Quotes about plan page 3
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
Remarks of President Barack Obama To the People of Israel at Jerusalem International Convention Center in Jerusalem, Israel (21 March 2013)
2013
Joachim von Ribbentrop (1893–1946) German general
To Leon Goldensohn, July 15, 1946, from "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004
Tom Selleck (1945) American actor
Televised interview broadcast the day before Laguna Heat was shown on cable TV.
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
Letter to Lord Russell of Liverpool, February 18, 1959
1950s
“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900–1944) French writer and aviator
The earliest appearance yet located of this statement is in 50 Ways to Lose Ten Pounds (1995) by Joan Horbiak, p. 95, where it is quoted as an anonymous proverb. It seems to have circulated as such for a few years before it began to be attributed to Saint Exupéry around 2007.
Disputed
Napoleon I of France (1769–1821) French general, First Consul and later Emperor of the French
Hippolyte Taine in Napoleon's views on religion.
About
Context: Napoleon, far more Italian than French, Italian by race, by instinct, imagination, and souvenir, considers in his plan the future of Italy, and, on casting up the final accounts of his reign, we find that the net profit is for Italy and the net loss is for France. Since Theodoric and the Lombard kings, the Pope, in preserving his temporal sovereignty and spiritual omnipotence, has maintained the sub-divisions of Italy; let this obstacle be removed and Italy will once more become a nation. Napoleon prepares the way, and constitutes it beforehand by restoring the Pope to his primitive condition, by withdrawing from him his temporal sovereignty and limiting his spiritual omnipotence, by reducing him to the position of managing director of Catholic consciences and head minister of the principal cult authorized in the empire.
James A. Michener (1907–1997) American author
Academy of Achievement interview (1991)
Context: I do believe that everyone growing up faces differential opportunities. With me, it was books and travel and some good teachers. With somebody else, it may be a boy scout master. With somebody else, it will be a clergyman. Somebody else, an uncle who was wiser than the father. I think young people ought to seek that differential experience that is going to knock them off dead center. I was a typical American school boy. I happened to get straight A's and be pretty good in sports. But I had no great vision of what I could be. And I never had any yearning.
My job was to live through Friday afternoon, get through the week, and eat something. And then along came these differential experiences that you don't look for, that you don't plan for, but, boy, you better not miss them. The things that make you bigger than you are. The things that give you a vision. The things that give you a challenge.
“Consult with many on proper measures to be taken, but communicate the plans you intend to put in execution to few, and those only of the most assured fidelity; or rather trust no one but yourself.”
Quid fieri debeat, tractato cum multis, quid uero facturus sis, cum paucissimis ac fidelissimis uel potius ipse tecum.
Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus book De re militari
De Re Militari (also Epitoma Rei Militaris), Book III, "Dispositions for Action"
Context: On finding the enemy has notice of your designs, you must immediately alter your plan of operations. Consult with many on proper measures to be taken, but communicate the plans you intend to put in execution to few, and those only of the most assured fidelity; or rather trust no one but yourself. (General Maxims)
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2011, Address on interventions in Libya (March 2011)
Context: I’d like to update the American people on the international effort that we have led in Libya — what we’ve done, what we plan to do, and why this matters to us.
I want to begin by paying tribute to our men and women in uniform who, once again, have acted with courage, professionalism and patriotism. They have moved with incredible speed and strength. Because of them and our dedicated diplomats, a coalition has been forged and countless lives have been saved.
Meanwhile, as we speak, our troops are supporting our ally Japan, leaving Iraq to its people, stopping the Taliban’s momentum in Afghanistan, and going after al Qaeda all across the globe. As Commander-in-Chief, I’m grateful to our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen, and to their families. And I know all Americans share in that sentiment.
“I have no program, I have no five-year plan.”
Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) Canadian poet and singer-songwriter
Introducing "Chelsea Hotel #2"
Warsaw concert (1985)
Context: I have no program, I have no five-year plan. … It doesn’t mean that you shouldn't have one! I just move from hotel to hotel, and from bar to bar, and by the grace of the One above occasionally a song comes, and I remember sitting at this particularly obnoxious Polynesian restaurant where they served a kind of coconut drink that was particularly lethal and sinister which contained no alcohol but a certain chemical that demoralized you entirely. And I remember writing on one of their very badly designed napkins, "I remember you well at the Chelsea Hotel..." so I dedicate this song to one of the great singers, Janis Joplin.
“My times be in thy hand!
Perfect the cup as planned!”
Robert Browning Rabbi ben Ezra
Source: Dramatis Personae (1864), Rabbi Ben Ezra, Line 187.
Context: So, take, and use thy work:
Amend what flaws may lurk,
What strain o' the stuff, what warpings past the aim!
My times be in thy hand!
Perfect the cup as planned!
Let age approve of youth, and death complete the same!
Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) American architect, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor and futurist
From 1980s onwards, Cosmography (1992)
Context: Doing the right things for the wrong reasons is typical of humanity. Precession — not conscious planning — provides a productive outcome for misguided political and military campaigns. Nature's long-term design intervenes to circumvent the shortsightedness of human individuals, corporations, and nations competing for a share of the economic pie. Fundamentally, political economists misassume an inadequacy of life support to exist on our planet. Humanity therefore competes militarily to see which political system... is fittest to survive. In slavish observance of this misassumption, humans devote their most costly efforts and resources to "killingry" — a vast arsenal of weapons skillfully designed to kill ever more people at ever-greater distances in ever-shorter periods of time while employing ever-fewer pounds of material, ergs of energy, and seconds of time per killing.
Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War
Variant translation: "Instead, we think the plans of our neighbors are as good as our own, and we can't work out whose chances at war are better in a speech. So we always make our preparations in action, on the assumption that our enemies know what they are doing. We should not build our hopes on the belief that they will make mistakes, but on our own careful foresight. And we should not think there is much difference between one man and another, except that the winner will be the one whose education was the most severe." Translation by Paul Woodruff.
Variant translation: "There is no need to suppose that human beings differ very much from one another: but it is true that the ones who come out on top are the ones who have been trained in the hardest school." Note: Some versions omit the "who have been".
Book I, 1.84-[4]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I
Susanna Kaysen book Girl, Interrupted
Girl, Interrupted (1994)
Context: “The person often experiences this instability of self-image as chronic feelings of emptiness or boredom.” My chronic feelings of emptiness and boredom came from the fact that I was living a life based on my incapacities, which were numerous. A partial list follows. I could not and did not want to: ski, play tennis, or go to gym class; attend to any subject in school other than English and biology; write papers on any assigned topics (I wrote poems instead of papers for English; I got F’s); plan to go or apply to college; give any reasonable explanation for these refusals.
George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States
Letter to Reverend G. W. Snyder (25 September 1798) http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-02-02-0435 thanking him for a copy of Proofs of a Conspiracy against All the Religions and Governments of Europe (1798) by John Robison. <br class="br">1790s <br class="br">Context: I have heard much of the nefarious, & dangerous plan, & doctrines of the Illuminati, but never saw the Book until you were pleased to send it to me. The same causes which have prevented my acknowledging the receipt of your letter, have prevented my reading the Book, hitherto; namely — the multiplicity of matters which pressed upon me before, & the debilitated state in which I was left after, a severe fever had been removed. And which allows me to add little more now, than thanks for your kind wishes and favourable sentiments, except to correct an error you have run into, of my Presiding over the English lodges in this Country. The fact is, I preside over none, nor have I been in one more than once or twice, within the last thirty years. I believe notwithstandings, that none of the Lodges in this Country are contaminated with the principles ascribed to the Society of the Illuminati.
Steven Weinberg (1933) American theoretical physicist
page 4, 2nd edition https://books.google.com/books?id=Qd0MEtsBr7oC&pg=PA4 <br class="br">Dreams of a Final Theory (1992; 2nd edition 1994)
Amulya Malladi (1974) Indian writer
On formulating characters in “An Interview with Amulya Malladi” http://jaggerylit.com/an-interview-with-amulya-malladi/ in Jaggery
Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892) British preacher, author, pastor and evangelist
A Good Start: A Book for Young Men and Women, (1898)
Vyacheslav Molotov (1890–1986) Soviet politician and diplomat
Speech (10 January 1930) as quoted in The Communist International (1936) Vol. 13
Elliot Rodger (1991–2014) American spree killer
My Twisted World (2014), 19-22, UC Santa Barbara, Building to Violence
Michael Gove (1967) British politician
Michael Gove: I'll make Brexit work for animals too https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42313313, BBC News, 12 December 2017 <br class="br">2017
Napoleon I of France (1769–1821) French general, First Consul and later Emperor of the French
Hippolyte Taine in Napoleon's views on religion. <br class="br">About, Other <br class="br">Source: Archive https://archive.org/stream/jstor-25102177/25102177_djvu.txt
Jacinda Ardern (1980) Prime Minister of New Zealand
Interview with Lisa Owen at Newshub Nation, 21 October 2017
Jim Rohn (1930–2009) American motivational speaker
“Goals are good for planning your progress and systems are good for actually making progress.”
James Clear (1986) American author and speaker
Source: https://jamesclear.com/goals-systems
Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future
"Some Principles of History", paragraph 104
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)
Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation
As attributed by Kai Lehmann, curator of the exhibition "Luther und die Hexen" ("Luther and the witches"). (2013) in “Interview with Dr. Kai Lehmann, curator of the exhibition "Luther und die Hexen" ("Luther and the witches")“ https://www.luther2017.de/en/wiki/martin-luther-and-the-witches/kai-lehmann-martin-luther-firmly-believed-in-witches/ <br class="br">Disputed
Bisola Aiyeola (1986) Nigerian Actress
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20190527120634/https://www.concisenews.global/2018/08/14/bisola-aiyeola-inspires-fans-with-lessons-from-mistakes/ Bisola talks on learning from every mistakes.
Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker
Source: Opium: The Diary of His Cure
“What you do is what matters, not what you think or say or plan.”
Jason Fried software entrepreneur
Source: Rework
Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer
Source: The Gift of Self-Confidence
Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo
Source: Magic Rises
Laurie Faria Stolarz (1972) American writer
Source: Deadly Little Lies
“He planned to stick to her like pasties on a stripper.”
Gena Showalter (1975) American writer
Source: The Darkest Lie
“One could describe Design as a plan for arranging elements to accomplish a particular purpose.”
Charles Eames (1907–1978) American designer, half of duo the Eames
In answer of the question: What is your definition of Design?
Design Q & A with Charles Eames, 1972
“Fate has a strange way of making plans.”
David Levithan (1972) American author and editor
Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
Jayne Ann Krentz (1948) American novelist
Source: Burning Lamp
Jason Fried software entrepreneur
Source: Rework
Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer
Source: Saving Francesca
“Let's stay young forever. Young, stupid, and pretty. Sounds like a plan, don't you think?”
Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer
Source: All These Things I've Done
“Poor creatures. What did we do to you? With all our schemes and plans?”
Kazuo Ishiguro book Never Let Me Go
Source: Never Let Me Go
“While her lips talked culture, her heart was planning to invite him to tea”
E.M. Forster book Howards End
Source: Howards End
John Steinbeck book Travels with Charley: In Search of America
Source: Travels with Charley: In Search of America
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi
Source: Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community
Laurie Faria Stolarz (1972) American writer
Source: Deadly Little Voices