Success and Failure

You're a genius if you fly a kite during a thunderstorm, and discover that lightning is electricity -- but you're an idiot if you fly a kite during a thunderstorm, and discover that lightning can kill you.

Unknown, (from Mad Magazine), in Success and Failure

Murphy's Law: If anything can go wrong, it will.

Edward A. Murphy, Jr., in Success and Failure

If there is a wrong way to do something, then someone will do it.

Edward A. Murphy, Jr., in Success and Failure

You cannot produce a baby in one month by impregnating nine women.

Unknown, in Success and Failure

You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.

Unknown, in Success and Failure

You cannot achieve the impossible without attempting the absurd.

Unknown, in Success and Failure

You can't carve your way to success without cutting remarks.

Unknown, in Success and Failure

You are not what you think you are, you are not what they think you are, but you could be what you think they think you are.

Unknown, in Success and Failure

Life's a bitch, and life's got lots of sisters.

Ross Presser, in Life and Death and Success and Failure

While anyone can admit to themselves they were wrong, the true test is admission to someone else.

Unknown, in Success and Failure

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Plato, The Republic, in Success and Failure and Work and Recreation

The best performance improvement is the transition from the nonworking state to the working state.

John Ousterhout, in Success and Failure

Use soft words and hard arguments.

Unknown, in Success and Failure and Wisdom and Ignorance

Watch for big problems; they disguise big opportunities.

Unknown, in Success and Failure

Weiler's Law: Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself.

Unknown, in Success and Failure

When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.

Unknown, in Success and Failure

Wethern's Law: Assumption is the mother of all screw-ups.

Unknown, in Success and Failure

If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

Neil Peart, in Success and Failure

I must catch up with the others, for I am their leader.

Tim McGowan, in Success and Failure

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.

Herman Melville, in Success and Failure