Quotes about planning
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Leon Trotsky photo
Barack Obama photo
Joachim von Ribbentrop photo
Tom Selleck photo

“I was planning to go into architecture. But when I arrived [to sign up for courses], architecture was filled up. Acting was right next to it. So I signed up for acting instead.”

Tom Selleck (1945) American actor

Televised interview broadcast the day before Laguna Heat was shown on cable TV.

Bertrand Russell photo
Abraham Lincoln photo
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry photo

“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 photo

“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.”

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 photo

“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.”

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.

Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus photo

“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.

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 photo

“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.”

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.

Leonard Cohen photo

“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.

Robert Browning photo

“My times be in thy hand!
Perfect the cup as planned!”

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 photo

“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.”

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 photo

“In practice we always base our preparations against an enemy on the assumption that his plans are good; indeed, it is right to rest our hopes not on a belief in his blunders, but on the soundness of our provisions. Nor ought we to believe that there is much difference between man and man, but to think that the superiority lies with him who is reared in the severest school.”

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

“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.”

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 photo

“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.”

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.
1790s
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.

Jacque Fresco photo
Steven Weinberg photo
Frédéric Bastiat photo
Charles Spurgeon photo
Vyacheslav Molotov photo
Max Planck photo
Jawaharlal Nehru photo
Jawaharlal Nehru photo
Jawaharlal Nehru photo
Jawaharlal Nehru photo
Michael Gove photo
Napoleon I of France photo
Ozzy Osbourne photo
Jacinda Ardern photo
James Clear photo

“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 photo
Martin Luther photo

“Do not fight against these harmful spells. For you do not know what God wants with them. You do not know the greater divine plan behind it all.”

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/
Disputed

Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Abraham Lincoln photo
Abraham Lincoln photo
Bisola Aiyeola photo

“It's okay to make mistakes but always learn from them. If things don't go as planned today don't forget that there's always tommorow and we all learn in this journey of life.”

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.

Kim Harrison photo
Cassandra Clare photo
Eoin Colfer photo
Robin McKinley photo
Jean Cocteau photo

“What you do is what matters, not what you think or say or plan.”

Jason Fried software entrepreneur

Source: Rework

John Steinbeck photo
Sherrilyn Kenyon photo
Rick Riordan photo
Robin McKinley photo

“A clear vision, backed by definite plans, gives you a tremendous feeling of confidence and personal power.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

Source: The Gift of Self-Confidence

Jasper Fforde photo
Jonathan Stroud photo
Chuck Palahniuk photo
Richelle Mead photo

“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

Robert J. Sawyer photo
David Levithan photo

“Fate has a strange way of making plans.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

Chuck Palahniuk photo
Libba Bray photo
Bill Bryson photo
Khaled Hosseini photo
Joyce Meyer photo
Jonathan Stroud photo
Neal Shusterman photo
Stephen Chbosky photo
Nicholas Sparks photo
Stephen King photo
Rachel Caine photo
Nicholas Sparks photo

“People plan, God laughs.”

Source: The Longest Ride

Derek Landy photo

“Plans are invitation to disappointment.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Mortal Coil

Rick Riordan photo
Gabrielle Zevin photo

“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

Cassandra Clare photo
Richelle Mead photo
Johanna Spyri photo
E.M. Forster photo
Ezra Taft Benson photo
John Steinbeck photo
Suzanne Collins photo
Dietrich Bonhoeffer photo

“We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi

Source: Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community

Emily Dickinson photo
Suzanne Collins photo