Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 23
Channing, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“The nicest feeling in the world is to do a good deed anonymously-and have somebody find out.”
“Words that do not match deeds are unimportant.”
As quoted in Seeds of Revolution: A Collection of Axioms, Passages and Proverbs, Volume 1 (2009) by Iam A. Freeman
“When truth cannot make itself known in words, it will make itself known in deeds.”
"Should he have spoken?", The New Criterion (September 2006), p. 22; also in The Roger Scruton Reader (2009) edited by Mark Dooley
“The old customs are dead, and we keep trying on new ones, like badly fitting clothes.”
Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Shards of Honor (1986), Chapter 3 (p. 50)
“I like business because it rewards deeds and not words.”
"Why I Like Business" in Manitowoc Herald-Times (21 July 1927), p. 3 http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/8420770/
Context: I like business because it is competitive. Business keeps books. The books are the score cards. Profit is the measure of accomplishment, not the ideal measure, but the most practical that can be devised.
I like business because it compels earnestness. Amateurs and dilettantes are shoved out. Once in you must fight for survival or be carried to the sidelines.
I like business because it requires courage. Cowards do not get to first base.
I like business because It demands faith. Faith in human nature, faith in one's self, faith in one's customers, faith in one's employees.
I like business because it is the essence of life. Dreams are good, poetical fancies are good, but bread must be baked today, trains must move today, bills must be collected today, payrolls met today. Business feeds, clothes and houses man.
I like business because it rewards deeds and not words.
I like business because it does not neglect today's task while it is thinking about tomorrow.
I like business because it undertakes to please, not to reform.
I like business because it is orderly.
I like business because it is bold in enterprise.
I like business because it is honestly selfish, thereby avoiding the hypocrisy and sentimentality of the unselfish attitude.
I like business because it is promptly penalized for its mistakes, shiftlessness and inefficiency.
I like business because its philosophy works.
I like business because each day is a fresh, adventure.
