National Black Fine Art Show, a painting by Harlem artist "Tafa" depicts an upside down "Christ-like" figure with a face that resembles Osama bin Laden. No Christians have threatened the artist, or bombed the building where it is displayed, or attacked the city government.

Throughout the Middle East, state-controlled newspapers regularly depict Jews and Israeli leaders in despicable, stereotypical and anti-Semitic caricatures. These cartoons show Jews with hooked noses; Stars of David morphing into swastikas; Palestinian and Arab blood drips from Jewish hands and Jews are blamed for creating AIDS. Neither those newspapers, nor Arab embassies have been attacked by Jewish mobs.

When a Danish newspaper publishes several political cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, riots ensue and the artists and newspaper receive death threats.

-- Cal Thomas “Cartoon wars”

Our theme this week is not the “anti-Muslim” cartoons; it’s more the reporting on same. And this opinion piece is among the best I found.

02/13/06

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

--US Constitution, First Amendment

Very infrequently do I quote current events, but this week is the exception. (And I mean events even more current than the US Constitution.) Any guesses as to what our theme will be this week? Hit reply and tell me your guess.

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02/10/06

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

02/09/06

The belief that youth is the happiest time of life is founded on a fallacy. The happiest people are those who think the most interesting thoughts. Those who decide to use leisure as a means of mental development, who love good music, good books, good pictures, good company, good conversation, are the happiest people in the world. And they are not only happy in themselves, they are the cause of happiness in others.

--William Lyon Phelps Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 01/01/06

02/08/06

In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.

--Mortimer J. Adler Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 12/25/05

02/07/06

Books are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind. Books are humanity in print.

--Barbara W. Tuchman in Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 1/29/06

02/06/06

Books . . . are like lobster shells, we surround ourselves with 'em, then we grow out of 'em and leave 'em behind, evidence of our earlier stage of development.

--Dorothy L. Sayers Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 12/11/05

Hmmm, looking around my home office makes more sense now. Although perhaps this quote is more appropriate:

A room without books is like a body without a soul.

--Cicero

Looks like our theme will be books and reading this week.

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02/03/06

No horse ever gets anywhere until he is harnessed. No steam or gas ever drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined.

--Harry Emerson Fosdick in Leadership Wired v8i18

02/02/06

All in vain is splendid preaching

And the noble things we say;

All our talk is wasted teaching

If we do not lead the way.

--Anonymous quoted in Our Daily Bread 09/10/05

02/01/06

[L]eaders today need to listen more. We have what we call the 51 percent rule, which is that more than 50 percent of communication from leaders should be listening, not talking or sending the message out.

--Chuck Martin in Leadership Wired v8n13

01/31/06

You cannot teach what you do not know, nor lead where you do not go.

--Our Daily Bread 09/10/05

Leadership is character in action.

--Warren Bennis in Leadership Wired v8i18

…as opposed to “Leadership is character inaction.” Right, then, leadership returns as the theme for this week’s Carl’s Quote of the Day.

01/27/06

What the world really needs is more love and less paperwork.

--Pearl Bailey

01/26/06

Such ever was love's way;

to rise, it stoops.

--Robert Browning

01/25/06

By love, I don’t mean merely an emotional feeling, but a fundamental attitude. In its deepest sense, love is the life, the energy, of God in us.

--Kallistos Ware Daily Dig 10/25/05

01/24/06

Love in return for love is natural, but love in return for hate is supernatural.

--Our Daily Bread 08/18/05

01/23/06

Love is man's natural endowment,

but he doesn't know how to use it.

He refuses to recognize the power of love

because of his love of power.

--Dick Gregory Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 10/10/04

Love, Sweet Love, that’s the only theme I’ve been dreaming of. [With apologies to Hal David.]

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01/20/06

The art of leadership is to work with the natural grain of the particular wood of humanity which comes to hand.

--John Adair

01/19/06

Excellent leaders get extraordinary results from ordinary people.

--leadership principle quoted in "Leader's Insight: Darned Sox" by Marshall Shelley, Leadership editor

01/18/06

In Aristotelian terms, the good leader must have ethos, pathos and logos.

The ethos is his moral character, the source of his ability to persuade.

The pathos is his ability to touch feelings to move people emotionally.

The logos is his ability to give solid reasons for an action, to move people intellectually.

--Mortimer J. Adler quoted in Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 12/25/05

01/17/06

[T]he kind of teaching that causes people to learn often takes place in the course of work, rather than in a formal educational setting. It takes place when a leader makes a connection with a follower—by recounting lessons learned from failure, by sharing personal or professional experiences, by walking someone step-by-step through a difficult task or simply by modeling the best way to handle a given situation.

--John C. Maxwell in Leadership Wired v8i18

01/16/06

Leadership is about inspiring and influencing people to action. It's about our character; it's about the person that we are in building relationships. Management is the things that we do—the planning, the budgeting, the problem-solving, the organizing—and that's real important.

--James C. Hunter quoted in Leadership Wired v8i18

Demons? No. Critics? No. Leaders? Yes, it’s been too long, so leaders and leadership this week at Carl’s Quote of the Day.

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01/13/06

Don't be distracted by criticism. Remember--the only taste of success some people have is when they take a bite out of you.

--Zig Ziglar

01/12/06

Critics are like eunuchs in a harem. They’re there every night. They see it done every night. They see how it should be done every night. But they can’t do it themselves.

--Brendan Behan quoted by Doug Giles at http://townhall.com/opinion/columns/douggiles/2005/12/31/180766.html

01/11/06

Critics are a dissembling, contemptible race of men. Asking a player what he feels about critics is like asking a lamppost what it feels about dogs.

--John Osborne quoted by Doug Giles at http://townhall.com/opinion/columns/douggiles/2005/12/31/180766.html

01/10/06

I have yet to find a man, whatever his situation in life, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than he ever would do under a spirit of criticism.

--Charles M. Schwab quoted in Leadership Wired v8i13

01/09/06

It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.

--Theodore Roosevelt quoted in Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 01/01/06

Criticizing the critics – that’s our theme this week at Carl’s Quote of the Day.

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01/06/06

Rules without relationship breed rebellion. Relationships without rules breed indulgence. Both rebellion and indulgence lead to the same end...death. That's why we love rules, as long as they are too few or too many.

--Prince Ishbane, a demon in The Ishbane Conspiracy by Angela, Karina, and Randy Alcorn

01/05/06

The Enemy has only the forbidden book. We have Madison Avenue. And Hollywood. And the mall bookstores. And the newspapers. Sometimes even the forbidden fellowship itself! How could the Tyrant hope to defeat us?

--Prince Ishbane, a demon in The Ishbane Conspiracy by Angela, Karina, and Randy Alcorn

01/04/06

He won't confront his son because he thinks he'd lose him. He's unwilling to risk his son's disapproval, which guarantees he'll ultimately receive it.

--Prince Ishbane, a demon in The Ishbane Conspiracy by Angela, Karina, and Randy Alcorn

01/03/06

If [children] always get what they want, they can never be content with less. This is why indulging their children is a cruelty worthy of us. Inevitably it makes the little vermin unhappy.

--Prince Ishbane, a demon in The Ishbane Conspiracy by Angela, Karina, and Randy Alcorn

The Ishbane Conspiracy is a must-read for parents of teenagers (and younger). For the rest of the week we’ll quote the fictional demon in charge of guaranteeing a few select young people a place in Hell. The points he makes are just as valid whether you consider the demon a person or the personification of an abstraction.

01/02/06

American young adults, though living in a nation inundated with Christianity and founded upon Christian principles, have become (through parental neglect and ecclesiastical nonchalance combined with a heavy dose of liberal acrimony) completely secularized. This demographic seems more disinterested in Christianity than PDiddy is in driving a Corolla.

--David Giles, "The Church and Contextualization Frustration"

Young adults and kids. Raising kids. Disciplining kids. Somewhere in those phases is the theme for this week’s Carl’s Quote of the Day. Or maybe I’m drawn to today’s quote because I do drive a Corolla.

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12/30/05

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, Give me a light that I might go safely out into the darkness. And he replied, Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be more to you than a light, and safer than a known way.

--M. L. Haskins Daily Dig 1/1/05

Do you always have time to read your email, but never time to read through the Bible in a year? Sign up for a Bible reading per day by email at http://www.studylight.org/plan/byemail.cgi. http://www.studylight.org/ is also a good Bible and Bible resource site.

12/29/05

People often ask me, "How do you maintain your spiritual high? What do you do on a day-to-day basis?" I tell them about my quiet time. Some days it is early, sometimes it is late. Without it, my Christian life would be a wilderness.

--Billy Graham

12/28/05

Get this into your brain: Television is an E.I.R.: Electronic Income Reducer. TV has killed more dreams and visions than crack could ever hope to.

--Doug Giles http://townhall.com/opinion/columns/douggiles/2005/12/17/179544.html

12/27/05

Outrageous, hard-to-reach targets will motivate you far more than reasonable ones. Never pick a small fight. In the Bible, David challenged and killed Goliath, not his ugly and skinny bearded sister.

--Doug Giles at http://townhall.com/opinion/columns/douggiles/2005/12/17/179544.html

12/26/05

My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there.

--Charles F. Kettering

The future starts now – we just pay more attention to 11:59 pm on 31 December. This week’s theme at Carl’s Quote of the Day is preparing for the future. It might even spur you to make some resolutions!

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12/23/05

Ah! dearest Jesus, Holy Child,

Make thee a bed, soft, undefiled,

Within my heart, that it may be

A quiet chamber kept for thee.

--Martin Luther (1483–1546)

…and Merry Christmas to all!

12/22/05

Jesus Christ is the only God who has a date in history.

--Dorothy Sayers, Christian Reader, Vol. 33, no. 6

12/21/05

"It seems, then," said Tirian, ... "that the Stable seen from within and the Stable seen from without are two different places."

"Yes," said Lord Digory. "Its inside is bigger than its outside."

“Yes," said Queen Lucy. "In our world too, a Stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world."

--C.S. Lewis in The Last Battle (The Chronicles of Narnia). Christianity Today, Vol. 36, no. 15.

Go see the movie!

12/20/05

Sever Christmas from Good Friday and the result would be to doom Christmas as nothing more than a time to be merry and gay based on Lore.

--Hulda C. Miller in “The Creche and the Cross”. Christianity Today, Vol. 36, no. 15

12/19/05

And lastly, secularists, please . . . don't flatter yourselves by thinking that our celebrating Christ's birthday is an effort to convert you. Relax. We're not trying to evangelize anyone. This, like so many other things, is not about you. We simply want to pause and recognize the birth of the most powerful figure in our world's history, namely, Jesus Christ. It's all about Him.

--Doug Giles at http://clashradio.com/clashpoint.html

Christmas is coming! Let’s transition to the spiritual importance of Christmas this week.

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12/16/05

Two ladies were shopping at the mall when they happened upon a large nativity scene in one of the department store windows. In disgust, one turned to the other and said, "Just look at that. Now the church is trying to horn in on Christmas!"

--Humorous Notes, Quotes, and Anecdotes, Leslie & Bernice Flynn, 1973, p. 27

12/15/05

Saks Fifth Avenue clearly wants the store to “feel a lot like Christmas” without actually acknowledging the season as such: its awnings are trimmed with a litany of words—JOY, PEACE, HOPE, GLORY—that read as if they were cribbed from Christmas carols, like gems without a setting.

--Kenneth Woodward, “Neutering Santa” Newsweek

It’s always a treat when one of the 95 of you subscribers hits reply to share something. This link was sent in yesterday: Activist Judge Cancels Christmas. (Please note: it’s satire, not news!)

12/14/05

On their first Dec. 25 in the New World, in 1620, the Puritans worked on building projects and ostentatiously ignored the holiday. From 1659 to 1681 Massachusetts went further, making celebrating Christmas "by forbearing of labor, feasting or in any other way" a crime.

--Adam Cohen in "This Season's War Cry: Commercialize Christmas, or Else", NYTimes

12/13/05

Or consider Christmas—could Satan in his most malignant mood have devised a worse combination of graft plus bunkum than the system whereby several hundred million people get a billion or so gifts for which they have no use, and some thousands of shop clerks die of exhaustion while selling them, and every other child in the Western world is made ill from overeating—all in the name of the lowly Jesus?

--Upton Beall Sinclair (1878–1968)

12/12/05

Thanksgiving was not far away. Michelle, who teaches the Bible in our mid-week children's program, decided to ask her preschoolers about the holiday. She thought it would be effective to have the class playfully correct some wrong ideas about Thanksgiving.

"Now let me see. Thanksgiving. That's the day when we think about all the stuff we have. And how we want more things than anybody else has. And how we don't care about anybody but ourselves. And—"

"No!" the kids started to yell. "No-o-o!"

Then one little guy called out, "That's not Thanksgiving, Miss Michelle, that's Christmas!"

--Rubel Shelly—Nashville, Tennessee ChristianityToday.com

It’s time for our annual visit with the material side of Christmas as our theme at Carl’s Quote of the Day this week. Next week, the real side, the spiritual side.

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12/09/05

Management expert Peter Drucker once wrote that too often people focus on efficiency (doing things right), instead of on effectiveness (doing the right thing). "There are few things less pleasing to the Lord, and less productive," Drucker says, "than an engineering department that rapidly turns out beautiful blueprints for the wrong product. Working on the right things is what makes . . . work effective." Those are wise words for anyone seeking business success, and for those trying to live a good life.

--David C. McCasland, Our Daily Bread 9/7/02

12/08/05

Priorities are easy; posteriororities - what jobs not to tackle - are tough.

--Peter Drucker

12/07/05

Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes... but no plans.

--Peter Drucker

12/06/05

The three greatest leaders of the 20th century were Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. If that’s leadership, I want no part of it.

--Peter Drucker in “An Appreciation Peter Drucker: 1909–2005“ by Geoffrey Colvin, Fortune

The most charismatic leaders of the last century were called Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Mussolini. They were mis-leaders! Charismatic leadership by itself certainly is greatly overstated. Look, one of the most effective American presidents of the last 100 years was Harry Truman. He didn't have an ounce of charisma. Truman was as bland as a dead mackerel. Everybody who worked for him worshiped him because he was absolutely trustworthy.

--Peter Drucker, “Peter Drucker On Leadership“ Forbes.com

12/05/05

You know, I was the first one to talk about leadership 50 years ago, but there is too much talk, too much emphasis on it today and not enough on effectiveness.

--Peter Drucker, “Peter Drucker On Leadership“ Forbes.com

Management arch-guru Peter Drucker passed away several weeks ago, just shy of his 96^th birthday. If you have even the remotest interest in leadership, especially effective leadership, read the article this quote is from: “Peter Drucker On Leadership“. You might be surprised to learn of his religious background and his relationship with Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren. And Drucker’s insights are amazing. And, oh by the way, our theme this week is effective leadership as espoused by Peter Drucker.

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12/02/05

Courage is being willing to fight for a cause even when sure of losing. Look deeply at life and you will find that there are many victories worse than defeat.

--George Eliot

12/01/05

Courage is fear that has said its prayers.

--Dorothy Bernard in Chris Widener's Ezine i22

11/30/05

Courage is grace under pressure.

--Ernest Hemingway

11/29/05

Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared.

--Eddie Rickenbacker (quoted in Leadership Wired v6i7)

11/28/05

Courage is not the absence of fear but the mastery of it.

--David Roper in Our Daily Bread 11/04/03

Courage is… our theme this week at Carl’s Quote of the Day. And “Courage is” begins each quotation this week.

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11/25/05

Ralph: I've come to the conclusion that Halloween is my favorite Holiday.

Norman: Why?

Ralph: Because a month after Halloween comes Thanksgiving. And a month after that comes Christmas. And right after that comes New Year's Day, and only three months after that, baseball season starts again. That's why I love Halloween!

Norman: I can almost taste the hot dogs!

--Drabble comic strip

You knew baseball would work its way into a quote sooner or later, right? Especially since I avoided quoting the World Series this year.

11/24/05

Charles Dickens said that we are somewhat mixed up here in America. He told an audience that instead of having one Thanksgiving Day each year we should have 364. "Use that one day just for complaining and griping," he said. "Use the other 364 days to thank God each day for the many blessings He has showered upon you."

--Stories for Preachers and Teachers

Today “here in America” is “there in America” as I am at a trade show in Germany.

11/23/05

I've never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart, didn't appreciate the grind, the discipline. … I firmly believe that any man's finest hour—this greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear—is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle victorious.

--Vince Lombardi in Leadership Wired v8i18

Lots of football coming up over the next 4 days!

11/22/05

[Y]our goal should not be to eliminate uncertainty. Instead, you must develop the art of being clear in the face of uncertainty. The art of clarity involves giving explicit and precise direction in spite of limited information and unpredictable outcomes.

--Andy Stanley in “The Uncertain Leader” on ChristianityToday.com

11/21/05

Leadership is not about personality. If you look at all the great leaders in history, you'll see all different kinds of personality, from Gen. Patton to Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, from Martin Luther King Jr. to Billy Graham, from John Wooden to Bobby Knight—as different styles as you can imagine. Personality is fixed by age six—you don't change personality. Personality has nothing to do with leadership. Leadership is about substance, not style. Personality is style. Substance is character.

--James C. Hunter in Leadership Wired v8i18

Leadership as a theme this week. Who would have guessed? In the US it’s a three-day work week, so we’ll make this a three-day theme, then give thanks.

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11/18/05

In life we are to leave an enduring impression; not a careless dent.

--Fr. Brian Cavanaugh [quoted in Jim Rohn's ezine 10/14/03]

11/17/05

If you wish to find, you must search. Rarely does a good idea interrupt you.

--Jim Rohn in his weekly ezine 9/23/03

11/16/05

Genius is seldom recognized for what it is: a great capacity for hard work.

--Henry Ford

11/15/05

He who praises everybody, praises nobody.

--Samuel Johnson

11/14/05

The soul would have no rainbow if the eyes had no tears.

--Our Daily Bread 9/2/03

Our theme this week is non-existent; i.e., there is no theme this week – just good quotes.

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11/11/05

At INJOY, our leadership team includes directing leaders, team-building leaders, strategic leaders and operational leaders. I am in tune with and enjoy the ones who are just like me the most. But the ones who help me the most are the ones who are not like me.

--John C. Maxwell, Leadership Wired v5i5

11/10/05

Are leaders born or are leaders made—the age-old question. When I first got in this business 28 years ago, I was pretty well convinced that they were born. Or at least an amalgam between genetics, your environment coming up, your experience, your education—all that kind of stuff thrown into a bucket and out jumps a leader. But 28 years later, there is no doubt in my mind that leadership is a skill—a learned or acquired ability—and I'm convinced it's available to 95 percent of the population.

--James C. Hunter in Leadership Wired v8i18

11/09/05

An effective leader commands respect;

an ineffective one only respects a command.

--Dr. Mardy Grothe in Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week 10/23/05

11/08/05

Only by being on the level can we rise in the eyes of others.

--Our Daily Bread 10/29/05

11/07/05

At Santa Clara University in California, a researcher conducted a study of 1,500 business managers that revealed what workers value most in a supervisor. Employees said they respected a leader who shows competence, has the ability to inspire workers, and is skillful in providing direction. But there was a fourth quality they admired even more--integrity.

--Mart De Haan in Our Daily Bread 10/29/05

From chocolate to leadership – not such a leap, perhaps, at least in the world of themes at Carl’s Quote of the Day.

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11/04/05

Life is like a box of chocolates... you never know what you're gonna get.

--Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump

Life isn't like a box of chocolates... it's more like a jar of jalapenos. What you do today, might burn your butt tomorrow.

--Unknown

11/03/05

Who needs therapy when you have chocolate.

--Dove Promise

11/02/05

Have chocolate before bed to sweeten your dreams.

--Dove Promise

11/01/05

Life. Joy. Chocolate.

--Dove Promise

10/31/05

I have only one vice and it's chocolate.

--Dove Promise

All this week’s quotes are short and sweet… and mostly read from the inside of candy wrappers. Talk about waxing philosophical! (Ok, we’ll end the week on a truly philosophical note… philosophical and funny.)

And for those readers who knew me way back when my office was well-stocked with dark chocolate Dove Promises, be assured that there are constants in the universe… my office is still well-stocked.

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