Thought of th week

ROSHAN BHARTIA (ACCOUNTANT AND CA ARTICLE)   (2250 Points)

20 April 2013  

 

  1. "There appears to be a positive correlation between an atmosphere of 'human playfulness' (otherwise known as humour) in the workplace and the improvement of 'innovative activity and creativity'."

    "Observer Business Section", 18 April 1999

     

  2. "Here on the edge of the twenty-first century, a fundamental new rule of business is that the Internet changes everything."

    "Business @ The Speed Of Thought" by Bill Gates (1999)

     

  3. "In the life of a man, his time is but a moment, his being an incessant flux, his senses a dim rushlight, his body a prey of worms, his soul an unquiet eddy, his fortune dark, and his fame doubtful. In short, all that is of the body is as coursing waters, all that is of the soul as dreams and vapours: life a warfare, a brief sojourning in an alien land; and after repute, oblivion. Where, then, can man find the power to guide and guard his steps? In one thing and one alone: philosophy."

    "Meditations" by the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180)

     

  4. "In the global marketplace of tomorrow, the successful company will be known for the quality of the employee that it keeps rather than the numbers of workers who are laid-off."

    "From The Telegraph To The Internet" by Morton Bahr

     

  5. "The first rule in opera is the first rule in life: see to everything yourself."

    "Memories and Memories" by Dame Nellie Melba, Australian operatic soprano (1861-1931)

    Note: Dame Nellie was born Helen Porter Mitchell and took her professional name after her native city of Melbourne; in turn she gave this name to a new dessert called pêche melba.

     

  6. "I wouldn't like to have lived without ever having disturbed anyone."

    Personal motto of Father Charles Urnick, my American pen-friend of 34 years

     

  7. "Intelligence is of the essence in warfare - it is what the armies depend upon in their every move…To be reliable, information must be firsthand …There is thus an important relationship between intelligence and timing."

    "The Art Of Warfare" by Sun-tzu

     

  8. "Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself."

    Mary Schmich, "Chicago Tribune", 1 June 1997 in a piece now known as "the Sunscreen Speech" which has been made into a record by the film director Baz Luhrmann

     

  9. "Astronomers estimate that there are at least 100 billion stars in the Milky Way" ('our' galaxy) and "It is estimated that 100 billion galaxies are in principle visible to our modern instruments."

    "The Future Of Cosmology" by John Gribbin

     

  10. "A memorandum is written not to inform the reader but to protect the writer."

    Dean Acheson (1893-1971), quoted in "Wall Street Journal", 8 September 1977

     

  11. "At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes - an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive, and the most ruthlessly sceptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new."

    "The Demon-Haunted World" by Carl Sagan

     

  12. "A life is never ended until all the lives it has touched have ended too."

    Chinese proverb, quoted at funeral of Peter Cotgrove (1929-1999), father of our colleague Nigel, held on 30 June 1999

     

  13. "When a man has once broken through the paper walls of everyday circumstance, those unsubstantial walls that hold so many of us securely prisoned from the cradle to the grave, he has made a discovery. If the world does not please you, you can change it. Determine to alter it at any price, and you can change it altogether. You may change it into something sinister and angry, to something appalling, but it may be you will change it to something brighter, more agreeable, and at the worst something much more interesting."

    "The History Of Mr. Polly" by H.G. Wells (1910)

     

  14. "The wealth of the three richest people in the world exceeds the combined GDP of the 48 smallest countries."

    "Guardian", 12 June 1999

     

  15. "Five frogs are sitting on a log. Four decide to jump off. How many are left?

    There are still five - because there's a difference between deciding and doing."

    "Five Frogs On A Log" by Mark L Feldman & Michael F Spratt

     

  16. "The are only two ways to handle tense situations: you can change them, or you can change the way you look at them. There is enlightenment to be had in changing the way you look at things."

    "The Little Book Of Calm" by Paul Wilson (1996)

     

  17. "Every breath you take contains atoms forged in the blistering furnaces deep inside stars. Every flower you pick contains atoms blasted into space by stellar explosions that blazed brighter than a billion suns. Every book you read contains atoms blown across unimaginable gulfs of space and time by the wind between the stars."

    "The Magic Furnace: The Search For The Origin Of Atoms" by Marcus Chown

     

  18. "It's no longer about the big beating the small; it's about the fast beating the slow."

    Larry Carter, Chief Executive Officer of Cisco Systems, quoted in "The Economist", 26 June 1999

     

  19. "Make a point of connecting with someone new every day. And re-acquaint yourself with anyone you have not spoken to for some time by going through your address book."

    "Your Personal Survival Guide To The 21st Century" by Roy Sheppard (1998)

     

  20. "Life is like that old Spanish saying: 'He who plants the lettuce doesn't always eat the salad'."

    The actor Anthony Quinn in the "Sunday Express", 13 October 1963

     

  21. "Enthusiastic people are the ones who actually get things done in this world. Enthusiasm is what turns any idea into reality. And enthusiasm is linked closely with happiness."

    "Your Personal Survival Guide To The 21st Century" by Roy Sheppard (1998)

     

  22. "Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person: the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere."

    Eleanor Roosevelt, speaking to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights on 27 March 1958

     

  23. "There is always a little more toothpaste in the tube. Think about it."

    "Notes From A Big Country" by Bill Bryson

     

  24. "We shrink from change; yet is there anything that can come into being without it? What does nature hold dearer or more proper to herself? Could you have a hot bath unless the firewood underwent some change? Could you be nourished if the food suffered no change? Is it possible for any useful thing to be achieved without change?"

    "Meditations" by the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180)

     

  25. "You see things that are and say 'Why?' But I dream of things that never were and say 'Why not?'"

    Writer George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

     

  26. "We .. live in a world that has seen Superman, in the person of Christopher Reeve, rendered a quadriplegic, and a quadriplegic, in the person of Stephen Hawking, rendered Superman."

    David Beresford, himself a sufferer of Parkinson's disease, writing in the "Observer", 3 October 1999

     

  27. "There is no activity more intrinsically globalizing than trade, no ideology less interested in nations than capitalism, no challenge to frontiers more audacious than the market."

    "Jihad vs McWorld" by Benjamin R. Barber (1995)

     

  28. "Two men look out through the same bars; 
    One sees the mud and one sees the stars."

    Frederick Langbridge (1849-1923)

     

  29. "Indulge yourself by being generous - help someone out, perform an act of kindness, offer a compliment. The person who will feel most uplifted by you having done so is …you."

    "The Little Book Of Calm" by Paul Wilson (1996)

     

  30. "The doers cut a path through the jungle, the managers are behind them sharpening the machetes. The leaders find time to think, climb the nearest tree, and shout 'Wrong jungle!' Find time to climb the trees."

    Peter Maxwell, director of the Leadership Trust, writing in the "Guardian", 6 October 1999

     

  31. "You've got to search for the hero inside yourself. Search for the secrets you hide. Search for the hero inside yourself - until you find the key to your life."

    Refrain from the song "Search For The Hero" by British pop group M People

     

  32. "Words open the soul's window to ideas and the discourse of words is how we grope our way to conversation and, when conversation can be stripped of its inequalities and hidden hegemonies, how we eventually become capable of cooperation, of common life with others, and even of justice."

    A defence of the complexity of words against the simple imagery of pictures by Benjamin R. Barber in "Jihad vs McWorld" (1995)

     

  33. "The only one who got everything done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe."

    "The Mirror", 12 November 1999

     

  34. "Ask most people which is the dominant language on planet Earth and they will reply that it's either English or Chinese. A good guess, but they would be wrong. Binary is now dominant, with computers and machines having more conversations every working day than a sum total of mankind going back to the birth of Eve."

    "Tips For Time Travellers" by Peter Cochrane (1997).

     

  35. "In spite of illness, in spite of the arch enemy sorrow, one can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable of intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways."

    Comment on ageing by American novelist Edith Wharton (1862-1937)

     

  36. "Creative work will increasingly involve people working in teams which combine members with different skills and backgrounds. These teams are more effective when people can trust fellow team members to play their part. In low-trust organisations, people will tend to hoard knowledge and only share ideas formally through memos and when requested. In high-trust organisations, people are more likely to bestow their knowledge on one another and develop joint understandings of problems and their solutions. Trust and co-operation will be vital to the work cultures of the future."

    "Living On Thin Air" by Charles Leadbeater (1999)

     

  37. "We are all molded and remolded by those who have loved us and, though that love may pass, we remain, none the less, their work. No love, no friendship can ever cross the path of our destiny without leaving some mark upon it forever."

    Francois Mauriac, French novelist (1885-1970)

     

  38. "To be cheerful about 2000, consider only this. Of the 30 major elections that will be held, 16 will be in countries that 25 years ago were dictatorships."

    "The World In 2000", published by "The Economist"

     

  39. "Our feelings of dissatisfaction, unhappiness, loss of hope and so forth are in fact related to all phenomena. If we do not adopt the right outlook, it is possible that anything and everything could cause us frustration. Yet phenomena are part of reality and we are subject to the laws of existence. So this leaves us only one option: to change our own attitude. By bringing about a change in our outlook towards things and events, all phenomena can become friends or sources of happiness, instead of becoming enemies or sources of frustration."

    "The Dalai Lama's Book Of Wisdom" (1999)

     

  40. "Problems cannot be solved by thinking within the framework in which they were created."

    Scientist Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

     

  41. "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - 
    I took the one less travelled by. 
    And that has made all the difference."

    Extract from "The Road Not Taken", a poem by Robert Frost (1874-1963)

     

  42. "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has."

    Anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901-1978)

     

  43. "There is an emerging consensus about what the knowledge-creating company of the future will look like. It will be good at learning and unlearning. It will be open to new ideas from a diverse network of contacts, but able to integrate them smoothly, with the financial, production and marketing skills needed to make money from them. Staff will have a large measure of autonomy to try and fail. Employees will be encouraged to challenge the status quo. Open communication and information-sharing with customers, staff and suppliers will encourage a flow of ideas. Teamwork and flexibility will be taken for granted."

    "Living On Thin Air" by Charles Leadbeater (1999)

     

  44. "Never assume, as assume makes an ass out of u and me."

    "The Mirror", 7 February 2000

     

  45. "By 2020, we will have synthetic intelligent life forms sharing our planet and they may even have legal rights. They will catch up with human intelligence before then in overall terms, though there will still be a few things left that only humans can do. Most new knowledge will be developed by synthetic intelligence and we will have to accept that we just do not understand some of it, while accepting the resultant benefits."

    "Technology Timeline - Towards Life In 2020" by BT futurologist Ian Pearson in "BT Technology Journal", No 1 2000

     

  46. "This time, like all times, is a very good one if we but know what to do with it."

    Ralph Waldo Emerson, American author, poet & philosopher (1803 - 1882)

     

  47. "There is therefore no function in society which is peculiar to woman as woman or man as man; natural abilities are similarly distributed in each s*x and it is natural for woman to share all occupations with men."

    "The Republic" by Plato (427-347 BC)

     

  48. "Academics have now confirmed what many of us have long believed: that positive thinking leads to a longer and healthier life."

    "The Observer Magazine", 12 March 2000

     

  49. "The Web must allow equal access to those in different economic and political situations; those who have physical or cognitive disabilities; those of different cultures; and those who use different languages with different characters that read in different directions across a page."

    "Weaving The Web" by the inventor of the World Wide Web Tim Berners-Lee (1999)

     

  50. "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."

    Scientist Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

     

     

  51. "When you would have a cordial for your spirits, think of the good qualities of your friends."

    "Meditations" by the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180)

     

  52. "My country is the world and my religion is to do good."

    "The Rights Of Man" by Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

     

  53. "Most smiles are started by another smile."

    Anonymous

     

  54. "Truth will prevail."

    Czech religious reformer Jan Hus (c. 1370-1415), as quoted on his statue in the Old Town Square in Prague

     

  55. "Some men die in shrapnel 
    Some go down in flames 
    Most men perish inch by inch 
    Playing little games."

    "Business Beyond the Box" by John O'Keeffe (1999)

     

  56. "The one important thing that I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one's work seriously and taking one's self seriously. The first is imperative and the second is disastrous."

    Ballet dancer Margot Fonteyn (1919-1991)

     

  57. "The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be ignited."

    Plutarch, priest at the Delphic Oracle (c.45-125 AD)

     

  58. "You're either part of the solution or part of the problem."

    American political activist Eldridge Cleaver (1935-1998)

     

  59. "We tend to measure life by too one-sided a standard: its length rather than its greatness; we think more of extending life than of filling it."

    Founder-President of Czechoslovakia Tomas Masaryk (1850-1937)

     

  60. "There is good evidence that how long you sleep seems to be the most important indicator of how long you'll live."

    "The Promise Of Sleep " by William C. Dement with Christopher Vaughan

     

  61. "Most people don't take the time to think. I made an international reputation for myself by deciding to think twice a week."

    Writer and thinker George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

     

  62. "The purpose of life is a life of purpose."

    "Business Beyond the Box" by John O'Keeffe (1999)

     

  63. "We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about."

    Novelist Charles Kingsley (1819-1875)

     

  64. "Neither fire nor wind, birth nor death can erase our good deeds."

    Buddha

     

  65. "There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person."

    "Heretics" by G.K. Chesterton (1905)

     

  66. "Life is made up of giving and getting and forgiving and forgetting."

    Anonymous

     

  67. "When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist."

    Brazilian archbishop, Dom Helder Camara (1909-1999)

     

  68. "To live each day as though one's last, never flustered, never apathetic, never attitudinizing - here is the perfection of character."

    "Meditations" by the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180)

     

  69. "Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome."

    Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

     

  70. "The 21st century corporation must adapt itself to management via the Web. It must be predicated on constant change, not stability; organized around networks, not rigid hierarchies; built on shifting partnerships and alliances, not self-sufficiency; and constructed on technological advantages, not bricks and mortar.". "Management By Web" by John A Byrne in "The 21st Century Corporation" supplement to European edition of "Business Week", 21-28 August 2000

     

  71. "Many people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do."

    Philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)

     

  72. "If we work upon marble it will perish; if on brass, time will efface it; if we rear temples, they will crumble into dust; but if we work upon immortal minds, and imbue them with principles, with the just fear of God and love of our fellow man, we will engrave on those tablets something that will brighten all eternity."

    Noah Webster (1758-1843), author of the first American dictionary

     

  73. "He has not learned the lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear."

    American author, poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

     

  74. "We are made of stardust. Every atom of every element in your body except for hydrogen has been manufactured inside stars, scattered across the universe in great stellar explosions and recycled to become part of you."

    "Stardust" by John Gribbin (2000)

     

  75. "The humane do not worry; the wise are not perplexed; and the courageous do not feel fear."

    "The Analects" by Confucius (551-479 BC)

     

  76. "More than 300 million people in the world speak English and the rest, it sometimes seems, try to."

    "Mother Tongue" by Bill Bryson (1990)

     

  77. "One who loses money, loses much; one who loses a friend, loses much more; one who loses faith, loses all."

    Anonymous

     

  78. "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

    Martin Luther King, writing in a letter from jail in Birmingham, Alabama, USA on 16 April 1963

     

  79. "Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind."

    Philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)

     

  80. "It is only with the heart that one sees rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

    "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1945)

     

  81. "One does not worry about the fact that other people do not appreciate one. One worries about not appreciating other people."

    "The Analects" by Confucius (551-479 BC)

     

  82. "Women have become terribly important to me. Not that I understand them. I just like the tangible comfort they give me and their different point of view."

    British actor Peter O'Toole

     

  83. "I believe that a lot of our striving after the symbols and levers of success is due to a basic insecurity, a need to prove ourselves. That done, grown up at last, we are free to stop pretending."

    Charles Handy in "Masters Of The Wired World", edited by Anne Leer (1999)

     

  84. "The trouble with the rat-race is that, even if you win, you're still a rat."

    American comedienne Lily Tomlin

     

  85. "Do, or do not. There is no 'try'."

    Yoda in the film "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980)

     

  86. "Even a little gift may be vast with loving kindness."

    Theocritus, Greek poet prominent around 270 BC

     

  87. "If you want to be happy for a short time, get drunk; happy for a long time, fall in love; happy for ever, take up gardening."

    British playwright and comedian Arthur Smith

     

  88. "True fulfilment is, I believe, vicarious. We get our deepest satisfaction from the fulfilment, growth and happiness of others. It takes time, often a lifetime, to realize this."

    Charles Handy in "Masters Of The Wired World", edited by Anne Leer (1999)

     

  89. "We have to free half of the human race, the women, so that they can help to free the other half."

    English suffragette, Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928)

     

  90. "Ask a question and you're a fool for three minutes; do not ask a question and you're a fool for the rest of your life."

    Anonymous

     

  91. "I don't think you can change the world by smashing up McDonald's - but I do believe that you can change the world by organising a trade union in McDonald's."

    British singer & songwriter Billy Bragg

     

  92. "Today we know that the greatest danger is not the evil among those who are evil, but the silence of those who are good."

    Opening remarks of the Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson at the Stockholm International Forum on Combating Intolerance, 29 January 2001

     

  93. "The only thing that does not change is that everything changes."

    "Watching The Tree To Catch The Hare" by Adeline Yen Mah (2000)

     

  94. "Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people."

    Anonymous

     

  95. "The mind is like an umbrella - it only works when it is open."

    Scientist Sir James Jeans (1877-1946)

     

  96. "Once you embrace unpleasant news not as a negative but as evidence of a need for change, you aren't defeated by it. You're learning from it."

    "Business @ The Speed Of Thought" by Bill Gates (1999)

     

  97. "Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well."

    Francois-Marie Arouet, called Voltaire (1694-1778)

     

  98. "Comment is free, but facts are sacred."

    C.P. Scott (1846-1932), former editor of the "Guardian"

     

  99. "Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself."

    Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)

     

  100. "Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."

    Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)