The world is full of bright men who know all the right things to say and who say them in the wrong place.
It’s all right when you are calling on a girl or talking with friends after dinner to run a conversation like a Sunday-school excursion, with stops to pick flowers; but in the office your sentences should be the shortest distance possible between periods.
Say less than the other fellow and listen more than you talk; for when a man’s listening he isn’t telling on himself and he’s flattering the fellow who is.
Books are all right, but dead men’s brains are no good unless you mix a live one’s with them.
Procrastination is the longest word in the language, but there’s only one letter between its ends when they occupy their proper places in the alphabet.
Every fellow is really two men – what he is and what he might be; and you’re never absolutely sure which you’re going to bury till he’s dead.
The more I deal in it, the surer I am that human nature is all of the same critter, but that there’s a heap of choice in the cuts.
A man’s got to keep company a long time, and come early and stay late and sit close, before he can get a girl or a job worth having.
When a man makes a specialty of knowing how some other fellow ought to spend his money, he usually thinks in millions and works for hundreds.
When the tongue lies, the eyes tell the truth.
Because a fellow has failed once or twice or a dozen times, you don’t want to set him down as a failure till he’s dead or loses his courage.
What you know is a club for yourself, and what you don’t know is a meat-ax for the other fellow.
In all your dealings, remember that today is your opportunity; tomorrow some other fellow’s.
The aim of the college, for the individual student, is to eliminate the need in his life for the college; the task is to help him become a self-educating man.
When a fortune comes without calling, it’s apt to leave without asking.
When you make a mistake, don’t make a second one – keeping it to yourself. Own up. The time to sort out rotten eggs is at the nest. The deeper you hide them in the case the longer they stay in circulation, and the worse impression they make when they finally come to the breakfast table.
When an office begins to look like a family tree, you’ll find worms tucked away snug and cheerful in most of the apples.
When a fellow’s got what he set out for in this world, he should go off into the woods for a few weeks now and then to make sure that he’s still a man, and not a plug-hat and a frock-coat and a wad of bills.
If there’s anything worse than knowing too little, it’s knowing too much. Education will broaden a narrow mind, but there’s no known cure for a big head. The best you can hope is that it will swell up and bust.
The great secret of good management is to be more alert to prevent a man’s going wrong than eager to punish him for it.