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- (1) Office employees will daily sweep the floors, dust the
- furniture, shelves, and showcases.
- (2) Each day fill lamps, clean chimneys, and trim wicks.
- Wash the windows once a week.
- (3) Each clerk will bring a bucket of water and a scuttle of
- coal for the day's business.
- (4) Make your pens carefully. You may whittle nibs to your
- individual taste.
- (5) This office will open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. except
- on the Sabbath, on which day we will remain closed. Each
- employee is expected to spend the Sabbath by attending
- church and contributing liberally to the cause of the Lord.
- -- "Office Worker's Guide", New England Carriage
- Works, 1872
- %
- (6) Men employees will be given time off each week for courting
- purposes, or two evenings a week if they go regularly to church.
- (7) After an employee has spent his thirteen hours of labor in the
- office, he should spend the remaining time reading the Bible
- and other good books.
- (8) Every employee should lay aside from each pay packet a goodly
- sum of his earnings for his benefit during his declining years,
- so that he will not become a burden on society or his betters.
- (9) Any employee who smokes Spanish cigars, uses alcoholic drink
- in any form, frequents pool tables and public halls, or gets
- shaved in a barber's shop, will give me good reason to suspect
- his worth, intentions, integrity and honesty.
- (10) The employee who has performed his labours faithfully and
- without a fault for five years, will be given an increase of
- five cents per day in his pay, providing profits from the
- business permit it.
- -- "Office Worker's Guide", New England Carriage Works, 1872
- %
- A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and
- ask for it back the when it begins to rain.
- -- Robert Frost
- %
- A boss with no humor is like a job that's no fun.
- %
- A budget is just a method of worrying before you spend money, as well
- as afterward.
- %
- A businessman is a hybrid of a dancer and a calculator.
- -- Paul Valery
- %
- A committee is a group that keeps the minutes and loses hours.
- -- Milton Berle
- %
- A committee is a life form with six or more legs and no brain.
- -- Lazarus Long, "Time Enough For Love"
- %
- A committee takes root and grows, it flowers, wilts and dies, scattering the
- seed from which other committees will bloom.
- -- Parkinson
- %
- A commune is where people join together to share their lack of wealth.
- -- R. Stallman
- %
- A company is known by the men it keeps.
- %
- A consultant is a person who borrows your watch, tells you what time it
- is, pockets the watch, and sends you a bill for it.
- %
- A continuing flow of paper is sufficient to continue the flow of paper.
- -- Dyer
- %
- A cow is a completely automated milk-manufacturing machine. It is encased
- in untanned leather and mounted on four vertical, movable supports, one at
- each corner. The front end of the machine, or input, contains the cutting
- and grinding mechanism, utilizing a unique feedback device. Here also are
- the headlights, air inlet and exhaust, a bumper and a foghorn.
- At the rear, the machine carries the milk-dispensing equipment as
- well as a built-in flyswatter and insect repeller. The central portion
- houses a hydro- chemical-conversion unit. Briefly, this consists of four
- fermentation and storage tanks connected in series by an intricate network
- of flexible plumbing. This assembly also contains the central heating plant
- complete with automatic temperature controls, pumping station and main
- ventilating system. The waste disposal apparatus is located to the rear of
- this central section.
- Cows are available fully-assembled in an assortment of sizes and
- colors. Production output ranges from 2 to 20 tons of milk per year. In
- brief, the main external visible features of the cow are: two lookers, two
- hookers, four stander-uppers, four hanger-downers, and a swishy-wishy.
- %
- A feed salesman is on his way to a farm. As he's driving along at forty
- m.p.h., he looks out his car window and sees a three-legged chicken running
- alongside him, keeping pace with his car. He is amazed that a chicken is
- running at forty m.p.h. So he speeds up to forty-five, fifty, then sixty
- m.p.h. The chicken keeps right up with him the whole way, then suddenly
- takes off and disappears into the distance.
- The man pulls into the farmyard and says to the farmer, "You know,
- the strangest thing just happened to me; I was driving along at at least
- sixty miles an hour and a chicken passed me like I was standing still!"
- "Yeah," the farmer replies, "that chicken was ours. You see, there's
- me, and there's Ma, and there's our son Billy. Whenever we had chicken for
- dinner, we would all want a drumstick, so we'd have to kill two chickens.
- So we decided to try and breed a three-legged chicken so each of us could
- have a drumstick."
- "How do they taste?" said the farmer.
- "Don't know," replied the farmer. "We haven't been able to catch
- one yet."
- %
- A freelance is one who gets paid by the word -- per piece or perhaps.
- -- Robert Benchley
- %
- A good supervisor can step on your toes without messing up your shine.
- %
- A holding company is a thing where you hand an accomplice the goods while
- the policeman searches you.
- %
- A man is known by the company he organizes.
- -- Ambrose Bierce
- %
- A meeting is an event at which the minutes are kept and the hours are lost.
- %
- A memorandum is written not to inform the reader, but to protect the writer.
- -- Dean Acheson
- %
- A motion to adjourn is always in order.
- %
- A mouse is an elephant built by the Japanese.
- %
- A new supply of round tuits has arrived and are available from Mary.
- Anyone who has been putting off work until they got a round tuit now
- has no excuse for further procrastination.
- %
- A rock store eventually closed down; they were taking too much for granite.
- %
- ... a thing called Ethics, whose nature was confusing but if you had it you
- were a High-Class Realtor and if you hadn't you were a shyster, a piker and
- a fly-by-night. These virtues awakened Confidence and enabled you to handle
- Bigger Propositions. But they didn't imply that you were to be impractical
- and refuse to take twice the value for a house if a buyer was such an idiot
- that he didn't force you down on the asking price.
- -- Sinclair Lewis, "Babbitt"
- %
- A traveling salesman was driving past a farm when he saw a pig with three
- wooden legs executing a magnificent series of backflips and cartwheels.
- Intrigued, he drove up to the farmhouse, where he found an old farmer
- sitting in the yard watching the pig.
- "That's quite a pig you have there, sir" said the salesman.
- "Sure is, son," the farmer replied. "Why, two years ago, my daughter
- was swimming in the lake and bumped her head and damned near drowned, but that
- pig swam out and dragged her back to shore."
- "Amazing!" the salesman exlaimed.
- "And that's not the only thing. Last fall I was cuttin' wood up on
- the north forty when a tree fell on me. Pinned me to the ground, it did.
- That pig run up and wiggled underneath that tree and lifted it off of me.
- Saved my life."
- "Fantastic! the salesman said. But tell me, how come the pig has
- three wooden legs?"
- The farmer stared at the newcomer in amazement. "Mister, when you
- got an amazin' pig like that, you don't eat him all at once."
- %
- A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.
- -- Samuel Goldwyn
- %
- About the time we think we can make ends meet, somebody moves the ends.
- -- Herbert Hoover
- %
- According to a recent and unscientific national survey, smiling is something
- everyone should do at least 6 times a day. In an effort to increase the
- national average (the US ranks third among the world's superpowers in
- smiling), Xerox has instructed all personnel to be happy, effervescent, and
- most importantly, to smile. Xerox employees agree, and even feel strongly
- that they can not only meet but surpass the national average... except for
- Tubby Ackerman. But because Tubby does such a fine job of racing around
- parking lots with a large butterfly net retrieving floating IC chips, Xerox
- decided to give him a break. If you see Tubby in a parking lot he may have
- a sheepish grin. This is where the expression, "Service with a slightly
- sheepish grin" comes from.
- %
- According to all the latest reports, there was no truth in any of the
- earlier reports.
- %
- Advertising is a valuable economic factor because it is the cheapest
- way of selling goods, particularly if the goods are worthless.
- -- Sinclair Lewis
- %
- Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket.
- -- George Orwell
- %
- Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human
- intelligence long enough to get money from it.
- %
- After all is said and done, a hell of a lot more is said than done.
- %
- After any salary raise, you will have less money at the end of the
- month than you did before.
- %
- All I ask is a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
- %
- All the big corporations depreciate their possessions, and you can, too,
- provided you use them for business purposes. For example, if you subscribe
- to the Wall Street Journal, a business-related newspaper, you can deduct the
- cost of your house, because, in the words of U.S. Supreme Court Chief
- Justice Warren Burger in a landmark 1979 tax decision: "Where else are you
- going to read the paper? Outside? What if it rains?"
- -- Dave Barry, "Sweating Out Taxes"
- %
- All this big deal about white collar crime -- what's WRONG with white collar
- crime? Who enjoys his job today? You? Me? Anybody? The only satisfying
- part of any job is coffee break, lunch hour and quitting time. Years ago
- there was at least the hope of improvement -- eventual promotion -- more
- important jobs to come. Once you can be sold the myth that you may make
- president of the company you'll hardly ever steal stamps. But nobody
- believes he's going to be president anymore. The more people change jobs
- the more they realize that there is a direct connection between working for
- a living and total stupefying boredom. So why NOT take revenge? You're not
- going to find ME knocking a guy because he pads an expense account and his
- home stationery carries the company emblem. Take away crime from the white
- collar worker and you will rob him of his last vestige of job interest.
- -- J. Feiffer
- %
- All this wheeling and dealing around, why, it isn't for money, it's for fun.
- Money's just the way we keep score.
- -- Henry Tyroon
- %
- All warranty and guarantee clauses become null and void upon payment of invoice.
- %
- America works less, when you say "Union Yes!"
- %
- American business long ago gave up on demanding that prospective employees
- be honest and hardworking. It has even stopped hoping for employees who are
- educated enough that they can tell the difference between the men's room and
- the women's room without having little pictures on the doors.
- -- Dave Barry, "Urine Trouble, Mister"
- %
- An office party is not, as is sometimes supposed the Managing Director's
- chance to kiss the tea-girl. It is the tea-girl's chance to kiss the
- Managing Director (however bizarre an ambition this may seem to anyone
- who has seen the Managing Director face on).
- -- Katherine Whitehorn, "Roundabout"
- %
- Anyone can do any amount of work provided it isn't the work he is supposed
- to be doing at the moment.
- -- Robert Benchley
- %
- Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.
- -- Publius Syrus
- %
- Anyone can make an omelet with eggs. The trick is to make one with none.
- %
- Anything free is worth what you pay for it.
- %
- Anything labeled "NEW" and/or "IMPROVED" isn't. The label means the
- price went up. The label "ALL NEW", "COMPLETELY NEW", or "GREAT NEW"
- means the price went way up.
- %
- "At least they're ___________EXPERIENCED incompetents"
- %
- At these prices, I lose money -- but I make it up in volume.
- -- Peter G. Alaquon
- %
- At work, the authority of a person is inversely proportional to the
- number of pens that person is carrying.
- %
- Be sociable. Speak to the person next to you in the unemployment line tomorrow.
- %
- Been Transferred Lately?
- %
- ... before I could come to any conclusion it occurred to me that my speech
- or my silence, indeed any action of mine, would be a mere futility. What
- did it matter what anyone knew or ignored? What did it matter who was
- manager? One gets sometimes such a flash of insight. The essentials of
- this affair lay deep under the surface, beyond my reach, and beyond my
- power of meddling.
- -- Joseph Conrad
- %
- Between 1950 and 1952, a bored weatherman, stationed north of Hudson
- Bay, left a monument that neither government nor time can eradicate.
- Using a bulldozer abandoned by the Air Force, he spent two years and
- great effort pushing boulders into a single word.
-
- It can be seen from 10,000 feet, silhouetted against the snow.
- Government officials exchanged memos full of circumlocutions (no Latin
- equivalent exists) but failed to word an appropriation bill for the
- destruction of this cairn, that wouldn't alert the press and embarrass
- both Parliament and Party.
-
- It stands today, a monument to human spirit. If life exists on other
- planets, this may be the first message received from us.
- -- The Realist, November, 1964.
- %
- Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather
- a new wearer of clothes.
- -- Henry David Thoreau
- %
- Biz is better.
- %
- Body by Nautilus, Brain by Mattel.
- %
- Bullwinkle: You just leave that to my pal. He's the brains of the outfit.
- General: What does that make YOU?
- Bullwinkle: What else? An executive.
- -- Jay Ward
- %
- Business is a good game -- lots of competition and minimum of rules.
- You keep score with money.
- -- Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari
- %
- Business will be either better or worse.
- -- Calvin Coolidge
- %
- "But don't you worry, its for a cause -- feeding global corporations' paws."
- %
- But the greatest Electrical Pioneer of them all was Thomas Edison, who was a
- brilliant inventor despite the fact that he had little formal education and
- lived in New Jersey. Edison's first major invention in 1877, was the
- phonograph, which could soon be found in thousands of American homes, where
- it basically sat until 1923, when the record was invented. But Edison's
- greatest achievement came in 1879, when he invented the electric company.
- Edison's design was a brilliant adaptation of the simple electrical circuit:
- the electric company sends electricity through a wire to a customer, then
- immediately gets the electricity back through another wire, then (this is
- the brilliant part) sends it right back to the customer again.
-
- This means that an electric company can sell a customer the same batch of
- electricity thousands of times a day and never get caught, since very few
- customers take the time to examine their electricity closely. In fact the
- last year any new electricity was generated in the United States was 1937;
- the electric companies have been merely re-selling it ever since, which is
- why they have so much free time to apply for rate increases.
- -- Dave Barry, "What is Electricity?"
- %
- By the middle 1880's, practically all the roads except those in
- the South, were of the present standard gauge. The southern roads were
- still five feet between rails.
- It was decided to change the gauge of all southern roads to standard,
- in one day. This remarkable piece of work was carried out on a Sunday in May
- of 1886. For weeks beforehand, shops had been busy pressing wheels in on the
- axles to the new and narrower gauge, to have a supply of rolling stock which
- could run on the new track as soon as it was ready. Finally, on the day set,
- great numbers of gangs of track layers went to work at dawn. Everywhere one
- rail was loosened, moved in three and one-half inches, and spiked down in its
- new position. By dark, trains from anywhere in the United States could operate
- over the tracks in the South, and a free interchange of freight cars everywhere
- was possible.
- -- Robert Henry, "Trains", 1957
- %
- By working faithfully eight hours a day, you may eventually get to be
- boss and work twelve.
- -- Robert Frost
- %
- Can anyone remember when the times were not hard, and money not scarce?
- %
- Can anything be sadder than work left unfinished? Yes, work never begun.
- %
- Carelessly planned projects take three times longer to complete than expected.
- Carefully planned projects take four times longer to complete than expected,
- mostly because the planners expect their planning to reduce the time it takes.
- %
- Chairman of the Bored.
- %
- Column 1 Column 2 Column 3
-
- 0. integrated 0. management 0. options
- 1. total 1. organizational 1. flexibility
- 2. systematized 2. monitored 2. capability
- 3. parallel 3. reciprocal 3. mobility
- 4. functional 4. digital 4. programming
- 5. responsive 5. logistical 5. concept
- 6. optional 6. transitional 6. time-phase
- 7. synchronized 7. incremental 7. projection
- 8. compatible 8. third-generation 8. hardware
- 9. balanced 9. policy 9. contingency
-
- The procedure is simple. Think of any three-digit number, then select
- the corresponding buzzword from each column. For instance, number 257 produces
- "systematized logistical projection," a phrase that can be dropped into
- virtually any report with that ring of decisive, knowledgeable authority. "No
- one will have the remotest idea of what you're talking about," says Broughton,
- "but the important thing is that they're not about to admit it."
- -- Philip Broughton, "How to Win at Wordsmanship"
- %
- Committees have become so important nowadays that subcommittees have to
- be appointed to do the work.
- %
- Competence, like truth, beauty, and contact lenses, is in the eye of
- the beholder.
- -- Dr. Laurence J. Peter
- %
- Competitive fury is not always anger. It is the true missionary's courage
- and zeal in facing the possibility that one's best may not be enough.
- -- Gene Scott
- %
- ... [concerning quotation marks] even if we *___did* quote anybody in this
- business, it probably would be gibberish.
- -- Thom McLeod
- %
- "Consequences, Schmonsequences, as long as I'm rich."
- -- "Ali Baba Bunny" [1957, Chuck Jones]
- %
- Consider the postage stamp: its usefulness consists in the ability to
- stick to one thing till it gets there.
- -- Josh Billings
- %
- Consultants are mystical people who ask a company for a number and then
- give it back to them.
- %
- Credit ... is the only enduring testimonial to man's confidence in man.
- -- James Blish
- %
- Dealing with failure is easy:
- Work hard to improve.
- Success is also easy to handle:
- You've solved the wrong problem.
- Work hard to improve.
- %
- Dealing with the problem of pure staff accumulation,
- all our researches ... point to an average increase of 5.75% per year.
- -- C.N. Parkinson
- %
- Dear Lord:
- I just want *___one* one-armed manager so I never have to hear "On
- the other hand", again.
- %
- Dear Mister Language Person: What is the purpose of the apostrophe?
-
- Answer: The apostrophe is used mainly in hand-lettered small business signs
- to alert the reader than an "S" is coming up at the end of a word, as in:
- WE DO NOT EXCEPT PERSONAL CHECK'S, or: NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ITEM'S.
- Another important grammar concept to bear in mind when creating hand- lettered
- small-business signs is that you should put quotation marks around random
- words for decoration, as in "TRY" OUR HOT DOG'S, or even TRY "OUR" HOT DOG'S.
- -- Dave Barry, "Tips for Writer's"
- %
- Despite all appearances, your boss is a thinking, feeling, human being.
- %
- "Do you think what we're doing is wrong?"
- "Of course it's wrong! It's illegal!"
- "I've never done anything illegal before."
- "I thought you said you were an accountant!"
- %
- Don't be irreplaceable, if you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.
- %
- Don't steal; thou'lt never thus compete successfully in business. Cheat.
- -- Ambrose Bierce
- %
- Don't tell me how hard you work. Tell me how much you get done.
- -- James J. Ling
- %
- "Don't tell me I'm burning the candle at both ends -- tell me where to
- get more wax!!"
- %
- Dreams are free, but you get soaked on the connect time.
- %
- Drilling for oil is boring.
- %
- Earn cash in your spare time -- blackmail your friends.
- %
- Ernest asks Frank how long he has been working for the company.
- "Ever since they threatened to fire me."
- %
- Ever notice that even the busiest people are never too busy to tell you
- just how busy they are?
- %
- Every cloud has a silver lining; you should have sold it, and bought titanium.
- %
- "Every man has his price. Mine is $3.95."
- %
- Every man thinks God is on his side. The rich and powerful know that he is.
- -- Jean Anouilh, "The Lark"
- %
- Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster
- than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up.
- It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
- It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle: when the sun comes
- up, you'd better be running.
- %
- "Every morning, I get up and look through the 'Forbes' list of the
- richest people in America. If I'm not there, I go to work"
- -- Robert Orben
- %
- Every successful person has had failures but repeated failure is no
- guarantee of eventual success.
- %
- Every young man should have a hobby: learning how to handle money is
- the best one.
- -- Jack Hurley
- %
- Everybody but Sam had signed up for a new company pension plan that
- called for a small employee contribution. The company was paying all
- the rest. Unfortunately, 100% employee participation was needed;
- otherwise the plan was off. Sam's boss and his fellow workers pleaded
- and cajoled, but to no avail. Sam said the plan would never pay off.
- Finally the company president called Sam into his office.
- "Sam," he said, "here's a copy of the new pension plan and here's
- a pen. I want you to sign the papers. I'm sorry, but if you don't sign,
- you're fired. As of right now."
- Sam signed the papers immediately.
- "Now," said the president, "would you mind telling me why you
- couldn't have signed earlier?"
- "Well, sir," replied Sam, "nobody explained it to me quite so
- clearly before."
- %
- Everybody likes a kidder, but nobody lends him money.
- -- Arthur Miller
- %
- Everyone who comes in here wants three things:
- (1) They want it quick.
- (2) They want it good.
- (3) They want it cheap.
- I tell 'em to pick two and call me back.
- -- sign on the back wall of a small printing company
- %
- Exceptions prove the rule, and wreck the budget.
- -- Miller
- %
- Excerpt from a conversation between a customer support person and a
- customer working for a well-known military-affiliated research lab:
-
- Support: "You're not our only customer, you know."
- Customer: "But we're one of the few with tactical nuclear weapons."
- %
- Executive ability is deciding quickly and getting somebody else to do
- the work.
- -- John G. Pollard
- %
- Exxon's 'Universe of Energy' tends to the peculiar rather than the
- humorous ... After [an incomprehensible film montage about wind and sun and
- rain and strip mines and] two or three minutes of mechanical confusion, the
- seats locomote through a short tunnel filled with clock-work dinosaurs.
- The dinosaurs are depicted without accuracy and too close to your face.
- "One of the few real novelties at Epcot is the use of smell to
- aggravate illusions. Of course, no one knows what dinosaurs smelled like,
- but Exxon has decided they smelled bad.
- "At the other end of Dino Ditch ... there's a final, very addled
- message about facing challengehood tomorrow-wise. I dozed off during this,
- but the import seems to be that dinosaurs don't have anything to do with
- energy policy and neither do you."
- -- P.J. O'Rourke, "Holidays in Hell"
- %
- Failure is more frequently from want of energy than want of capital.
- %
- Fast, cheap, good: pick two.
- %
- Fear is the greatest salesman.
- -- Robert Klein
- %
- Feel disillusioned? I've got some great new illusions, right here!
- %
- For every bloke who makes his mark, there's half a dozen waiting to rub it out.
- -- Andy Capp
- %
- Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.
- -- Thomas Alva Edison
- %
- Genius is ten percent inspiration and fifty percent capital gains.
- %
- Getting the job done is no excuse for not following the rules.
-
- Corollary:
- Following the rules will not get the job done.
- %
- "Given the choice between accomplishing something and just lying around,
- I'd rather lie around. No contest."
- -- Eric Clapton
- %
- God help those who do not help themselves.
- -- Wilson Mizner
- %
- God helps them that themselves.
- -- Benjamin Franklin, "Poor Richard's Almanac"
- %
- Good day to avoid cops. Crawl to work.
- %
- Good salesmen and good repairmen will never go hungry.
- -- R.E. Schenk
- %
- Happiness is a positive cash flow.
- %
- Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance?
- -- Charlie McCarthy
- %
- Have you ever noticed that the people who are always trying to tell you
- `there's a time for work and a time for play' never find the time for play?
- %
- He has not acquired a fortune; the fortune has acquired him.
- -- Bion
- %
- He who has but four and spends five has no need for a wallet.
- %
- He who is content with his lot probably has a lot.
- %
- He who steps on others to reach the top has good balance.
- %
- "Here at the Phone Company, we serve all kinds of people; from
- Presidents and Kings to the scum of the earth ..."
- %
- "Hey, Sam, how about a loan?"
- "Whattaya need?"
- "Oh, about $500."
- "Whattaya got for collateral?"
- "Whattaya need?"
- "How about an eye?"
- -- Sam Giancana
- %
- Hideously disfigured by an ancient Indian curse?
-
- WE CAN HELP!
-
- Call (511) 338-0959 for an immediate appointment.
- %
- Hire the morally handicapped.
- %
- Home centers are designed for the do-it-yourselfer who's willing to
- pay higher prices for the convenience of being able to shop for lumber,
- hardware, and toasters all in one location. Notice I say "shop for," as
- opposed to "obtain." This is the major drawback of home centers: they are
- always out of everything except artificial Christmas trees. The home center
- employees have no time to reorder merchandise because they are too busy
- applying little price stickers to every object -- every board, washer, nail
- and screw -- in the entire store ...
-
- Let's say a piece in your toilet tank breaks, so you remove the
- broken part, take it to the home center, and ask an employee if he has a
- replacement. The employee, who has never is his life even seen the inside
- of a toilet tank, will peer at the broken part in very much the same way
- that a member of a primitive Amazon jungle tribe would look at an electronic
- calculator, and then say, "We're expecting a shipment of these sometime
- around the middle of next week."
- -- Dave Barry, "The Taming of the Screw"
- %
- Honesty is for the most part less profitable than dishonesty.
- -- Plato
- %
- Honesty pays, but it doesn't seem to pay enough to suit some people.
- -- F.M. Hubbard
- %
- Hotels are tired of getting ripped off. I checked into a hotel and they
- had towels from my house.
- -- Mark Guido
- %
- How come everyone's going so slow if it's called rush hour?
- %
- How come financial advisors never seem to be as wealthy as they
- claim they'll make you?
- %
- "How many people work here?"
- "Oh, about half."
- %
- Human resources are human first, and resources second.
- -- J. Garbers
- %
- "I am convinced that the manufacturers of carpet odor removing powder
- have included encapsulated time released cat urine in their products.
- This technology must be what prevented its distribution during my mom's
- reign. My carpet smells like piss, and I don't have a cat. Better go
- buy some more."
- -- timw@zeb.USWest.COM
- %
- I am more bored than you could ever possibly be. Go back to work.
- %
- I attribute my success to intelligence, guts, determination, honesty,
- ambition, and having enough money to buy people with those qualities.
- %
- I BET WHAT HAPPENED was they discovered fire and invented the wheel on
- the same day. Then that night, they burned the wheel.
- -- Jack Handley, The New Mexican, 1988.
- %
- I cannot draw a cart, nor eat dried oats; If it be man's work I will do it.
- %
- I consider a new device or technology to have been culturally accepted when
- it has been used to commit a murder.
- -- M. Gallaher
- %
- I don't do it for the money.
- -- Donald Trump, Art of the Deal
- %
- I don't have any use for bodyguards, but I do have a specific use for two
- highly trained certified public accountants.
- -- Elvis Presley
- %
- I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve
- immortality through not dying.
- -- Woody Allen
- %
- I for one cannot protest the recent M.T.A. fare hike and the
- accompanying promises that this would in no way improve service. For
- the transit system, as it now operates, has hidden advantages that
- can't be measured in monetary terms.
- Personally, I feel that it is well worth 75 cents or even $1 to
- have that unimpeachable excuse whenever I am late to anything: "I came
- by subway." Those four words have such magic in them that if Godot
- should someday show up and mumble them, any audience would instantly
- understand his long delay.
- %
- I go on working for the same reason a hen goes on laying eggs.
- -- H.L. Mencken
- %
- I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.
- -- Oscar Wilde
- %
- I have ways of making money that you know nothing of.
- -- John D. Rockefeller
- %
- I just asked myself... what would John DeLorean do?
- -- Raoul Duke
- %
- I just need enough to tide me over until I need more.
- -- Bill Hoest
- %
- I like work; it fascinates me; I can sit and look at it for hours.
- %
- I never cheated an honest man, only rascals. They wanted something for
- nothing. I gave them nothing for something.
- -- Joseph "Yellow Kid" Weil
- %
- I owe the public nothing.
- -- J.P. Morgan
- %
- I was in this prematurely air conditioned supermarket and there were all
- these aisles and there were these bathing caps you could buy that had these
- kind of Fourth of July plumes on them that were red and yellow and blue and
- I wasn't tempted to buy one but I was reminded of the fact that I had been
- avoiding the beach.
- -- Lucinda Childs "Einstein On The Beach"
- %
- I was part of that strange race of people aptly described as spending
- their lives doing things they detest to make money they don't want to
- buy things they don't need to impress people they dislike.
- -- Emile Henry Gauvreay
- %
- I'd rather be led to hell than managed to heavan.
- %
- I'd rather just believe that it's done by little elves running around.
- %
- I'm always looking for a new idea that will be more productive than its cost.
- -- David Rockefeller
- %
- I've got all the money I'll ever need if I die by 4 o'clock.
- -- Henny Youngman
- %
- I:
- The best way to make a silk purse from a sow's ear is to begin
- with a silk sow. The same is true of money.
- II:
- If today were half as good as tomorrow is supposed to be, it would
- probably be twice as good as yesterday was.
- III:
- There are no lazy veteran lion hunters.
- IV:
- If you can afford to advertise, you don't need to.
- V:
- One-tenth of the participants produce over one-third of the output.
- Increasing the number of participants merely reduces the average
- output.
- -- Norman Augustine
- %
- If a subordinate asks you a pertinent question, look at him as if he had
- lost his senses. When he looks down, paraphrase the question back at him.
- %
- If a thing's worth doing, it is worth doing badly.
- -- G.K. Chesterton
- %
- If a thing's worth having, it's worth cheating for.
- -- W.C. Fields
- %
- If all else fails, lower your standards.
- %
- If bankers can count, how come they have eight windows and only four tellers?
- %
- If ever the pleasure of one has to be bought by the pain of the other, there
- better be no trade. A trade by which one gains and the other loses is a fraud.
- -- Dagny Taggart, "Atlas Shrugged"
- %
- If God had not given us sticky tape, it would have been necessary to invent it.
- %
- IF I HAD A MINE SHAFT, I don't think I would just abandon it. There's
- got to be a better way.
- -- Jack Handley, The New Mexican, 1988.
- %
- If I want your opinion, I'll ask you to fill out the necessary form.
- %
- If I were a grave-digger or even a hangman, there are some people I could
- work for with a great deal of enjoyment.
- -- Douglas Jerrold
- %
- If it's worth doing, it's worth doing for money.
- %
- If money can't buy happiness, I guess you'll just have to rent it.
- %
- If we could sell our experiences for what they cost us, we would
- all be millionaires.
- -- Abigail Van Buren
- %
- If what they've been doing hasn't solved the problem, tell them to
- do something else.
- -- Gerald Weinberg, "The Secrets of Consulting"
- %
- If you always postpone pleasure you will never have it. Quit work and play
- for once!
- %
- If you are good, you will be assigned all the work. If you are real
- good, you will get out of it.
- %
- If you are over 80 years old and accompanied by your parents, we will
- cash your check.
- %
- If you are shooting under 80 you are neglecting your business;
- over 80 you are neglecting your golf.
- -- Walter Hagen
- %
- If you aren't rich you should always look useful.
- -- Louis-Ferdinand Celine
- %
- If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars.
- -- J. Paul Getty
- %
- If you can't get your work done in the first 24 hours, work nights.
- %
- If you can't learn to do it well, learn to enjoy doing it badly.
- %
- If you didn't have to work so hard, you'd have more time to be depressed.
- %
- If you do something right once, someone will ask you to do it again.
- %
- If you don't have time to do it right, where are you going to find the time
- to do it over?
- %
- If you fail to plan, plan to fail.
- %
- If you had better tools, you could more effectively demonstrate your
- total incompetence.
- %
- If you have to ask how much it is, you can't afford it.
- %
- If you hype something and it succeeds, you're a genius -- it wasn't a
- hype. If you hype it and it fails, then it was just a hype.
- -- Neil Bogart
- %
- If you sell diamonds, you cannot expect to have many customers.
- But a diamond is a diamond even if there are no customers.
- -- Swami Prabhupada
- %
- If you suspect a man, don't employ him.
- %
- If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car
- payments.
- -- Earl Wilson
- %
- If you want to know what god thinks of money, just look at the people he gave
- it to.
- -- Dorthy Parker
- %
- If you want to put yourself on the map, publish your own map.
- %
- If you would know the value of money, go try to borrow some.
- -- Ben Franklin
- %
- If you're like most homeowners, you're afraid that many repairs
- around your home are too difficult to tackle. So, when your furnace
- explodes, you call in a so-called professional to fix it. The
- "professional" arrives in a truck with lettering on the sides and deposits a
- large quantity of tools and two assistants who spend the better part of the
- week in your basement whacking objects at random with heavy wrenches, after
- which the "professional" returns and gives you a bill for slightly more
- money than it would cost you to run a successful campaign for the U.S.
- Senate.
- And that's why you've decided to start doing things yourself. You
- figure, "If those guys can fix my furnace, then so can I. How difficult can
- it be?"
- Very difficult. In fact, most home projects are impossible, which
- is why you should do them yourself. There is no point in paying other
- people to screw things up when you can easily screw them up yourself for far
- less money. This article can help you.
- -- Dave Barry, "The Taming of the Screw"
- %
- Important letters which contain no errors will develop errors in the mail.
- Corresponding errors will show up in the duplicate while the Boss is reading
- it. Vital papers will demonstrate their vitality by spontaneously moving
- from where you left them to where you can't find them.
- %
- In 1914, the first crossword puzzle was printed in a newspaper. The
- creator received $4000 down ... and $3000 across.
- %
- In a consumer society there are inevitably two kinds of slaves:
- the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of envy.
- %
- In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence ...
- in time every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent
- to carry out its duties ... Work is accomplished by those employees who
- have not yet reached their level of incompetence.
- -- Dr. Laurence J. Peter, "The Peter Principle"
- %
- In case of atomic attack, all work rules will be temporarily suspended.
- %
- In case of injury notify your superior immediately. He'll kiss it and
- make it better.
- %
- In every hierarchy the cream rises until it sours.
- -- Dr. Laurence J. Peter
- %
- In order to get a loan you must first prove you don't need it.
- %
- In the middle of a wide field is a pot of gold. 100 feet to the north stands
- a smart manager. 100 feet to the south stands a dumb manager. 100 feet to
- the east is the Easter Bunny, and 100 feet to the west is Santa Claus.
-
- Q: Who gets to the pot of gold first?
- A: The dumb manager. All the rest are myths.
- %
- Innovation is hard to schedule.
- -- Dan Fylstra
- %
- Insanity is the final defense ... It's hard to get a refund when the
- salesman is sniffing your crotch and baying at the moon.
- %
- Is a person who blows up banks an econoclast?
- %
- It is better to give than to lend, and it costs about the same.
- %
- It is better to live rich than to die rich.
- -- Samuel Johnson
- %
- It is better to travel hopefully than to fly Continental.
- %
- It is difficult to soar with the eagles when you work with turkeys.
- %
- It is imperative when flying coach that you restrain any tendency toward
- the vividly imaginative. For although it may momentarily appear to be the
- case, it is not at all likely that the cabin is entirely inhabited by
- crying babies smoking inexpensive domestic cigars.
- -- Fran Lebowitz, "Social Studies"
- %
- It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of
- work to do.
- -- Jerome Klapka Jerome
- %
- It is much harder to find a job than to keep one.
- %
- It is not enough that I should succeed. Others must fail.
- -- Ray Kroc, Founder of McDonald's
- [Also attributed to David Merrick. Ed.]
-
- It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.
- -- Gore Vidal
- [Great minds think alike? Ed.]
- %
- It is ridiculous to call this an industry. This is not. This is rat eat
- rat, dog eat dog. I'll kill 'em, and I'm going to kill 'em before they
- kill me. You're talking about the American way of survival of the fittest.
- -- Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's
- %
- It's a poor workman who blames his tools.
- %
- It's been a business doing pleasure with you.
- %
- It's fabulous! We haven't seen anything like it in the last half an hour!
- -- Macy's
- %
- It's not so hard to lift yourself by your bootstraps once you're off the ground.
- -- Daniel B. Luten
- %
- It's very glamorous to raise millions of dollars, until it's time for the
- venture capitalist to suck your eyeballs out.
- -- Peter Kennedy, chairman of Kraft & Kennedy.
- %
- Just because he's dead is no reason to lay off work.
- %
- Keep up the good work! But please don't ask me to help.
- %
- Keep your boss's boss off your boss's back.
- %
- Keep your Eye on the Ball,
- Your Shoulder to the Wheel,
- Your Nose to the Grindstone,
- Your Feet on the Ground,
- Your Head on your Shoulders.
- Now... try to get something DONE!
- %
- Lavish spending can be disastrous. Don't buy any lavishes for a while.
- %
- Lend money to a bad debtor and he will hate you.
- %
- Let me assure you that to us here at First National, you're not just a
- number. Youre two numbers, a dash, three more numbers, another dash and
- another number.
- -- James Estes
- %
- Let's organize this thing and take all the fun out of it.
- %
- Life is a healthy respect for mother nature laced with greed.
- %
- Life is cheap, but the accessories can kill you.
- %
- Live within your income, even if you have to borrow to do so.
- -- Josh Billings
- %
- Living on Earth may be expensive, but it includes an annual free trip
- around the Sun.
- %
- Lo! Men have become the tool of their tools.
- -- Henry David Thoreau
- %
- Loan-department manager: "There isn't any fine print. At these
- interest rates, we don't need it."
- %
- Lonesome?
-
- Like a change?
- Like a new job?
- Like excitement?
- Like to meet new and interesting people?
-
- JUST SCREW-UP ONE MORE TIME!!!!!!!
- %
- Look, we trade every day out there with hustlers, deal-makers, shysters,
- con-men. That's the way businesses get started. That's the way this
- country was built.
- -- Hubert Allen
- %
- Lots of folks confuse bad management with destiny.
- -- Frank Hubbard
- %
- Love may laugh at locksmiths, but he has a profound respect for money bags.
- -- Sidney Paternoster, "The Folly of the Wise"
- %
- Luck, that's when preparation and opportunity meet.
- -- P.E. Trudeau
- %
- Make headway at work. Continue to let things deteriorate at home.
- %
- Man is an animal that makes bargains: no other animal does this--
- no dog exchanges bones with another.
- -- Adam Smith
- %
- Man must shape his tools lest they shape him.
- -- Arthur R. Miller
- %
- Management: How many feet do mice have?
- Reply: Mice have four feet.
- M: Elaborate!
- R: Mice have five appendages, and four of them are feet.
- M: No discussion of fifth appendage!
- R: Mice have five appendages; four of them are feet; one is a tail.
- M: What? Feet with no legs?
- R: Mice have four legs, four feet, and one tail per unit-mouse.
- M: Confusing -- is that a total of 9 appendages?
- R: Mice have four leg-foot assemblies and one tail assembly per body.
- M: Does not fully discuss the issue!
- R: Each mouse comes equipped with four legs and a tail. Each leg
- is equipped with a foot at the end opposite the body; the tail
- is not equipped with a foot.
- M: Descriptive? Yes. Forceful NO!
- R: Allotment of appendages for mice will be: Four foot-leg assemblies,
- one tail. Deviation from this policy is not permitted as it would
- constitute misapportionment of scarce appendage assets.
- M: Too authoritarian; stifles creativity!
- R: Mice have four feet; each foot is attached to a small leg joined
- integrally with the overall mouse structural sub-system. Also
- attached to the mouse sub-system is a thin tail, non-functional and
- ornamental in nature.
- M: Too verbose/scientific. Answer the question!
- R: Mice have four feet.
- %
- Many people are unenthusiastic about their work.
- %
- Many people are unenthusiastic about your work.
- %
- Many people write memos to tell you they have nothing to say.
- %
- Mater artium necessitas.
- [Necessity is the mother of invention].
- %
- Maternity pay? Now every Tom, Dick and Harry will get pregnant.
- -- Malcolm Smith
- %
- Maybe you can't buy happiness, but these days you can certainly charge it.
- %
- McDonald's -- Because you're worth it.
- %
- Men of lofty genius when they are doing the least work are most active.
- -- Leonardo da Vinci
- %
- Men take only their needs into consideration -- never their abilities.
- -- Napoleon Bonaparte
- %
- Men's skin is different from women's skin. It is usually bigger, and
- it has more snakes tattooed on it. Also, if you examine a woman's skin
- very closely, inch by inch, starting at her shapely ankles, then gently
- tracing the slender curve of her calves, then moving up to her ...
-
- [EDITOR'S NOTE: To make room for news articles about important world events
- such as agriculture, we're going to delete the next few square feet of the
- woman's skin. Thank you.]
-
- ... until finally the two of you are lying there, spent, smoking your
- cigarettes, and suddenly it hits you: Human skin is actually made up of
- billions of tiny units of protoplasm, called "cells"! And what is even more
- interesting, the ones on the outside are all dying! This is a fact. Your
- skin is like an aggressive modern corporation, where the older veteran
- cells, who have finally worked their way to the top and obtained offices
- with nice views, are constantly being shoved out the window head first,
- without so much as a pension plan, by younger hotshot cells moving up from
- below.
- -- Dave Barry, "Saving Face"
- %
- Mental power tended to corrupt, and absolute intelligence tended to
- corrupt absolutely, until the victim eschewed violence entirely in
- favor of smart solutions to stupid problems.
- -- Piers Anthony
- %
- Money can't buy happiness, but it can make you awfully comfortable while
- you're being miserable.
- -- C.B. Luce
- %
- Money can't buy love, but it improves your bargaining position.
- -- Christopher Marlowe
- %
- Money cannot buy love, nor even friendship.
- %
- Money doesn't talk, it swears.
- -- Bob Dylan
- %
- Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.
- %
- Money is its own reward.
- %
- Money is the root of all evil, and man needs roots.
- %
- Money is the root of all wealth.
- %
- Money is truthful. If a man speaks of his honor, make him pay cash.
- -- Lazarus Long
- %
- Money isn't everything -- but it's a long way ahead of what comes next.
- -- Sir Edmond Stockdale
- %
- Money may buy friendship but money cannot buy love.
- %
- Money will say more in one moment than the most eloquent lover can in years.
- %
- Moneyliness is next to Godliness.
- -- Andries van Dam
- %
- Most people will listen to your unreasonable demands, if you'll consider
- their unacceptable offer.
- %
- Mundus vult decipi decipiatur ergo.
- -- Xaviera Hollander
- [The world wants to be cheated, so cheat.]
- %
- My idea of roughing it is when room service is late.
- %
- My idea of roughing it turning the air conditioner too low.
- %
- My problem lies in reconciling my gross habits with my net income.
- -- Errol Flynn
-
- Any man who has $10,000 left when he dies is a failure.
- -- Errol Flynn
- %
- "Necessity is the mother of invention" is a silly proverb. "Necessity
- is the mother of futile dodges" is much nearer the truth.
- -- Alfred North Whitehead
- %
- Neckties strangle clear thinking.
- -- Lin Yutang
- %
- Never appeal to a man's "better nature." He may not have one.
- Invoking his self-interest gives you more leverage.
- -- Lazarus Long
- %
- Never ask two questions in a business letter. The reply will discuss
- the one you are least interested, and say nothing about the other.
- %
- Never buy from a rich salesman.
- -- Goldenstern
- %
- Never buy what you do not want because it is cheap; it will be dear to you.
- -- Thomas Jefferson
- %
- Never call a man a fool. Borrow from him.
- %
- Never invest your money in anything that eats or needs repainting.
- -- Billy Rose
- %
- Never keep up with the Joneses. Drag them down to your level.
- -- Quentin Crisp
- %
- Never let someone who says it cannot be done interrupt the person who is
- doing it.
- %
- Never say you know a man until you have divided an inheritance with him.
- %
- Never tell people how to do things. Tell them WHAT to do and they will
- surprise you with their ingenuity.
- -- Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.
- %
- Never trust anyone who says money is no object.
- %
- Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig.
- -- Lazarus Long, "Time Enough for Love"
- %
- NEW YORK-- Kraft Foods, Inc. announced today that its board of
- directors unanimously rejected the $11 billion takeover bid by Philip
- Morris and Co. A Kraft spokesman stated in a press conference that the
- offer was rejected because the $90-per-share bid did not reflect the
- true value of the company.
- Wall Street insiders, however, tell quite a different story.
- Apparently, the Kraft board of directors had all but signed the takeover
- agreement when they learned of Philip Morris' marketing plans for one of
- their major Middle East subsidiaries. To a person, the board voted to
- reject the bid when they discovered that the tobacco giant intended to
- reorganize Israeli Cheddar, Ltd., and name the new company Cheeses of Nazareth.
- %
- Nitwit ideas are for emergencies. You use them when you've got nothing
- else to try. If they work, they go in the Book. Otherwise you follow
- the Book, which is largely a collection of nitwit ideas that worked.
- -- Larry Niven, "The Mote in God's Eye"
- %
- No committee could ever come up with anything as revolutionary as a camel --
- anything as practical and as perfectly designed to perform effectively under
- such difficult conditions.
- -- Laurence J. Peter
- %
- "No job too big; no fee too big!"
- -- Dr. Peter Venkman, "Ghost-busters"
- %
- No one gets sick on Wednesdays.
- %
- No problem is insoluble in all conceivable circumstances.
- %
- No problem is so formidable that you can't just walk away from it.
- -- C. Schulz
- %
- No problem is so large it can't be fit in somewhere.
- %
- No skis take rocks like rental skis!
- %
- No spitting on the Bus!
- Thank you, The Mgt.
- %
- None of our men are "experts." We have most unfortunately found it necessary
- to get rid of a man as soon as he thinks himself an expert -- because no one
- ever considers himself expert if he really knows his job. A man who knows a
- job sees so much more to be done than he has done, that he is always pressing
- forward and never gives up an instant of thought to how good and how efficient
- he is. Thinking always ahead, thinking always of trying to do more, brings a
- state of mind in which nothing is impossible. The moment one gets into the
- "expert" state of mind a great number of things become impossible.
- -- From Henry Ford Sr., "My Life and Work"
- %
- Nothing is finished until the paperwork is done.
- %
- Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself.
- -- A.H. Weiler
- %
- Nothing is more admirable than the fortitude with which millionaires
- tolerate the disadvantages of their wealth.
- -- Nero Wolfe
- %
- Nothing makes a person more productive than the last minute.
- %
- Nothing motivates a man more than to see his boss put in an honest day's work.
- %
- Nothing recedes like success.
- -- Walter Winchell
- %
- Nothing succeeds like excess.
- -- Oscar Wilde
- %
- Nothing succeeds like success.
- -- Alexandre Dumas
- %
- Nothing succeeds like the appearance of success.
- -- Christopher Lascl
- %
- Nothing will dispel enthusiasm like a small admission fee.
- -- Kim Hubbard
- %
- Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must be first
- overcome.
- -- Dr. Johnson
- %
- Now, you might ask, "How do I get one of those complete home tool
- sets for under $4?" An excellent question.
- Go to one of those really cheap discount stores where they sell
- plastic furniture in colors visible from the planet Neptune and where they
- have a food section specializing in cardboard cartons full of Raisinets and
- malted milk balls manufactured during the Nixon administration. In either
- the hardware or housewares department, you'll find an item imported from an
- obscure Oriental country and described as "Nine Tools in One", consisting of
- a little handle with interchangeable ends representing inscrutable Oriental
- notions of tools that Americans might use around the home. Buy it.
- This is the kind of tool set professionals use. Not only is it
- inexpensive, but it also has a great safety feature not found in the
- so-called quality tools sets: The handle will actually break right off if
- you accidentally hit yourself or anything else, or expose it to direct
- sunlight.
- -- Dave Barry, "The Taming of the Screw"
- %
- Of all possible committee reactions to any given agenda item, the
- reaction that will occur is the one which will liberate the greatest
- amount of hot air.
- -- Thomas L. Martin
- %
- Of course there's no reason for it, it's just our policy.
- %
- Once it hits the fan, the only rational choice is to sweep it up, package it,
- and sell it as fertilizer.
- %
- One fine day, the bus driver went to the bus garage, started his bus,
- and drove off along the route. No problems for the first few stops -- a few
- people got on, a few got off, and things went generally well. At the next
- stop, however, a big hulk of a guy got on. Six feet eight, built like a
- wrestler, arms hanging down to the ground. He glared at the driver and said,
- "Big John doesn't pay!" and sat down at the back.
- Did I mention that the driver was five feet three, thin, and basically
- meek? Well, he was. Naturally, he didn't argue with Big John, but he wasn't
- happy about it. Well, the next day the same thing happened -- Big John got on
- again, made a show of refusing to pay, and sat down. And the next day, and the
- one after that, and so forth. This grated on the bus driver, who started
- losing sleep over the way Big John was taking advantage of him. Finally he
- could stand it no longer. He signed up for bodybuilding courses, karate, judo,
- and all that good stuff. By the end of the summer, he had become quite strong;
- what's more, he felt really good about himself.
- So on the next Monday, when Big John once again got on the bus
- and said "Big John doesn't pay!," the driver stood up, glared back at the
- passenger, and screamed, "And why not?"
- With a surprised look on his face, Big John replied, "Big John has a
- bus pass."
- %
- One good suit is worth a thousand resumes.
- %
- One man's brain plus one other will produce one half as many ideas as one
- man would have produced alone. These two plus two more will produce half
- again as many ideas. These four plus four more begin to represent a
- creative meeting, and the ratio changes to one quarter as many ...
- -- Anthony Chevins
- %
- One of your most ancient writers, a historian named Herodotus, tells of a
- thief who was to be executed. As he was taken away he made a bargain with
- the king: in one year he would teach the king's favorite horse to sing
- hymns. The other prisoners watched the thief singing to the horse and
- laughed. "You will not succeed," they told him. "No one can."
- To which the thief replied, "I have a year, and who knows what might
- happen in that time. The king might die. The horse might die. I might die.
- And perhaps the horse will learn to sing.
- -- "The Mote in God's Eye", Niven and Pournelle
- %
- One possible reason that things aren't going according to plan
- is that there never was a plan in the first place.
- %
- One promising concept that I came up with right away was that you could
- manufacture personal air bags, then get a law passed requiring that they be
- installed on congressmen to keep them from taking trips. Let's say your
- congressman was trying to travel to Paris to do a fact-finding study on how
- the French government handles diseases transmitted by sherbet. Just when he
- got to the plane, his mandatory air bag, strapped around his waist, would
- inflate -- FWWAAAAAAPPPP -- thus rendering him too large to fit through the
- plane door. It could also be rigged to inflate whenever the congressman
- proposed a law. ("Mr. Speaker, people ask me, why should October be
- designated as Cuticle Inspection Month? And I answer that FWWAAAAAAPPPP.")
- This would save millions of dollars, so I have no doubt that the public
- would violently support a law requiring airbags on congressmen. The problem
- is that your potential market is very small: there are only around 500
- members of Congress, and some of them, such as House Speaker "Tip" O'Neil,
- are already too large to fit on normal aircraft.
- -- Dave Barry, "'Mister Mediocre' Restaurants"
- %
- One way to make your old car run better is to look up the price of a new model.
- %
- Only through hard work and perseverance can one truly suffer.
- %
- Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don't
- recognize them.
- %
- Optimism is the content of small men in high places.
- -- F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Crack Up"
- %
- Or you or I must yield up his life to Ahrimanes. I would rather it were you.
- I should have no hesitation in sacrificing my own life to spare yours, but
- we take stock next week, and it would not be fair on the company.
- -- J. Wellington Wells
- %
- Our business in life is not to succeed but to continue to fail in high spirits.
- -- Robert Louis Stevenson
- %
- Our country has plenty of good five-cent cigars, but the trouble is
- they charge fifteen cents for them.
- %
- Our policy is, when in doubt, do the right thing.
- -- Roy L. Ash, ex-president, Litton Industries
- %
- Overdrawn? But I still have checks left!
- %
- Owe no man any thing...
- -- Romans 13:8
- %
- People are always available for work in the past tense.
- %
- People seem to think that the blanket phrase, "I only work here," absolves
- them utterly from any moral obligation in terms of the public -- but this
- was precisely Eichmann's excuse for his job in the concentration camps.
- %
- People will buy anything that's one to a customer.
- %
- Please keep your hands off the secretary's reproducing equipment.
- %
- Please try to limit the amount of "this room doesn't have any bazingas"
- until you are told that those rooms are "punched out." Once punched out,
- we have a right to complain about atrocities, missing bazingas, and such.
- -- N. Meyrowitz
- %
- Plumbing is one of the easier of do-it-yourself activities,
- requiring only a few simple tools and a willingness to stick your arm into a
- clogged toilet. In fact, you can solve many home plumbing problems, such as
- annoying faucet drip, merely by turning up the radio. But before we get
- into specific techniques, let's look at how plumbing works.
- A plumbing system is very much like your electrical system, except
- that instead of electricity, it has water, and instead of wires, it has
- pipes, and instead of radios and waffle irons, it has faucets and toilets.
- So the truth is that your plumbing systems is nothing at all like your
- electrical system, which is good, because electricity can kill you.
- -- Dave Barry, "The Taming of the Screw"
- %
- Porsche: there simply is no substitute.
- -- Risky Business
- %
- Possessions increase to fill the space available for their storage.
- -- Ryan
- %
- Practical people would be more practical if they would take a little
- more time for dreaming.
- -- J. P. McEvoy
- %
- Promise her anything, but give her Exxon unleaded.
- %
- Promising costs nothing, it's the delivering that kills you.
- %
- Promptness is its own reward, if one lives by the clock instead of the sword.
- %
- Put not your trust in money, but put your money in trust.
- %
- Put your best foot forward. Or just call in and say you're sick.
- %
- Put your Nose to the Grindstone!
- -- Amalgamated Plastic Surgeons and Toolmakers, Ltd.
- %
- Quantity is no substitute for quality, but its the only one we've got.
- %
- Real wealth can only increase.
- -- R. Buckminster Fuller
- %
- Receiving a million dollars tax free will make you feel better than
- being flat broke and having a stomach ache.
- -- Dolph Sharp, "I'm O.K., You're Not So Hot"
- %
- Recent investments will yield a slight profit.
- %
- Recent research has tended to show that the Abominable No-Man
- is being replaced by the Prohibitive Procrastinator.
- -- C.N. Parkinson
- %
- Regardless of whether a mission expands or contracts, administrative
- overhead continues to grow at a steady rate.
- %
- Remember -- only 10% of anything can be in the top 10%.
- %
- Remember to say hello to your bank teller.
- %
- Remember, even if you win the rat race -- you're still a rat.
- %
- Retirement means that when someone says "Have a nice day", you
- actually have a shot at it.
- %
- Riches cover a multitude of woes.
- -- Menander
- %
- Rule #7: Silence is not acquiescence.
- Contrary to what you may have heard, silence of those present is
- not necessarily consent, even the reluctant variety. They simply may
- sit in stunned silence and figure ways of sabotaging the plan after
- they regain their composure.
- %
- Save a little money each month and at the end of the year you'll be
- surprised at how little you have.
- -- Ernest Haskins
- %
- Sears has everything.
- %
- Serving coffee on aircraft causes turbulence.
- %
- "Seven years and six months!" Humpty Dumpty repeated thoughtfully.
- "An uncomfortable sort of age. Now if you'd asked MY advice, I'd have
- said 'Leave off at seven' -- but it's too late now."
- "I never ask advice about growing," Alice said indignantly.
- "Too proud?" the other enquired.
- Alice felt even more indignant at this suggestion. "I mean,"
- she said, "that one can't help growing older."
- "ONE can't, perhaps," said Humpty Dumpty; "but TWO can. With
- proper assistance, you might have left off at seven."
- -- Lewis Carroll, "Through the Looking-Glass"
- %
- Several years ago, some smart businessmen had an idea: Why not build a big
- store where a do-it-yourselfer could get everything he needed at reasonable
- prices? Then they decided, nah, the hell with that, let's build a home
- center. And before long home centers were springing up like crabgrass all
- over the United States.
- -- Dave Barry, "The Taming of the Screw"
- %
- Show me a man who is a good loser and I'll show you a man who is playing
- golf with his boss.
- %
- So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what
- is the root of money?
- -- Ayn Rand
- %
- So... did you ever wonder, do garbagemen take showers before they go to work?
- %
- Some people carve careers, others chisel them.
- %
- Some people have a great ambition: to build something
- that will last, at least until they've finished building it.
- %
- Some people manage by the book, even though they don't know who wrote the
- book or even what book.
- %
- Some people only open up to tell you that they're closed.
- %
- Some people pray for more than they are willing to work for.
- %
- Some people say a front-engine car handles best. Some people say a
- rear-engine car handles best. I say a rented car handles best.
- -- P.J. O'Rourke
- %
- Somebody ought to cross ball point pens with coat hangers so that the
- pens will multiply instead of disappear.
- %
- Someday somebody has got to decide whether the typewriter is the machine,
- or the person who operates it.
- %
- Someday your prints will come.
- -- Kodak
- %
- Someone is unenthusiastic about your work.
- %
- Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names
- the streets after them.
- -- Bill Vaughn
- %
- Success is something I will dress for when I get there, and not until.
- %
- Suggest you just sit there and wait till life gets easier.
- %
- Support your local church or synagogue. Worship at Bank of America.
- %
- Surprise due today. Also the rent.
- %
- Surprise your boss. Get to work on time.
- %
- Take care of the luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves.
- -- Lazarus Long
- %
- Take everything in stride. Trample anyone who gets in your way.
- %
- Take the folks at Coca-Cola. For many years, they were content
- to sit back and make the same old carbonated beverage. It was a good
- beverage, no question about it; generations of people had grown up
- drinking it and doing the experiment in sixth grade where you put a
- nail into a glass of Coke and after a couple of days the nail dissolves
- and the teacher says: "Imagine what it does to your TEETH!" So Coca-Cola
- was solidly entrenched in the market, and the management saw no need to
- improve ...
- -- Dave Barry, "In Search of Excellence"
- %
- Take time to reflect on all the things you have, not as a result of your
- merit or hard work or because God or chance or the efforts of other people
- have given them to you.
- %
- Take your work seriously but never take yourself seriously; and do not
- take what happens either to yourself or your work seriously.
- -- Booth Tarkington
- %
- Talent does what it can.
- Genius does what it must.
- You do what you get paid to do.
- %
- Telephone books are like dictionaries -- if you know the answer before
- you look it up, you can eventually reaffirm what you thought you knew
- but weren't sure. But if you're searching for something you don't
- already know, your fingers could walk themselves to death.
- -- Erma Bombeck
- %
- Term, holidays, term, holidays, till we leave school, and then work, work,
- work till we die.
- -- C.S. Lewis
- %
- That's life.
- What's life?
- A magazine.
- How much does it cost?
- Two-fifty.
- I only have a dollar.
- That's life.
- %
- The [Ford Foundation] is a large body of money completely surrounded by
- people who want some.
- -- Dwight MacDonald
- %
- The `loner' may be respected, but he is always resented by his colleagues,
- for he seems to be passing a critical judgment on them, when he may be
- simply making a limiting statement about himself.
- -- Sidney Harris
- %
- The absent ones are always at fault.
- %
- The annual meeting of the "You Have To Listen To Experience" Club is now in
- session. Our Achievement Awards this year are in the fields of publishing,
- advertising and industry. For best consistent contribution in the field of
- publishing our award goes to editor, R.L.K., [...] for his unrivalled alle-
- giance without variation to the statement: "Personally I'd love to do it,
- we'd ALL love to do it. But we're not going to do it. It's not the kind of
- book our house knows how to handle." Our superior performance award in the
- field of advertising goes to media executive, E.L.M., [...] for the continu-
- ally creative use of the old favorite: "I think what you've got here could be
- very exciting. Why not give it one more try based on the approach I've out-
- lined and see if you can come up with something fresh." Our final award for
- courageous holding action in the field of industry goes to supervisor, R.S.,
- [...] for her unyielding grip on "I don't care if they fire me, I've been
- arguing for a new approach for YEARS but are we SURE that this is the right
- time--" I would like to conclude this meeting with a verse written specially
- for our prospectus by our founding president fifty years ago -- and now, as
- then, fully expressive of the emotion most close to all our hearts --
- Treat freshness as a youthful quirk,
- And dare not stray to ideas new,
- For if t'were tried they might e'en work
- And for a living what woulds't we do?
- %
- The answer to the question of Life, the Universe, and Everything is...
-
- Four day work week,
- Two ply toilet paper!
- %
- The answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything was
- released with the kind permission of the Amalgamated Union of Philosophers,
- Sages, Luminaries, and Other Professional Thinking Persons.
- %
- The average individual's position in any hierarchy is a lot like pulling
- a dogsled -- there's no real change of scenery except for the lead dog.
- %
- The best equipment for your work is, of course, the most expensive.
- However, your neighbor is always wasting money that should be yours
- by judging things by their price.
- %
- The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do
- what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with
- them while they do it.
- -- Theodore Roosevelt
- %
- The best laid plans of mice and men are held up in the legal department.
- %
- The best things in life are for a fee.
- %
- The best things in life go on sale sooner or later.
- %
- The best way to avoid responsibility is to say, "I've got responsibilities."
- %
- The Bible on letters of reference:
-
- Are we beginning all over again to produce our credentials? Do
- we, like some people, need letters of introduction to you, or from you?
- No, you are all the letter we need, a letter written on your heart; any
- man can see it for what it is and read it for himself.
- -- 2 Corinthians 3:1-2, New English translation
- %
- The biggest mistake you can make is to believe that you are working for
- someone else.
- %
- The boss returned from lunch in a good mood and called the whole staff
- in to listen to a couple of jokes he had picked up. Everybody but one girl
- laughed uproariously. "What's the matter?" grumbled the boss. "Haven't you
- got a sense of humor?"
- "I don't have to laugh," she said. "I'm leaving Friday anyway.
- %
- The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up
- in the morning, and does not stop until you get to work.
- %
- The closest to perfection a person ever comes is when he fills out a job
- application form.
- -- Stanley J. Randall
- %
- The confusion of a staff member is measured by the length of his memos.
- -- New York Times, Jan. 20, 1981
- %
- The cost of feathers has risen, even down is up!
- %
- The cost of living hasn't affected its popularity.
- %
- The cost of living is going up, and the chance of living is going down.
- %
- The decision doesn't have to be logical; it was unanimous.
- %
- The degree of technical confidence is inversely proportional to the
- level of management.
- %
- The departing division general manager met a last time with his young
- successor and gave him three envelopes. "My predecessor did this for me,
- and I'll pass the tradition along to you," he said. "At the first sign
- of trouble, open the first envelope. Any further difficulties, open the
- second envelope. Then, if problems continue, open the third envelope.
- Good luck." The new manager returned to his office and tossed the envelopes
- into a drawer.
- Six months later, costs soared and earnings plummeted. Shaken, the
- young man opened the first envelope, which said, "Blame it all on me."
- The next day, he held a press conference and did just that. The
- crisis passed.
- Six months later, sales dropped precipitously. The beleagured
- manager opened the second envelope. It said, "Reorganize."
- He held another press conference, announcing that the division
- would be restructured. The crisis passed.
- A year later, everything went wrong at once and the manager was
- blamed for all of it. The harried executive closed his office door, sank
- into his chair, and opened the third envelope.
- "Prepare three envelopes..." it said.
- %
- The difference between a career and a job is about 20 hours a week.
- %
- The difficult we do today; the impossible takes a little longer.
- %
- The early bird who catches the worm works for someone who comes in late
- and owns the worm farm.
- -- Travis McGee
- %
- The easiest way to figure the cost of living is to take your income and
- add ten percent.
- %
- The end of labor is to gain leisure.
- %
- The error of youth is to believe that intelligence is a substitute for
- experience, while the error of age is to believe experience is a substitute
- for intelligence.
- -- Lyman Bryson
- %
- The faster I go, the behinder I get.
- -- Lewis Carroll
- %
- The finest eloquence is that which gets things done.
- %
- The first 90% of a project takes 90% of the time, the last 10% takes the
- other 90% of the time.
- %
- The first myth of management is that it exists. The second myth of
- management is that success equals skill.
- -- Robert Heller
- %
- The first Rotarian was the first man to call John the Baptist "Jack."
- -- H.L. Mencken
- %
- The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to save all the parts.
- -- Paul Erlich
- %
- The flush toilet is the basis of Western civilization.
- -- Alan Coult
- %
- The gent who wakes up and finds himself a success hasn't been asleep.
- %
- The greatest productive force is human selfishness.
- -- Robert Heinlein
- %
- The hardest part of climbing the ladder of success is getting through
- the crowd at the bottom.
- %
- The hieroglyphics are all unreadable except for a notation on the back,
- which reads "Genuine authentic Egyptian papyrus. Guaranteed to be at
- least 5000 years old."
- %
- The idea there was that consumers would bring their broken electronic
- devices, such as television sets and VCR's, to the destruction centers,
- where trained personnel would whack them (the devices) with sledgehammers.
- With their devices thus permanently destroyed, consumers would then be free
- to go out and buy new devices, rather than have to fritter away years of
- their lives trying to have the old ones repaired at so-called "factory
- service centers," which in fact consist of two men named Lester poking at
- the insides of broken electronic devices with cheap cigars and going,
- "Lookit all them WIRES in there!"
- -- Dave Barry, "'Mister Mediocre' Restaurants"
- %
- The ideal voice for radio may be defined as showing no substance, no sex,
- no owner, and a message of importance for every housewife.
- -- Harry V. Wade
- %
- The idle man does not know what it is to enjoy rest.
- %
- The individual choice of garnishment of a burger can be an important
- point to the consumer in this day when individualism is an increasingly
- important thing to people.
- -- Donald N. Smith, president of Burger King
- %
- The intelligence of any discussion diminishes with the square of the
- number of participants.
- -- Adam Walinsky
- %
- The IQ of the group is the lowest IQ of a member of the group divided
- by the number of people in the group.
- %
- The King and his advisor are overlooking the battle field:
-
- King: "How goes the battle plan?"
- Advisor: "See those little black specks running to the right?"
- K: "Yes."
- A: "Those are their guys. And all those little red specks running
- to the left are our guys. Then when they collide we wait till
- the dust clears."
- K: "And?"
- A: "If there are more red specks left than black specks, we win."
- K: "But what about the ^#!!$% battle plan?"
- A: "So far, it seems to be going according to specks."
- %
- The last person that quit or was fired will be held responsible for
- everything that goes wrong -- until the next person quits or is fired.
- %
- The longer the title, the less important the job.
- %
- The major difference between bonds and bond traders is that the bonds will
- eventually mature.
- %
- The means-and-ends moralists, or non-doers, always end up on their ends
- without any means.
- -- Saul Alinsky
- %
- The meek don't want it.
- %
- The meek shall inherit the earth -- they are too weak to refuse.
- %
- The meek shall inherit the earth, but *not* its mineral rights.
- -- J.P. Getty
- %
- The meek shall inherit the Earth. (But they're gonna have to fight for it.)
- %
- The meek shall inherit the earth; but by that time there won't be
- anything left worth inheriting.
- %
- The more cordial the buyer's secretary, the greater the odds that the
- competition already has the order.
- %
- The more crap you put up with, the more crap you are going to get.
- %
- The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work.
- -- Richard Bach, "Illusions"
- %
- The more pretentious a corporate name, the smaller the organization. (For
- instance, The Murphy Center for Codification of Human and Organizational Law,
- contrasted to IBM, GM, AT&T ...)
- %
- The most delightful day after the one on which you buy a cottage in
- the country is the one on which you resell it.
- -- J. Brecheux
- %
- The most difficult thing in the world is to know how to do a thing and to
- watch someone else doing it wrong, without commenting.
- -- T.H. White
- %
- The one day you'd sell your soul for something, souls are a glut.
- %
- The only problem with being a man of leisure is that you can never stop
- and take a rest.
- %
- The only promotion rules I can think of are that a sense of shame is to
- be avoided at all costs and there is never any reason for a hustler to
- be less cunning than more virtuous men. Oh yes ... whenever you think
- you've got something really great, add ten per cent more.
- -- Bill Veeck
- %
- The only really good place to buy lumber is at a store where the lumber has
- already been cut and attached together in the form of furniture, finished,
- and put inside boxes.
- -- Dave Barry, "The Taming of the Screw"
- %
- The opossum is a very sophisticated animal. It doesn't even get up
- until 5 or 6 PM.
- %
- The optimum committee has no members.
- -- Norman Augustine
- %
- The opulence of the front office door varies inversely with the fundamental
- solvency of the firm.
- %
- The other line moves faster.
- %
- The person who can smile when something goes wrong has thought of
- someone to blame it on.
- %
- The person who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.
- %
- The person who's taking you to lunch has no intention of paying.
- %
- The possession of a book becomes a substitute for reading it.
- -- Anthony Burgess
- %
- The price one pays for pursuing any profession, or calling, is an intimate
- knowledge of its ugly side.
- -- James Baldwin
- %
- The primary cause of failure in electrical appliances is an expired
- warranty. Often, you can get an appliance running again simply by changing
- the warranty expiration date with a 15/64-inch felt-tipped marker.
- -- Dave Barry, "The Taming of the Screw"
- %
- The problem that we thought was a problem was, indeed, a problem, but
- not the problem we thought was the problem.
- -- Mike Smith
- %
- The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people
- worry than work.
- %
- The reward for working hard is more hard work.
- %
- The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.
- -- Emerson
- %
- The rich get rich, and the poor get poorer.
- The haves get more, the have-nots die.
- %
- The rights and interests of the laboring man will be protected and cared
- for not by our labor agitators, but by the Christian men to whom God in his
- infinite wisdom has given control of property interests of the country, and
- upon the successful management of which so much remains.
- -- George F. Baer, railroad industrialist
- %
- The road to ruin is always in good repair, and the travellers pay the
- expense of it.
- -- Josh Billings
- %
- The salary of the chief executive of the large corporation is not a market
- award for achievement. It is frequently in the nature of a warm personal
- gesture by the individual to himself.
- -- John Kenneth Galbraith, "Annals of an Abiding Liberal"
- %
- The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that, you've got
- it made.
- -- Jean Giraudoux
- %
- The seven deadly sins ... Food, clothing, firing, rent, taxes, respectability
- and children. Nothing can lift those seven milestones from man's neck but
- money; and the spirit cannot soar until the milestones are lifted.
- -- George Bernard Shaw
- %
- The shortest distance between two points is under construction.
- -- Noelie Alito
- %
- The sooner you fall behind, the more time you have to catch up.
- %
- The sooner you make your first 5000 mistakes, the sooner you will be
- able to correct them.
- -- Nicolaides
- %
- The star of riches is shining upon you.
- %
- The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands
- what will sell.
- -- Confucius
- %
- The term "fire" brings up visions of violence and mayhem and the ugly scene
- of shooting employees who make mistakes. We will now refer to this process
- as "deleting" an employee (much as a file is deleted from a disk). The
- employee is simply there one instant, and gone the next. All the terrible
- temper tantrums, crying, and threats are eliminated.
- -- Kenny's Korner
- %
- The time spent on any item of the agenda [of a finance committee] will be
- in inverse proportion to the sum involved.
- -- C.N. Parkinson
- %
- The trouble with a lot of self-made men is that they worship their creator.
- %
- The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all your time.
- %
- The trouble with being punctual is that nobody's there to appreciate it.
- -- Franklin P. Jones
- %
- The trouble with being punctual is that people think you have nothing more
- important to do.
- %
- The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody
- appreciates how difficult it was.
- %
- The trouble with money is it costs too much!
- %
- The trouble with opportunity is that it always comes disguised as hard work.
- -- Herbert V. Prochnow
- %
- The trouble with the rat-race is that even if you win, you're still a rat.
- -- Lily Tomlin
- %
- The two most beautiful words in the English language are "Cheque Enclosed."
- -- Dorothy Parker
- %
- The use of money is all the advantage there is to having money.
- -- B. Franklin
- %
- The wages of sin are high but you get your money's worth.
- %
- The wages of sin are unreported.
- %
- The way to make a small fortune in the commodities market is to start
- with a large fortune.
- %
- The Worst Car Hire Service
- When David Schwartz left university in 1972, he set up Rent-a-wreck
- as a joke. Being a natural prankster, he acquired a fleet of beat-up
- shabby, wreckages waiting for the scrap heap in California.
- He put on a cap and looked forward to watching people's faces as he
- conducted them round the choice of bumperless, dented junkmobiles.
- To his lasting surprise there was an insatiable demand for them and
- he now has 26 thriving branches all over America. "People like driving
- round in the worst cars available," he said. Of course they do.
- "If a driver damages the side of a car and is honest enough to
- admit it, I tell him, `Forget it'. If they bring a car back late we
- overlook it. If they've had a crash and it doesn't involve another vehicle
- we might overlook that too."
- "Where's the ashtray?" asked on Los Angeles wife, as she settled
- into the ripped interior. "Honey," said her husband, "the whole car's the
- ash tray."
- -- Stephen Pile, "The Book of Heroic Failures"
- %
- Their idea of an offer you can't refuse is an offer... and you'd better
- not refuse.
- %
- Them as has, gets.
- %
- Then a man said: Speak to us of Expectations.
- He then said: If a man does not see or hear the waters of the
- Jordan, then he should not taste the pomegranate or ply his wares in an
- open market.
- If a man would not labour in the salt and rock quarries then he
- should not accept of the Earth that which he refuses to give of
- himself.
-
- Such a man would expect a pear of a peach tree.
- Such a man would expect a stone to lay an egg.
- Such a man would expect Sears to assemble a lawnmower.
- -- Kehlog Albran, "The Profit"
- %
- Then there was the ScoutMaster who got a fantastic deal on this case of
- Tates brand compasses for his troup; only $1.25 each! Only problem was,
- when they got them out in the woods, the compasses were all stuck pointing
- to the "W" on the dial.
-
- Moral:
- He who has a Tates is lost!
- %
- There are many of us in this old world of ours who hold that things break
- about even for all of us. I have observed, for example, that we all get
- about the same amount of ice. The rich get it in the summer and the poor
- get it in the winter.
- -- Bat Masterson
- %
- There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an evening
- with an insurance salesman?
- -- Woody Allen
- %
- There has been a little distress selling on the stock exchange.
- -- Thomas W. Lamont, October 29, 1929 (Black Tuesday)
- %
- There is a good deal of solemn cant about the common interests of capital
- and labour. As matters stand, their only common interest is that of cutting
- each other's throat.
- -- Brooks Atkinson, "Once Around the Sun"
- %
- There is hardly a thing in the world that some man can not make a little
- worse and sell a little cheaper.
- %
- There is never time to do it right, but always time to do it over.
- %
- There is no Father Christmas. It's just a marketing ploy to make low income
- parents' lives a misery. ... I want you to picture the trusting face of a
- child, streaked with tears because of what you just said. I want you to
- picture the face of its mother, because one week's dole won't pay for one
- Master of the Universe Battlecruiser!
- -- Filthy Rich and Catflap
- %
- There is no time like the present for postponing what you ought to be doing.
- %
- There is nothing so easy but that it becomes difficult when you do it
- reluctantly.
- -- Publius Terentius Afer (Terence)
- %
- There is one way to find out if a man is honest -- ask him. If he says
- "Yes" you know he is crooked.
- -- Groucho Marx
- %
- There is very little future in being right when your boss is wrong.
- %
- There must be more to life than having everything.
- -- Maurice Sendak
- %
- There was a college student trying to earn some pocket money by
- going from house to house offering to do odd jobs. He explained this to
- a man who answered one door.
- "How much will you charge to paint my porch?" asked the man.
- "Forty dollars."
- "Fine" said the man, and gave the student the paint and brushes.
- Three hours later the paint-splattered lad knocked on the door again.
- "All done!", he says, and collects his money. "By the way," the student says,
- "That's not a Porsche, it's a Ferrari."
- %
- There's no such thing as a free lunch.
- -- Milton Friendman
- %
- There's nothing worse for your business than extra Santa Clauses
- smoking in the men's room.
- -- W. Bossert
- %
- They are fools that think that wealth or women or strong drink or even
- drugs can buy the most in effort out of the soul of a man. These things offer
- pale pleasures compared to that which is greatest of them all, that task which
- demands from him more than his utmost strength, that absorbs him, bone and
- sinew and brain and hope and fear and dreams -- and still calls for more.
- They are fools that think otherwise. No great effort was ever bought.
- No painting, no music, no poem, no cathedral in stone, no church, no state was
- ever raised into being for payment of any kind. No parthenon, no Thermopylae
- was ever built or fought for pay or glory; no Bukhara sacked, or China ground
- beneath Mongol heel, for loot or power alone. The payment for doing these
- things was itself the doing of them.
- To wield onself -- to use oneself as a tool in one's own hand -- and
- so to make or break that which no one else can build or ruin -- THAT is the
- greatest pleasure known to man! To one who has felt the chisel in his hand
- and set free the angel prisoned in the marble block, or to one who has felt
- sword in hand and set homeless the soul that a moment before lived in the body
- of his mortal enemy -- to those both come alike the taste of that rare food
- spread only for demons or for gods."
- -- Gordon R. Dickson, "Soldier Ask Not"
- %
- Things worth having are worth cheating for.
- %
- Think lucky. If you fall in a pond, check your pockets for fish.
- -- Darrell Royal
- %
- This is a good time to punt work.
- %
- This is an especially good time for you vacationers who plan to fly, because
- the Reagan administration, as part of the same policy under which it
- recently sold Yellowstone National Park to Wayne Newton, has "deregulated"
- the airline industry. What this means for you, the consumer, is that the
- airlines are no longer required to follow any rules whatsoever. They can
- show snuff movies. They can charge for oxygen. They can hire pilots right
- out of Vending Machine Refill Person School. They can conserve fuel by
- ejecting husky passengers over water. They can ram competing planes in
- mid-air. These innovations have resulted in tremendous cost savings which
- have been passed along to you, the consumer, in the form of flights with
- amazingly low fares, such as $29. Of course, certain restrictions do apply,
- the main one being that all these flights take you to Newark, and you must
- pay thousands of dollars if you want to fly back out.
- -- Dave Barry, "Iowa -- Land of Secure Vacations"
- %
- This planet has -- or rather had -- a problem, which was this: most of
- the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many
- solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were
- largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper,
- which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of
- paper that were unhappy.
- -- Douglas Adams
- %
- This week only, all our fiber-fill jackets are marked down!
- %
- Those who claim the dead never return to life haven't ever been around
- here at quitting time.
- %
- Those who do things in a noble spirit of self-sacrifice are to be avoided
- at all costs.
- -- N. Alexander.
- %
- Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.
- -- Theophrastus
- %
- Time to take stock. Go home with some office supplies.
- %
- To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.
- -- Elbert Hubbard
- %
- To be or not to be, that is the bottom line.
- %
- To do nothing is to be nothing.
- %
- To do two things at once is to do neither.
- -- Publilius Syrus
- %
- To get back on your feet, miss two car payments.
- %
- To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three
- persons, two of them absent.
- %
- To restore a sense of reality, I think Walt Disney should have a Hardluckland.
- -- Jack Paar
- %
- To save a single life is better than to build a seven story pagoda.
- %
- To see a need and wait to be asked, is to already refuse.
- %
- To spot the expert, pick the one who predicts the job will take the longest
- and cost the most.
- %
- To stay youthful, stay useful.
- %
- To the landlord belongs the doorknobs.
- %
- To thine own self be true. (If not that, at least make some money.)
- %
- To understand this important story, you have to understand how the telephone
- company works. Your telephone is connected to a local computer, which is in
- turn connected to a regional computer, which is in turn connected to a
- loudspeaker the size of a garbage truck on the lawn of Edna A. Bargewater of
- Lawrence, Kan.
-
- Whenever you talk on the phone, your local computer listens in. If it
- suspects you're going to discuss an intimate topic, it notifies the computer
- above it, which listens in and decides whether to alert the one above it,
- until finally, if you really humiliate yourself, maybe break down in tears
- and tell your closest friend about a sordid incident from your past
- involving a seedy motel, a neighbor's spouse, an entire religious order, a
- garden hose and six quarts of tapioca pudding, the top computer feeds your
- conversation into Edna's loudspeaker, and she and her friends come out on
- the porch to listen and drink gin and laugh themselves silly.
- -- Dave Barry, "Won't It Be Just Great Owning Our Own Phones?"
- %
- Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem
- more afraid of life than death.
- -- James F. Byrnes
- %
- Too much is not enough.
- %
- Too much of everything is just enough.
- -- Bob Wier
- %
- Truth is free, but information costs.
- %
- Two can Live as Cheaply as One for Half as Long.
- -- Howard Kandel
- %
- Veni, Vidi, VISA:
- I came, I saw, I did a little shopping.
- %
- Very few things actually get manufactured these days, because in an
- infinitely large Universe, such as the one in which we live, most things one
- could possibly imagine, and a lot of things one would rather not, grow
- somewhere. A forest was discovered recently in which most of the trees grew
- ratchet screwdrivers as fruit. The life cycle of the ratchet screwdriver is
- quite interesting. Once picked it needs a dark dusty drawer in which it can
- lie undisturbed for years. Then one night it suddenly hatches, discards its
- outer skin that crumbles into dust, and emerges as a totally unidentifiable
- little metal object with flanges at both ends and a sort of ridge and a hole
- for a screw. This, when found, will get thrown away. No one knows what the
- screwdriver is supposed to gain from this. Nature, in her infinite wisdom,
- is presumably working on it.
- %
- Vests are to suits as seat-belts are to cars.
- %
- VI:
- A hungry dog hunts best.
- A hungrier dog hunts even better.
- VII:
- Decreased business base increases overhead.
- So does increased business base.
- VIII:
- The most unsuccessful four years in the education of a cost-estimator
- is fifth grade arithmetic.
- IX:
- Acronyms and abbreviations should be used to the maximum extent
- possible to make trivial ideas profound. Q.E.D.
- X:
- Bulls do not win bull fights; people do.
- People do not win people fights; lawyers do.
- -- Norman Augustine
- %
- Vital papers will demonstrate their vitality by spontaneously moving
- from where you left them to where you can't find them.
- %
- WARNING TO ALL PERSONNEL:
-
- Firings will continue until morale improves.
- %
- Waste not, get your budget cut next year.
- %
- We all like praise, but a hike in our pay is the best kind of ways.
- %
- We all live in a state of ambitious poverty.
- -- Decimus Junius Juvenalis
- %
- We are not a loved organization, but we are a respected one.
- -- John Fisher
- %
- We have some absolutely irrefutable statistics to show exactly why
- you are so tired.
- There are not as many people actually working as you may have thought.
- The population of this country is 200 million. 84 million are over
- 60 years of age, which leaves 116 million to do the work. People under 20
- years of age total 75 million, which leaves 41 million to do the work.
- There are 22 million who are employed by the government, which leaves
- 19 million to do the work. Four million are in the Armed Services, which
- leaves 15 million to do the work. Deduct 14,800,000, the number in the state
- and city offices, leaving 200,000 to do the work. There are 188,000 in
- hospitals, insane asylums, etc., so that leaves 12,000 to do the work.
- Now it may interest you to know that there are 11,998 people in jail,
- so that leaves just 2 people to carry the load. That is you and me, and
- brother, I'm getting tired of doing everything myself!
- %
- "We maintain that the very foundation of our way of life is what we call
- free enterprise," said Cash McCall, "but when one of our citizens
- show enough free enterprise to pile up a little of that profit, we do
- our best to make him feel that he ought to be ashamed of himself."
- -- Cameron Hawley
- %
- We were so poor that we thought new clothes meant someone had died.
- %
- We were so poor we couldn't afford a watchdog. If we heard a noise at night,
- we'd bark ourselves.
- -- Crazy Jimmy
- %
- We're living in a golden age. All you need is gold.
- -- D.W. Robertson.
- %
- Weekend, where are you?
- %
- What good is a ticket to the good life, if you can't find the entrance?
- %
- What I mean (and everybody else means) by the word QUALITY cannot be
- broken down into subjects and predicates. This is not because Quality
- is so mysterious but because Quality is so simple, immediate, and direct.
- -- R. Pirsig, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"
- %
- What is worth doing is worth the trouble of asking somebody to do.
- %
- What sin has not been committed in the name of efficiency?
- %
- What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away.
- %
- What they said:
- What they meant:
-
- "I recommend this candidate with no qualifications whatsoever."
- (Yes, that about sums it up.)
- "The amount of mathematics she knows will surprise you."
- (And I recommend not giving that school a dime...)
- "I simply can't say enough good things about him."
- (What a screw-up.)
- "I am pleased to say that this candidate is a former colleague of mine."
- (I can't tell you how happy I am that she left our firm.)
- "When this person left our employ, we were quite hopeful he would go
- a long way with his skills."
- (We hoped he'd go as far as possible.)
- "You won't find many people like her."
- (In fact, most people can't stand being around her.)
- "I cannot reccommend him too highly."
- (However, to the best of my knowledge, he has never committed a
- felony in my presence.)
- %
- What they said:
- What they meant:
-
- "If you knew this person as well as I know him, you would think as much
- of him as I do."
- (Or as little, to phrase it slightly more accurately.)
- "Her input was always critical."
- (She never had a good word to say.)
- "I have no doubt about his capability to do good work."
- (And it's nonexistent.)
- "This candidate would lend balance to a department like yours, which
- already has so many outstanding members."
- (Unless you already have a moron.)
- "His presentation to my seminar last semester was truly remarkable:
- one unbelievable result after another."
- (And we didn't believe them, either.)
- "She is quite uniform in her approach to any function you may assign her."
- (In fact, to life in general...)
- %
- What they said:
- What they meant:
-
- "You will be fortunate if you can get him to work for you."
- (We certainly never succeeded.)
- There is no other employee with whom I can adequately compare him.
- (Well, our rats aren't really employees...)
- "Success will never spoil him."
- (Well, at least not MUCH more.)
- "One usually comes away from him with a good feeling."
- (And such a sigh of relief.)
- "His dissertation is the sort of work you don't expect to see these days;
- in it he has definitely demonstrated his complete capabilities."
- (And his IQ, as well.)
- "He should go far."
- (The farther the better.)
- "He will take full advantage of his staff."
- (He even has one of them mowing his lawn after work.)
- %
- What they say: What they mean:
-
- A major technological breakthrough... Back to the drawing board.
- Developed after years of research Discovered by pure accident.
- Project behind original schedule due We're working on something else.
- to unforseen difficulties
- Designs are within allowable limits We made it, stretching a point or two.
- Customer satisfaction is believed So far behind schedule that they'll be
- assured grateful for anything at all.
- Close project coordination We're gonna spread the blame, campers!
- Test results were extremely gratifying It works, and boy, were we surprised!
- The design will be finalized... We haven't started yet, but we've got
- to say something.
- The entire concept has been rejected The guy who designed it quit.
- We're moving forward with a fresh We hired three new guys, and they're
- approach kicking it around.
- A number of different approaches... We don't know where we're going, but
- we're moving.
- Preliminary operational tests are Blew up when we turned it on.
- inconclusive
- Modifications are underway We're starting over.
- %
- What they say: What they mean:
-
- New Different colors from previous version.
- All New Not compatible with previous version.
- Exclusive Nobody else has documentation.
- Unmatched Almost as good as the competition.
- Design Simplicity The company wouldn't give us any money.
- Fool-proof Operation All parameters are hard-coded.
- Advanced Design Nobody really understands it.
- Here At Last Didn't get it done on time.
- Field Tested We don't have any simulators.
- Years of Development Finally got one to work.
- Unprecedented Performance Nothing ever ran this slow before.
- Revolutionary Disk drives go 'round and 'round.
- Futuristic Only runs on a next generation supercomputer.
- No Maintenance Impossible to fix.
- Performance Proven Worked through Beta test.
- Meets Tough Quality Standards It compiles without errors.
- Satisfaction Guaranteed We'll send you another pack if it fails.
- Stock Item We shipped it before and can do it again.
- %
- What this country needs is a dime that will buy a good five-cent bagel.
- %
- What this country needs is a good five cent ANYTHING!
- %
- What this country needs is a good five cent nickel.
- %
- What this country needs is a good five dollar plasma weapon.
- %
- What we need in this country, instead of Daylight Savings Time, which nobody
- really understands anyway, is a new concept called Weekday Morning Time,
- whereby at 7 a.m. every weekday we go into a space-launch-style "hold" for
- two to three hours, during which it just remains 7 a.m. This way we could
- all wake up via a civilized gradual process of stretching and belching and
- scratching, and it would still be only 7 a.m. when we were ready to actually
- emerge from bed.
- -- Dave Barry, "$#$%#^%!^%&@%@!"
- %
- Whatever is not nailed down is mine. Whatever I can pry up is not nailed down.
- -- Collis P. Huntingdon, railroad tycoon
- %
- When a Banker jumps out of a window, jump after him--that's where the money is.
- -- Robespierre
- %
- When a fellow says, "It ain't the money but the principle of the thing,"
- it's the money.
- -- Kim Hubbard
- %
- When all else fails, read the instructions.
- %
- When I works, I works hard.
- When I sits, I sits easy.
- And when I thinks, I goes to sleep.
- %
- When in doubt, mumble; when in trouble, delegate; when in charge, ponder.
- -- James H. Boren
- %
- When it is not necessary to make a decision, it is necessary not to
- make a decision.
- %
- When properly administered, vacations do not diminish productivity: for
- every week you're away and get nothing done, there's another when your boss
- is away and you get twice as much done.
- -- Daniel B. Luten
- %
- When the bosses talk about improving productivity, they are never talking
- about themselves.
- %
- When the lodge meeting broke up, Meyer confided to a friend.
- "Abe, I'm in a terrible pickle! I'm strapped for cash and I haven't
- the slightest idea where I'm going to get it from!"
- "I'm glad to hear that," answered Abe. "I was afraid you
- might have some idea that you could borrow from me!"
- %
- When you are working hard, get up and retch every so often.
- %
- When you don't know what to do, walk fast and look worried.
- %
- When you don't know what you are doing, do it neatly.
- %
- When you go out to buy, don't show your silver.
- %
- When you make your mark in the world, watch out for guys with erasers.
- -- The Wall Street Journal
- %
- When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt.
- -- Henry J. Kaiser
- %
- Where there's a will, there's a relative.
- %
- Where there's a will, there's an Inheritance Tax.
- %
- While money can't buy happiness, it certainly lets you choose your own
- form of misery.
- %
- While money doesn't buy love, it puts you in a great bargaining position.
- %
- Who goeth a-borrowing goeth a-sorrowing.
- -- Thomas Tusser
- %
- Whoever dies with the most toys wins.
- %
- Why be a man when you can be a success?
- -- Bertolt Brecht
- %
- Will you loan me $20.00 and only give me ten of it?
- That way, you will owe me ten, and I'll owe you ten, and we'll be even!
- %
- Wishing without work is like fishing without bait.
- -- Frank Tyger
- %
- Work expands to fill the time available.
- -- Cyril Northcote Parkinson, "The Economist", 1955
- %
- Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near
- the earth's surface relative to other matter; second, telling other people
- to do so.
- -- Bertrand Russell
- %
- Work is the crab grass in the lawn of life.
- -- Schulz
- %
- Work smarter, not harder, and be careful of your speling.
- %
- Work without a vision is slavery, Vision without work is a pipe dream,
- But vision with work is the hope of the world.
- %
- XI:
- If the Earth could be made to rotate twice as fast, managers would
- get twice as much done. If the Earth could be made to rotate twenty
- times as fast, everyone else would get twice as much done since all
- the managers would fly off.
- XII:
- It costs a lot to build bad products.
- XIII:
- There are many highly successful businesses in the United States.
- There are also many highly paid executives. The policy is not to
- intermingle the two.
- XIV:
- After the year 2015, there will be no airplane crashes. There will
- be no takeoffs either, because electronics will occupy 100 percent
- of every airplane's weight.
- XV:
- The last 10 percent of performance generates one-third of the cost
- and two-thirds of the problems.
- -- Norman Augustine
- %
- XLI:
- The more one produces, the less one gets.
- XLII:
- Simple systems are not feasible because they require infinite testing.
- XLIII:
- Hardware works best when it matters the least.
- XLIV:
- Aircraft flight in the 21st century will always be in a westerly
- direction, preferably supersonic, crossing time zones to provide the
- additional hours needed to fix the broken electronics.
- XLV:
- One should expect that the expected can be prevented, but the
- unexpected should have been expected.
- XLVI:
- A billion saved is a billion earned.
- -- Norman Augustine
- %
- XLVII:
- Two-thirds of the Earth's surface is covered with water. The other
- third is covered with auditors from headquarters.
- XLVIII:
- The more time you spend talking about what you have been doing, the
- less time you have to spend doing what you have been talking about.
- Eventually, you spend more and more time talking about less and less
- until finally you spend all your time talking about nothing.
- XLIX:
- Regulations grow at the same rate as weeds.
- L:
- The average regulation has a life span one-fifth as long as a
- chimpanzee's and one-tenth as long as a human's -- but four times
- as long as the official's who created it.
- LI:
- By the time of the United States Tricentennial, there will be more
- government workers than there are workers.
- LII:
- People working in the private sector should try to save money.
- There remains the possibility that it may someday be valuable again.
- -- Norman Augustine
- %
- XVI:
- In the year 2054, the entire defense budget will purchase just one
- aircraft. This aircraft will have to be shared by the Air Force and
- Navy 3-1/2 days each per week except for leap year, when it will be
- made available to the Marines for the extra day.
- XVII:
- Software is like entropy. It is difficult to grasp, weighs nothing,
- and obeys the Second Law of Thermodynamics, i.e., it always increases.
- XVIII:
- It is very expensive to achieve high unreliability. It is not uncommon
- to increase the cost of an item by a factor of ten for each factor of
- ten degradation accomplished.
- XIX:
- Although most products will soon be too costly to purchase, there will
- be a thriving market in the sale of books on how to fix them.
- XX:
- In any given year, Congress will appropriate the amount of funding
- approved the prior year plus three-fourths of whatever change the
- administration requests -- minus 4-percent tax.
- -- Norman Augustine
- %
- XXI:
- It's easy to get a loan unless you need it.
- XXII:
- If stock market experts were so expert, they would be buying stock,
- not selling advice.
- XXIII:
- Any task can be completed in only one-third more time than is
- currently estimated.
- XXIV:
- The only thing more costly than stretching the schedule of an
- established project is accelerating it, which is itself the most
- costly action known to man.
- XXV:
- A revised schedule is to business what a new season is to an athlete
- or a new canvas to an artist.
- -- Norman Augustine
- %
- XXVI:
- If a sufficient number of management layers are superimposed on each
- other, it can be assured that disaster is not left to chance.
- XXVII:
- Rank does not intimidate hardware. Neither does the lack of rank.
- XXVIII:
- It is better to be the reorganizer than the reorganizee.
- XXIX:
- Executives who do not produce successful results hold on to their
- jobs only about five years. Those who produce effective results
- hang on about half a decade.
- XXX:
- By the time the people asking the questions are ready for the answers,
- the people doing the work have lost track of the questions.
- -- Norman Augustine
- %
- XXXI:
- The optimum committee has no members.
- XXXII:
- Hiring consultants to conduct studies can be an excellent means of
- turning problems into gold -- your problems into their gold.
- XXXIII:
- Fools rush in where incumbents fear to tread.
- XXXIV:
- The process of competitively selecting contractors to perform work
- is based on a system of rewards and penalties, all distributed
- randomly.
- XXXV:
- The weaker the data available upon which to base one's conclusion,
- the greater the precision which should be quoted in order to give
- the data authenticity.
- -- Norman Augustine
- %
- XXXVI:
- The thickness of the proposal required to win a multimillion dollar
- contract is about one millimeter per million dollars. If all the
- proposals conforming to this standard were piled on top of each other
- at the bottom of the Grand Canyon it would probably be a good idea.
- XXXVII:
- Ninety percent of the time things will turn out worse than you expect.
- The other 10 percent of the time you had no right to expect so much.
- XXXVIII:
- The early bird gets the worm.
- The early worm ... gets eaten.
- XXXIX:
- Never promise to complete any project within six months of the end of
- the year -- in either direction.
- XL:
- Most projects start out slowly -- and then sort of taper off.
- -- Norman Augustine
- %
- Yesterday I was a dog. Today I'm a dog. Tomorrow I'll probably still
- be a dog. Sigh! There's so little hope for advancement.
- -- Snoopy
- %
- You are always doing something marginal when the boss drops by your desk.
- %
- You can fool all the people all of the time if the advertising is right
- and the budget is big enough.
- -- Joseph E. Levine
- %
- You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements.
- -- Norman Douglas
- %
- You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred.
- -- Superchicken
- %
- You know, the difference between this company and the Titanic is that the
- Titanic had paying customers.
- %
- You or I must yield up his life to Ahrimanes. I would rather it were you.
- I should have no hesitation in sacrificing my own life to spare yours, but
- we take stock next week, and it would not be fair on the company.
- -- J. Wellington Wells
- %
- YOU TOO CAN MAKE BIG MONEY IN THE EXCITING FIELD OF PAPER SHUFFLING!
-
- Mr. Smith of Muddle, Mass. says: "Before I took this course I used to be
- a lowly bit twiddler. Now with what I learned at MIT Tech I feel really
- important and can obfuscate and confuse with the best."
-
- Mr. Watkins had this to say: "Ten short days ago all I could look forward
- to was a dead-end job as a engineer. Now I have a promising future and
- make really big Zorkmids."
-
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