The Pine Tree Book of Quotations

Part Two

"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."

T. S. Eliot
From "Four Quartets"
20th Century English Poet

Learn… learn the motions of the mind,
Why you are made, for what you are designed,
And the great moral end of human kind.
Study thyself, what rank, or what degree
The wise Creator has ordained for thee:
And all the offices of that great estate
Perform, and with thy providence guide thy fate.

Author Unknown

"Observe always that everything is the result of change, and get used to thinking that there is nothing Nature loves so well as to change existing forms and make new ones like them."

Marcus Aurelius
Roman Emperor and Philosopher
Author of Meditations

"Other civilizations, perhaps more successful ones, may exist an infinite number of times on the preceding and following pages of the Book of the Universe. Yet we should not minimize our sacred endeavors in this world, where, like faint glimmers in the dark, we have emerged for a moment from the nothingness of unconsciousness into material existence. We must make demands of reason and create a life worthy of ourselves and of the goals we only dimly perceive."

From the Nobel Lecture of Andrei Sakharov (1921-1989),
Russian Nuclear Physicist, Leading Dissident, Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize,
Revered leader of the Democracy Movement in the former Soviet Union.

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
19th Century American Poet and Philosopher

"While washing dishes one should be washing the dishes, which means that while washing the dishes one should be completely aware of the fact that one is washing dishes."

"At first glance, that might seem a little silly: why put so much stress on a simple thing? But that’s precisely the point."

"The fact that I am standing there and washing bowls is a wondrous reality. I’m being completely myself, following my breath, conscious of my presence, and conscious of my thoughts and actions. "

"There’s no way I can be tossed around like a bottle slapped here and there on the waves."

Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness
Vietnamese Buddhist Monk and Philosopher

"Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by His hand that made all things of nothing, and gives being to all things that are; and as one small candle may light a thousand, so that light here kindled hath shone unto many, yea in some sort to our whole nation."

From Of Plymouth Plantation
William Bradford (1590-1657), Leader of the English Pilgrims,
Mayflower Traveller to America
Governor and founder of Plymouth Colony in 1620.

"For as long as space endures,
And for as long as living beings remain,
Until then may I, too, abide
To dispel the misery of the world."

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama

"Endless drama in a group clouds consciousness.
Too much noise overwhelms the senses.
Continual input obscures genuine insight.
Do not substitute sensationalism for learning."

"Allow regular time for silent reflection.
Turn inward and digest what has happened.
Let the senses rest and grow still."

"Teach people to let go of their superficial
mental chatter and obsessions.
Teach people to pay attention to the whole body’s reaction to a situation."

"When group members have time to reflect, they can see more clearly what is essential in themselves and others."

From: Time for Reflection: The Tao of Leadership by John Heider

"A friend is one to whom one may pour out
All the contents of one’s heart,
Chaff and grain together.
Knowing that the gentlest of hands
Will take and sift it,
Keeping what is worth keeping,
And with a breath of kindness,
Blow the rest away."

Traditional Arab Proverb

"Men learn while they teach"

Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Roman Statesman and Philosopher, (4 BC – 63 AD)
From his Epistulae Morales, Letters on Moral Philosophy

"Ancora imparo"
"I am still learning"

A favorite saying of Michelangelo Buonarotti (1475-1564)
Florentine Sculptor, Artist, Architect and Poet

"Taking care of our planet is like taking care of our houses. Since we human beings come from Nature, there is no point in our going against nature, which is why I say the environment is not a matter of religion or ethics or morality. These are luxuries, since we can survive without them. But we will not survive if we continue to go against nature."

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama

"Leadership is the process of persuasion or example by which an individual induces a group to pursue objectives held by the leader or shared by his … followers."

John W. Gardner, On Leadership, 1990.

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

Commander Spock, Science Officer
Starship Enterprise

Fail to honor people, they fail to honor you,
But of a good leader, who talks little,
When his work is done, his aim is fulfilled,
They will all say, "We did this ourselves."

Lao-tze, Chinese Philosopher (Sixth Century BC)
From the Tao-Te-Ching

"To be persuasive we must be believable;
to be believable we must be credible;
to be credible, we must be truthful."

Edward R. Murrow
Journalist and News Commentator
Pioneer of Broadcast Journalism

"You never conquer mountains.
You only conquer yourself."

Jim Whitaker,
First American to climb Mount Everest

"The ablest man I ever met is the man you think you are."

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945)
President of the United States during the Great Depression and the Second World War, 1933-1945

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened."

Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
British statesman and author, Prime Minister of England during World War II.
Historian, writer, renowned speaker and orator.

"Experience is not what happens to a man.
It is what a man does with what happens to him."

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)
British author

"I went out to Charing Cross to see Major-General Harrison hanged, drawn and quartered; which was done there, he looking as cheerful as any man could do in that condition."

Samuel Pepys (1633-1703)
17th Century English diarist

"Make it so!"

Captain Jean-Luc Picard,
Commanding Officer, Starship Enterprise

If you want one year of prosperity, grow grain.
If you want ten years of prosperity, grow trees.
If you want one hundred years of prosperity, grow people.

Ancient Chinese Proverb

"Let each man do his best."

William Shakespeare, Henry IV, 1548

The Nine Tasks of Leadership

Envisioning Goals
Affirming Values
Motivating
Managing
Achieving Workable Unity
Explaining
Serving as a Symbol
Representing the Group
Renewing

John W. Gardner, On Leadership, 1990.

"Learning is ever young, even in old age."

Aeschylus (c. 490 BC)
Classical Greek Dramatist
Agamemnon, Ancient Greek Tragedy

"We grow more candid as we grow up.
There is fate to thank for that.
And changes in life coincide
with major changes in ourselves.

If we see people differently
than we saw them before,
if we discover
something new in them,
then that means
it surfaced first in ourselves."

From Zima Junction (1955)
A poem by Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Contemporary Russian Poet

"We die only once, and for such a long time."

Moliere (1622-1673)
French Playwright

"Scouting is not an abstruse or difficult science: rather it is a jolly game if you take it in the right light. In the same time it is educative, and (like Mercy) it is apt to benefit him that giveth as well as him that receives."

Sir Robert Baden-Powell
Preface to Aids to Scoutmastership (1920)

"Neither the youngsters nor the oldsters of today are fully aware of the breadth and depth of the wild animal mind, the wonderful scope of its reasoning, or the high quality of its conclusion… the wild animal must think or die."

William Temple Hornaday, 1928
American Naturalist, Director of the New York Zoological Society.

The Scoutmaster guides the boy in the spirit of an older brother….
He has simply to be a boy-man, that is:
(1) He must have the boy spirit in him: and must be able to place himself in the right plane with his boys as a first step.
(2) He must realise the needs, outlooks and desires of the different ages of boy life.
(3) He must deal with the individual boy rather than with the mass.
(4) He then needs to promote a corporate spirit among his individuals to gain the best results.

Sir Robert Baden-Powell
Aids to Scoutmastership (1920)

"I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence;
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference."

From the poem: "The Road Not Taken"
Robert Frost, American Poet

"A man’s true greatness lies in the consciousness of an honest purpose in life, founded on a just estimate of himself and everything else, on frequent self-examinations, and a steady obedience to the rule which he knows to be right, without troubling himself about what others may think or say, or whether they do or do not that which he thinks and says and does."

Marcus Aurelius (121-180)
Roman Emperor and Philosopher.
From The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

"It is the Patrol System that makes the Troop, and all Scouting for that matter, a real co-operative matter."

Sir Robert Baden-Powell
Aids to Scoutmastership (1920)

Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper, void of all characters, without any ideas: How comes it to be furnished?

Whence comes it by that vast store which the busy and boundless fancy of man has painted on it with an almost endless variety? Whence has it all the materials of reason and knowledge?

To this I answer, in one word, from EXPERIENCE. In that all our knowledge is founded; and from that it ultimately derives itself.

John Locke, 17th century English Philosopher.
From his essay: Concerning Human Understanding

"A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out."

Walter Winchell, American Journalist

Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are , we are —
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Alfred Lord Tennyson,
English Poet and Poet Laureate (1809-1892)
From Ulysses, 1842

"I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show a fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again."

Author Unknown

"Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket; and do not pull it out and strike it, merely to show that you have one. If you are asked what o’clock it is, tell it; but do not proclaim it hourly and unasked, like the watchman"

Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield.
English statesman, orator, wit and man of letters (1694-1773)
From, Letters to his Son.

"A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves"

Bertrand de Jouvenal

"He who remembers from day to day what he has yet to learn, and from month to month what he has learned already, may be said to have a love of learning."

Confucius (K’ung Fu-Tzu)
Ancient Chinese Philosopher (551-479 BC)
From, The Analects

"A sense of humor and the ability to laugh at oneself and recognize one’s own human weaknesses is a desirable quality of leadership."

Paul Petzoldt
Founder of the National Outdoor Leadership School in Lander, Wyoming. An early mountaineering guide in the Teton Range, he joined the 1938 American expedition to K2 in the Himalayas. He is known as a pioneer in cold weather techniques and in the design of cold weather gear.

"Man is a singular creature. He has a set of gifts which make him unique among the animals: so that, unlike them, he is not a figure in the landscape – he is a shaper of the landscape. In body and in mind he is the explorer of nature, the ubiquitous animal, who did not find but has made his home on every continent."

Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man

"The first ten million years were the worst, and the second ten million years, they were the worst too. The third ten million I didn’t enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline."

Marvin, the Manic Depressive Robot,
in Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

"The Answer to the Great Question of the Meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything is Forty-two."

Douglas Adams,
Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Universe (1979)

"The stone that is thrown into the air is none the worse for falling down, and none the better for going up."

Marcus Aurelius
Roman Emperor and Classical Philosopher (121-80 BC)
From Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

The Pine Tree Book of Quotations (1997)

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Last Modified: 8:20 AM on May 10, 2010