"You must beware of shadows."
page 109 of The Little Schemer
Ask HN: What is your favorite motto?
21–30 of 472 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite motto?
#22A few personal favorites:
Nil Magnum Nisi Bonum - from Life of Pi by Yann Martel Translates roughly to No Greatness Without Goodness
Ars longa, vita brevis - Art is long, life is short
“He who is afraid to ask is ashamed of learning.” — Danish proverb
"Fortune favors the prepared mind." -Pasteur
“Champions behave like Champions before they are Champions” - Bill Walsh
Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite motto?
#23"Perfection is usually expensive and frequently impossible. Settle for excellence."
Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite motto?
#24Si vis pacem, para bellum. I like it because it has wide applicability outside of literal violence; all of life is a struggle, and the more prepared for that one is, the easier life can be made.
That more generalized version could be that of the Boy Scouts - "Be Prepared".
Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite motto?
#25"Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
(Howard Thurman)
Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite motto?
#26Life is about the decisions you make when you give up your freedom.
Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite motto?
#27If it is too hard you’re doing it wrong.
Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite motto?
#28When I was in my 20s I lived on a bicycle for a year, going around the lower 48 and Canada, and then up to Alaska. I lived for two weeks in Joshua Tree with a guy named Tom, who slept in a cave the whole time.
One morning we were sorting our gear and a piece of paper fell out of his wallet. As I handed it back to him, I read the three lines on it:
Work hard.
Be strong.
Don't complain.
I asked him about it, and he said that was advice his grandfather had given him. He wrote those lines down and carried them with him to remind him of what his grandather had told him. Those words have echoed in my mind for decades now. They're not absolutes; there are times to let go of work, to let yourself not have to be strong, and times to stand up and complain and protest loudly. But the spirit of that advice has certainly been a guiding force in my life.
Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite motto?
#29"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood" - Daniel Burnham
Or the more complete quote;
"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and our grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty."
Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite motto?
#30"You can only change yourself" (internet pop wisdom)
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry