Here are the ones that came before.
We thoroughly enjoy visiting and learning from the wisdom of others. We need not be particularly concerned about exploiting their statements, since after all, the practice of law is one based upon reliance on precedent. To the extent someone has said something before, and said it well, it is only with the utmost respect that we perpetuate it, with appropriate attribution. As Nobel Prize-recipient Anatole France proposed: "When a thing has been said and well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it."
February 2011
"Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood."
-Marie Curie
Selected and Performed by Ross G. Simmons
January 2011
"The world is divided into people who do things and people who get the credit. Try, if you can, to belong to the first class. There's far less competition."
-Dwight Morrow
Selected and Performed by Ross G. Simmons
December 2010
"You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence."
-Abraham Lincoln
November 2010
"Nothing so obstinately stands in the way of all sorts of progress as pride of opinion; while nothing is so foolish and baseless."
-J. G. Holland
Selected and Performed by Ross G. Simmons
October 2010
"Men are apt to mistake the strength of their feeling for the strength of their argument. The heated mind resents the chill touch and relentless scrutiny of logic."
-William E. Gladstone
Selected and Performed by Ross G. Simmons
September 2010
"Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened."
-Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel)
Performed and selected by Ross G. Simmons
August 2010
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy."
-Martin Luther King
Selected by Megan Niquette
Performed by Ross G. Simmons
July 2010
"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."
-T.S. Eliot
June 2010
“The man who can put himself in the place of other men, who can understand the workings of their minds, need never worry about what the future has in store for him.”
-Owen D. Young
Performed and Selected by Ross G. Simmons
May 2010
"I do not have to make over the universe; I have only to do my job, great or small, and to look often at the trees and the hills and the sky, and be friendly with all men."
-David Grayson
Performed and selected by Ross G. Simmons
April 2010
"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."
-Sir Winston Churchill
March 2010
"The best way to prepare for life is to begin to live."
-Elbert Hubbard
February 2010
"Love is, above all, the gift of oneself."
-Jean Anouilh
January 2010
"Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man."
-Benjamin Franklin
December 2009
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit."
-Aristotle
November 2009
"We've all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are."
-J.K. Rowling
October 2009
"The free thinking of one age is the common sense of the next."
- Matthew Arnold
September 2009
"The future influences the present just as much as the past."
-Freidrich Nietzsche
August 2009
"There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way."
- Christopher Morley
Performed and selected by Christopher Sicat Buela
July 2009
"The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible."
- Arthur C. Clarke
Performed and selected by Christopher Sicat Buela
June 2009
"Never interrupt your enemy when he's making a mistake."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
May 2009
"The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything."
- Theodore Roosevelt
April 2009
"He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that."
- John Stuart Mill
March 2009
"Our attitude toward life determines life's attitude towards us."
- Earl Nightingale
February 2009
"You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you."
- John Wooden
January 2009
"A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business."
- Henry Ford
December 2008
"I am not afraid of tomorrow, for I have seen yesterday and I love today."
- William Allen White
November 2008
"When people speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them."
- Plato
October 2008
“To live outside the law, you must be honest.”
-Bob Dylan
Performed and selected by Christina E. Clemm
September 2008
"Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly bigger man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error."
- Gen. Peyton C. March
August 2008
“All our dreams can come true – if we have the courage to pursue them.”
-Walt Disney
Performed and selected by Christopher Sicat Buela
July 2008
“If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: Thou shalt not ration justice.”
- Learned Hand
Performed and selected by Juliette C. Gonsalves
June 2008
“Be nice to people on your way up because you’ll meet them on your way down.”
- Wilson Mizner
Performed and selected by Eric A. Baggett
May 2008
"Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish."
- John Quincy Adams
Performed and selected by Dianna M. Niquette
April 2008
"When a man tells you that he knows the exact truth of anything you are safe in inferring that he is an inexact man."
- Bertrand Russell
March 2008
"Let the motive be in the deed and not in the event. Be not one whose motive for action is the hope of reward."
- Kreeshna
Feburary 2008
"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives."
Performed and selected by Kylereese Bernet Goldstone
January 2008
"It's hard to beat a person who never gives up."
-Babe Ruth
Performed and selected by Tara Bernet Goldstone
December 2007
“Your life is an occasion, rise to it.”
-Mr. Edward Magorium
Selected and Performed by Rebecca L. Gorden
November 2007
“If a man will begin with certainties, he will end with doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he will end in certainties.”
-Sir Francis Bacon
Selected and Performed by Ross G. Simmons
October 2007
“Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.”
-Dalai Lama
Selected and Performed by Molly E. Selway
September 2007
“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”
-John F Kennedy
Selected and performed by Lisa M. Bernet
August 2007
“To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to achieve.”
- James Allen
Selected and performed by Diana M. Niquette
July 2007
“Energy and persistence conquer all things.”
-Ben Franklin
Selected and performed by Sara E. Fransen
June 2007
“A wise man once said, Convention is like the shell to the chick, a protection till he is strong enough to break through it.”
-Learned Hand
Selected and performed by Christina E. Prahl
May 2007
“Real success is finding your lifework in the work that you love.”
- David McCullough
Selected and performed by Julianne A. Henley
April 2007
“Wisdom we know is the knowledge of good and evil, not the strength to choose between the two.”
-John Cheever
Selected and performed by Steve Ashburn
March 2007
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
-Mahatma Gandhi
Selected and performed by Judy Sicat
February 2007
"Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value."
-Albert Einstein
Selected and performed by Rebecca L. Gorden
January 2007
“True wisdom lies in gathering the precious things out of each day as it goes by.”
-E.S. Bouton
Selected and performed by Molly E. Selway
December 2006
“Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.”
- Sir Winston Churchill
Selected and performed by Jeff Slattery
November 2006
“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
- Confucius
Selected and performed by Lisa Bernet
October 2006
"It is well to think well, it is divine to act well"
-Horris Mann
Selected and performed by Hunter Simmons
September 2006
"Govern thy life and thoughts as if the whole world were to see the one, and read the other."
- Thomas Fuller
August 2006
"Rest has cured more people than all the medicine in the world."
-Harold J. Riley
Selected and performed by Sam Simmons
July 2006
"Better three hours early than one minute late."
-William Shakespeare
Selected and performed by Jack Simmons
June 2006
“In matters of style, swim with the current. In matters of principle, stand like a rock.”
– Thomas Jefferson
Selected and performed by Tara Bernet Goldstone
May 2006
"When one door closes another opens. But often we look so long so regretfully upon the closed door that we fail to see the one that has opened for us."
-Alexander Graham Bell
April 2006
"There are two things to aim at in life; first to get what you want, and after that to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind has achieved the second."
- Logan Pearsall Smith
March 2006
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit."
- Aristotle
February 2006
"Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortunes; but great minds rise above them."
- Washington Irving
January 2006
“A moment's insight is sometimes worth a life's experience.�
– Oliver Wendell Holmes
Selected and performed by Priya Gudi Hartlin
December 2005
“You grow up the day you have your first real laugh - at yourself.�
– Ethel Barrymore
Selected and performed by Diana Niquette
November 2005
“The instinctive feeling of a great people is often wiser than its wisest men.�
–Louis Kossuth
Read by Diana Niquette
October 2005
“Minds are like parachutes - they only function when open.�
–Thomas Dewar
Read by Sara Fransen
September 2005
“Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways, it can change someone else's life forever.�
–Margaret Cho
Read by Robin Keresztury
August 2005
“We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.�
–Winston Churchill
Read by Justin Skinner
July 2005
"I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work the more of it I seem to have."
–Coleman Cox
Read by Ross Simmons
June 2005
"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work."
� Aristotle
Read by Justin Skinner
May 2005
"Natural ability without education has more often attained to glory and virtue than education without natural ability. "
- Cicero
April 2005
"Dressing up is inevitably a substitute for good ideas. It is no coincidence that technically inept business types are known as "suits." "
- Paul Graham
March 2005
"Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way...you become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions."
- Aristotle
February 2005
"I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances."
- Martha Washington
January 2005
"Ideals are the “incentive payment” of practical men. The opportunity to strive for them is the currency that has enriched America through the centuries."
– Robert E. Hannegan
Read by Sara Fowler
December 2004
“Weak arguments are often thrust before my path; but although they are most unsubstantial, it is not easy to destroy them. There is not a more difficult feat know than to cut through a cushion with a sword.”
– Richard Whately
Read by Ross Simmons
November 2004
“What the future holds for us depends on what we hold for the future. Hard working today makes high winning tomorrow.”
-William E. Holler
Read by Sara Fowler
October 2004
“Ethical living is the indispensable condition of all that is most worthwhile in the world.”
-Ernest Caldecott
Read by Sara Fowler
September 2004
“Behind an able man there are always other able men.”
-Chinese Proverb
Read by Sara Fransen
August 2004
“If you would but exchange places with the other fellow, how much more you could appreciate your own position.”
-Victor E. Gardner
July 2004
“No matter how much work a man does, no matter how engaging his personality may be, he will not advance far in business if he cannot work through others.”
-John Craig
June 2004
“The man who can put himself in the place of other men, who can understand the workings of their minds, need never worry about what the future has in store for him.”
-Owen D. Young
May 2004
“In a balanced organization, working toward a common objective, there is success.”
-T. L. Scutton
April 2004
“He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.”
-Benjamin Franklin
March 2004
“When enthusiasm is inspired by reason; controlled by caution; sound in theory; practical in application; reflects confidence; spreads good cheer; raises morale; inspires associates; arouses loyalty, and laughs at adversity, it is beyond price.”
-Coleman Cox
February 2004
“What is defeat? Nothing but education; nothing but the first step to something better.”
-Wendell Phillips
January 2004
“Adversity has made many a man great who, had he remained prosperous, would only have been rich.”
-Maurice Switzer
December 2003
“Failures are divided into two classes—those who thought and never did, and those who did and never thought.”
-John Charles Salak
November 2003
“Reason often makes mistakes, but conscience never does.”
-Josh Billings
October 2003
“The making of friends who are real friends, is the best token we have of a man’s success.”
-Edward E. Hale
September 2003
“Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly bigger man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error.”
-Gen. Peyton C. March
August 2003
“Forty is the old age of youth; fifty is the youth of old age.”
-Victor Hugo
July 2003
"Fortunate is the person who has developed the self-control to steer a straight course toward his objective in life, without being swayed from his purpose by either commendation or condemnation.”
-Napoleon Hill
June 2003
“Aggressive fighting for the right is the greatest sport in the world.”
-Theodore Rossevelt
May 2003
“A fellow doesn’t last long on what he has done. He’s got to keep on delivering as he goes along.”
-Carl Hubbell
April 2003
“Undertake something that is difficult; it will do you good. Unless you try something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.”
-Ronald E. Osborn
Read by Ross Simmons
March 2003
“Success, prosperity and happiness follow the footsteps of unselfed motives.”
- Mary Baker Eddy
Read by Marcie Germani Simmons
February 2003
"The men who start out with the notion that the world owes them a living generally find that the world pays its debt in the penitentiary or the poorhouse"
- W. G. Sumner
Read by Ross Simmons
January 2003
"Anybody can become angry--that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way--that is not within everybody's power and is not easy."
- Aristotle
Read by Hunter Simmons
December 2002
"A prudent question is one-half of wisdom."
- Sir Francis Bacon
Read by Sam Simmons
November 2002
"Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life. Security is an insipid thing, though the overtaking and possessing of a wish discovers the folly of the chase."
- William Congreve
Read by Ross Simmons
October 2002
"Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser -- in fees, expenses, and waste of time."
- Abraham Lincoln
Read by Ross Simmons
September 2002
"Men must try and try again. They must suffer the consequences of their own mistakes and learn by their own failures and their own successes."
- Lawson Purdy
Read by Ross Simmons
August 2002
"A man can do what he ought to do; and when he says he cannot, it is because he will not."
- Froude
July 2002
"A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things but cannot perceive great ones."
- Lord Chesterfield
June 2002
"We exaggerate misfortune and happiness alike. We are never either so wretched or so happy as we say we are."
- Balzac
May 2002
“Think as you work, for in the final analysis your worth to your company comes not only in solving problems but in anticipating them.”
- H. H. Ross
April 2002
“Unless each man produces more than he receives, increases his output, there will be less for him and all others.”
- Bernard M. Baruch
March 2002
"It is not the facts which guide the conduct of men, but their opinions about facts; which may be entirely wrong. We can only make them right by discussion."
- Sir Norman Angell
February 2002
"Good and bad luck is a synonym in the great majority of instances, for good and bad judgment."
- John Chatfield
January 2002
"Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can."
- John Wesley
December 2001
"Time and money spent in helping men to do more for themselves is far better than mere giving."
- Henrey Ford
November 2001
"The test of courage comes when we are in the minority; the test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority."
- Ralph W. Sockman
October 2001
"It is only an error in judgment to make a mistake, but it shows infirmity of character to adhere to it when discovered."
- Christian Bovee
September 2001
"Reprove thy friend privately; commend him publicly."
- Solon
August 2001
"We can do anything we want to if we stick to it long enough."
- Helen Keller
July 2001
"It is difficult to live in the present, ridiculous to live in the future, and impossible to live in the past."
- Jim Bishop
June 2001
"As a cure for worrying, work is better than whiskey."
- Thomas A. Edison
May 2001
"Justice is the insurance we have on our lives and obedience is the premium we pay for it."
- William Penn
April 2001
"Big shots are little shots who kept shooting."
- Christopher Morley
March 2001
"In the mountains of truth you never climb in vain."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
February 2001
"One of the best ways to persuade others is with your ears—by listening to them."
- Dean Rusk
January 2001
"If you have wit, use it to please and not to hurt; you may shine like the sun in the temperate zones without scorching."
- Lord Chesterfield
December 2000
"The real price of everything is the toil and trouble of acquiring it."
- Adam Smith
November 2000
"It is not the facts which guide the conduct of men, but their opinions about facts; which may be entirely wrong. We can only make them right by discussion."
- Sir Norman Angell
Read by Ross Simmons
October 2000
"Be sincere. Be simple in words, manners, and gestures. Amuse as well as instruct. If you can make a man laugh, you can make him think and make him like and believe you."
- Alfred E. Smith
September 2000
"You generally hear that what a man doesn't know doesn't hurt him, but in business what a man doesn't know does hurt."
- E. St. Elmo Lewis
August 2000
"Man must realize his own unimportance before he can appreciate his importance."
- R. M. Baumgardy
July 2000
"Knowledge of our duties is the most essential part of the philosophy of life. If you escape duty, you avoid action. The world demands results."
- George W. Goethals
June 2000
"Don't follow advice, no matter how good, until you feel as deeply in your spirit as you think in your mind that the counsel is wise."
- David Seabury
May 2000
"Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task."
- William James
April 2000
"A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities; an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties."
- Reginald B. Mansell
Read by Ross Simmons
March 2000
"One cool judgment is worth a thousand hasty councils. The thing to do is to supply light and not heat."
- Woodrow Wilson
February 2000
"The man who has not learned to say 'No' will be a weak if not a wretched man as long as he lives."
- A. Maclaren
January 2000
"Man ought always to have something that he prefers to life; otherwise life itself will seem to him tiresome and void."
- Seume
December 1999
"Every man should make up his mind that if he expects to succeed, he must give an honest return for the other man's dollar."
- E.H. Harriman
November 1999
"Consciousness is the mere surface of our minds, of which, as of the earth, we do not know the inside, but only the crust."
- Schopenhauer
October 1999
"Laziness grows on people; it begins in cobwebs and ends in iron chains. The more one has to do the more he is able to accomplish."
- Sir Thomas Buxton
Read by Ross Simmons
September 1999
"Obstinacy in opinions holds the dogmatist in the chains of error, without hope of emancipation."
- John C. Granville
August 1999
"The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides. Accept life, and you cannot accept regret."
- Amiel
July 1999
"The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher."
- Thomas Huxley
June 1999
"Poverty is uncomfortable; but nine times out of ten the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be tossed overboard and compelled to sink or swim."
- James A Garfield
May 1999
"A man has to live with himself, and he should see to it that he always has good company."
- Charles Evans Hughes
April 1999
"You and I must not complain if our plans break down if we have done our part. That probably means that the plans of One who knows more than we do have succeeded."
- Edward E. Hale
March 1999
Govern thy life and thoughts as if the whole world were to see the one, and read the other.
- Thomas Fuller
February 1999
"Do today's duty, fight today's temptation; do not weaken and distract yourself by looking forward to things you cannot see, and could not understand if you saw them."
- Charles Kingsley
January 1999
"The human spirit is stronger than anything that can happen to it."
- C. C. Scott
December 1998
"A duty dodged is like a debt unpaid; it is only deferred, and we must come back and settle the account at last."
- Joseph Fort Newton
November 1998
"There is no power on earth more formidable than the truth."
- M. Runbeck
October 1998
"This is no time for ease and comfort. It is a time to dare and endure."
- Winston Churchill
September 1998
"In the final analysis, there is no other solution to a man's problems but the day's honest work, the day's honest decisions, the day's generous utterance, and the day's good deed."
- Clare Booth Luce
August 1998
"A man that seeks truth and loves it must be reckoned precious to any human society."
- Frederick the Great
July 1998
"Friendships are fragile things, and require as much care in handling as any other fragile and precious thing."
- Randolph S. Bourne
June 1998
"Laws should be like clothes. They should be made to fit the people they are meant to serve."
- Clarence Darrow
May 1998
"The people to fear are not those who disagree with you, but those who disagree with you and are too cowardly to let you know."
- Napoleon
April 1998
"The man who follows the crowd will never be followed by a crowd."
- Donnell
March 1998
"Duty is the sublimest word in the language; you can never do more than your duty; you shall never wish to do less."
- Robert E. Lee
February 1998
"There are two ways of meeting difficulties: you alter the difficulties, or you alter yourself to meet them."
- Phyllis Bottome
January 1998
"Regret is an appalling waste of energy. You can't build on it; it's only good for wallowing in."
- Katherine Mansfield
December 1997
"Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude."
- W. W. Ziege
November 1997
"It's amazing what ordinary people can do if they set out without preconceived notions."
- Charles F. Kettering
October 1997
"If you want to succeed, you should strike out on new paths rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success."
- John D. Rockefeller
Read by Ross Simmons
September 1997
"In life what sometimes appears to be the end is really a beginning."
- Author Unknown
* * * * *
Principal Resources
Carruth & Ehrlich, American Quotations (Wings Books, NJ, 1992).
Shapiro, The Oxford Dictionary of American Legal Quotations (Oxford University Press, NY, 1993).
Forbes, The Forbes Scrapbook of Thoughts on the Business of Life (Forbes, Inc., NY, 1976). |
