gavin baker

In the beginning…

Posted on | January 3, 2008 | View Comments

Forbes Book of Quotations

I love reading. As one of lifes little ironies, I work for book company and I STILL got books for Christmas gifts! One of those gifts was The Forbes Book of Business Quotations: 14,173 Thoughts on the Business of Life. I’m pretty excited about it, so I thought I’d share the following quote with you from the business section to start out 2008. It’s by George Matthew Adams

There should be no age limits placed on ambition, alertness, creativeness, or in fact on anything that may mark the mental or spiritual progress of any human being…There is an old saying, Nothing ventured nothing gained. Obviously true, but on the other hand, even though many of our ventures come to no profitable end, the very fact that we ventured should be to our credit. People who stand still, or just watch from the sidelines of life, only partly live. To venture, and only to get fun out of it, has a constructive angle to it. Keep venturing and you’ll never grow dull!

To an year of venturing and ambition!

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Category: books
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Comments

  • Steve,

    If we are talking about quotes and knowledgeable statements, then I'm throwing your example of Mickey out the door - he may be widely recognized, but who can quote Mikey right now? Plenty of people can quote Shakespeare, but they just don't know it. Just because they don't know it's him, doesn't mean it doesn't have truth to it.

    Here's some Shakespeare I read recently:


    There is a tide in the affairs of men
    Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
    Omitted, all the voyage of their life
    Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
    On such a full sea are we now afloat;
    And we must take the current when it serves
    Or lose our ventures.
  • Keep in mind that Shakespere is only known by a small portion of the population. Mickey Mouse is more widely known. I'd bet in the next 400 years they'll know Mickey and not Shakespere.
  • Adam S
    Ah, to get fun out of it...yes, that can be difficult any day can't it....

    maybe tomorrow.

    Great quote.

    I have to side with Gavin here, seems like Shakespere can only be appreciated 400 years later...who knows where Buffet and Gates will be in 400 years. Can you compare two people from different ages?

    A
  • I read all of Shakespere and seen the plays. I can't think of anything memorable about it. In fact, I think a lot of it fits a different era and not ours. I've read Bill Gates' book and seen several speeches and his insights into business and the world in the next few years are very insightful and useful for business people.

    There are many others in that same category. I think you get more from people like Warren Buffet.
  • Steve- thanks for your comment. I agree with you that there is a lot to be learned from quotes, but I don't quite get your comparison of Gates to Shakespeare. I'd lean to the side of learning more from Shakespeare than Gates. Shakespeare takes more interpretation, but isn't it better to engage with a text and pull out meaning then just reading it straight?
  • I'd like to see this type of book in the schools. I just think there's a built in resistance to this type of thinking. Do you learn more from Shakespere or Bill Gates?
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