Irish writer Oliver Goldsmith, born in 1728, made his name as a novelist, playwright and poet, and is best known for The Vicar of Wakefield and the comedy She Stoops to Conquer. He also wrote a satirical work in letters called The Citizen of the World, narrated by an imagined Chinese philosopher living in London. … Read more
There’s a particular kind of waiting many people live in without noticing it. Life will really start once the promotion comes through, once the business hits a certain revenue, once the house is paid off, once the next milestone arrives. Each plan feels like the thing standing between now and the life that’s supposed to … Read more
Author, lecturer and activist Helen Keller spent most of her life proving that one person’s limits are not the end of the story. Born in Alabama in 1880, she lost her sight and hearing as a toddler, learned language through her teacher Anne Sullivan, and went on to earn a university degree and campaign for … Read more
Pastor and author Charles R. Swindoll has spent decades teaching a simple idea: “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” Variations of the phrase existed in print before Swindoll became associated with it, but he is the one who built it into a lasting personal message, repeating it … Read more
Baptist minister and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. spent much of his public life arguing against one common excuse: that the moment is not yet right. By the time he spoke at Oberlin College in October 1964, he had led the 381-day Montgomery bus boycott and had won the Nobel Peace Prize. Press … Read more
Why this quote still matters today In June 2005, Steve Jobs stood in front of Stanford’s graduating class and said something that has since been repeated in more commencement speeches, LinkedIn posts and office posters than almost any other line from a tech executive: “The only way to do great work is to love what … Read more
Inventor Charles F. Kettering spent his working life in the untidy business of trying things that mostly did not work. He earned lasting recognition for inventing the electric starter, which replaced the hand crank in motor cars. People widely credit him with the line, “Keep on going and the chances are that you will stumble … Read more
The line is everywhere: “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” It shows up on gym walls, in graduation speeches, and at the bottom of a thousand social media posts, always credited to Confucius. The exact modern wording is a paraphrase rather than a direct translation, but … Read more
Tony Elumelu’s quote on entrepreneurship creating opportunity where none seems to exist, with its meaning and lessons for today.
It’s easy to spot what’s wrong. Every workplace has someone who can list every flaw in a plan, every gap in a system, every reason something won’t work. Spotting the problem takes very little effort. Fixing it is a different job entirely, and it’s the job that actually moves things forward. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Nigerian … Read more