Themes

"After 25 years of buying and supervising a great variety of businesses, Charlie and I have not learned how to solve difficult business problems. What we have learned is to avoid them. To the extent we have been successful, it is because we concentrated on identifying one-foot hurdles that we could step over because we acquired any ability to clear seven-footers."

"To think out a problem is not unlike drawing a caricature. You have to exaggerate the salient point and leave out that which is not typical. "To illustrate a principle," says Bagehot, "you must exaggerate much and you must omit much." As to the quantity of absolute truth in a thought: it seems to me the more comprehensive and unobjectionable a thought becomes, the more clumsy and unexciting it gets. I like half-truths of a certain kind — they are interesting and they stimulate."

"A problem never exists in isolation; it is surrounded by other problems in space and time. The more of the context of a problem that a scientist can comprehend, the greater are his chances of finding a truly adequate solution."

"Basic human problems can have no final solutions."

"Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not."

"Problems or successes, they all are the results of our own actions. Karma. The philosophy of action is that no one else is the giver of peace or happiness. One's own karma, one's own actions are responsible to come to bring either happiness or success or whatever."

"You know where I'm from; you know what I represent. Got a problem? Say that then, say that then. Say that then, want a problem? Say that then, say that then."

"When you create a problem, you create pain. All it takes is a simple choice, a simple decision: no matter what happens, I will create no more pain for myself. I will create no more problems. Although it is a simple choice, it is also very radical. You won' t make that choice unless you are truly fed up with suffering, unless you have truly had enough. And you won't be able to go through with it unless you access the power of the Now. If you create no more pain for yourself, then you create no more pain for others. You also no longer contaminate the beautiful Earth, your inner space, and the collective human psyche with the negativity of problem-making. If you have ever been in a life-or-death emergency situation, you will know that it wasn't a problem. The mind didn't have time to fool around and make it into a problem. In a true emergency, the mind stops; you become totally present in the Now, and something infinitely more powerful takes over. This is why there are many reports of ordinary people suddenly becoming capable of incredibly courageous deeds. In any emergency, either you survive or you don't. Either way, it is not a problem."

"As the egoic mode of consciousness and all the social, political, and economic structures that it created enter the final stage of collapse, the relationships between men and women reflect the deep state of crisis in which humanity now finds itself. As humans have become increasingly identified with their mind, most relationships are not rooted in Being and so turn into a source of pain and become dominated by problems and conflict."

"Faddists have made laparoscopy fashionable."

"If a plastic surgeon can inflict an acceptable scar in the face, cannot a pediatric surgeon replicate it in the abdomen?"

"Many laparoscopists subconsciously use the term 'painless' to mean 'less painful'."

"Cosmesis and cost are not the end points of any abdominal surgery."

"Invasiveness of a surgical procedure is determined not by the length of the skin incision but by the stress response elicited in the host."

"There cannot be anything more folly than to label laparoscopy as “minimally invasive."

"It is surprising to learn as to how laparoscopists have sustained their claims despite the lack of high-quality evidence."

"Pediatric laparoscopy appears to be too quickly adopted, unduly advertised and frequently misused by individual surgeons for their personal profit."

"Peeping toms are condemned; but peeping surgeons are hailed."

"Some days you get the bear, other days the bear gets you."

"He laughs best who laughs last."

"He who dares wins."

"Slow and steady wins the race."

"The world is a stage, you are only an actorWhen a game is played, the outcome is fixedThere will be only one winner, one – one onlyHow it matters if this team won or that team lost?"

"I would rather lose in a cause that will some day win, than win in a cause that will some day lose!"

"Don't fight a battle if you don't gain anything by winning."

"Life's battle don't always go to the stronger or faster man, but sooner or later the man who wins is the one who thinks he can."

"For when the One Great Scorer comes to mark against your name, He writes—not that you won or lost—but how you played the Game."

"Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing."

"I'm so tired of pretending my life isn't perfect and bitching and just winning every second."

"The first and most important step in winning sounds so obvious you think everybody does it, but in fact more people mess up than anything else and here is what it is: you have to decide to win. Now that sounds obvious, who wouldn't decide to win, but the thing is, it is not just 'Oh I want to win!' it is 'Oh I would like to win and I prioritize winning above and beyond everything else.' If you haven't made that step you are not ready to win. Winning sounds great on paper, but there are a lot of consequences to winning. There is a lot that comes with winning that you need to be prepared for. If you are not ready to win - if you have not decided to win - you probably won't. Let me tell you a few personal stories of my own: When I was very young as a soccer player I was a very good player. I was very talented - I did a lot of good things with the ball. But I didn't score a lot of goals. I wasn't a goal scoring player and I talked to a friend of mine who was a coach, and he said 'Well, have you practiced your goal scoring celebration? Have you practiced what you do when you score?' I Said 'No why does that matter?' 'You are not prepared to score, you are not even ready to succeed!'"

"This is a set-back, not a defeat. The advantage is mine. I have eternity... and Batman must win every single time... while I need win but once."

"Whoever can surprize well must Conquer."

"Never change your tactics when winning. Likewise, if you are losing try something new even though it may be foreign to your usual style of play."

"You make your own luck, Gig. You know what makes a good loser? Practice."

"If we win, nobody will care. If we lose, there will be nobody to care."

"I will not only give 'em battle, I will lick 'em!"

"Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you."

"But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated."

"All games are basically hostile. Winners and losers. We see them all around us: the winners and the losers. The losers can oftentimes become winners, and the winners can very easily become losers."

"These children...well, they have no concept. None. All they want to do is win. That is your culture. America spoils chess, as it spoils all things. Art? What art? Winning, all you Americans can think of is winning. Winning and getting rich. Your country is too young to have so much power. Too immature. Yet, because of your power, everybody pays attention. Everybody. You are teaching the world that only one thing matters!"

"He said that he felt "like the boy that stumped his toe,—'it hurt too bad to laugh, and he was too big to cry'"."

"I’m a born winner. I don’t like losing, even in card games."

"Diane: Coach has lost his sweet disposition. he's turned into a tyrant. Sam: Yeah, but he's winning Diane and winning is the most important thing here. Diane: Well, I don't think winning is the most important thing here. Sam: Well good then, you won't mind losing this argument."

"Public truths ought never to be kept secrets; and they who do it, are guilty of a solecism, and a contradiction: Every man ought to know what it concerns all to know. Now, nothing upon earth is of a more universal nature than government; and every private man upon earth has a concern in it, because in it is concerned, and nearly and immediately concerned, his virtue, his property, and the security of his person: And where all these are best preserved and advanced, the government is best administered; and where they are not, the government is impotent, wicked, or unfortunate; and where the government is so, the people will be so, there being always and every where a certain sympathy and analogy between the nature of the government and the nature of the people."

"The public’s business is the public’s business."

"Nobody wants to be perfectly transparent; not to others, certainly not to himself."

"Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman."

"Titanic Historical Society"

"Not damn likely."

"We have lived together for many years. Where you go, I go."