Quotes about preparation
page 8

Jonathan Edwards photo
Heinz Guderian photo

“Actions speak louder than words. In the days to come the Goddess of Victory will bestow her laurels only on those who prepared to act with daring.”

Heinz Guderian (1888–1954) German general

Achtung-Panzer! : The Development of Armoured Forces, Their Tactics and Operational Potential (1937)

Robert Mugabe photo

“We have fought for our land, we have fought for our sovereignty, small as we are we have won our independence and we are prepared to shed our blood…. So, Blair keep your England, and let me keep my Zimbabwe.”

Robert Mugabe (1924–2019) former President of Zimbabwe

Speech at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg (2 September 2002), quoted in John Battersby and Andrew Grice, "Anti-West anger at summit as Mugabe rounds on Blair", The Independent, 3 September 2002, p. 1.
2000s, 2000-2004

Burkard Schliessmann photo
Marcus Annaeus Lucanus photo

“Make haste; delay is ever fatal to those who are prepared.”
Tolle moras: semper nocuit differre paratis.

Book I, line 281 (tr. J. D. Duff).
Pharsalia

Bill Gates photo
Bobby Knight photo

“The key is not the will to win… everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.”

Bobby Knight (1940–2023) American college basketball coach and former player

Knight: My Story http://www.campofchamps.com/book_of_the_month_knight.htm, Chapter: Cornerstone and Credos. By Bobby Knight and Bob Hammel, 2002. Thomas Dunne Books; 1st edition (March 26, 2002) ISBN: 978-0312282578.

Arthur Schopenhauer photo

“We should judge university philosophy … by its true and proper aim: … that the junior barristers, solicitors, doctors, probationers, and pedagogues of the future should maintain, even in their innermost conviction, the same line of thought in keeping with the aims and intentions that the State and its government have in common with them. I have no objection to this and so in this respect have nothing to say. For I do not consider myself competent to judge of the necessity or needlessness of such a State expedient, but rather leave it to those who have the difficult task of governing men, that is to say, of maintain law and order, … and of protecting the few who have acquired property from the immense number of those who have nothing but their physical strength. … I certainly do not presume to argue with them over the means to be employed in this case; for my motto has always been: “Thank God, each morning, therefore, that you have not the Roman realm to care for!” [Goethe, Faust] But it was these constitutional aims of university philosophy which procured for Hegelry such an unprecedented ministerial favor. For it the State was “the absolute perfect ethical organism,” and it represented as originating in the State the whole aim of human existence. Could there be for future junior barristers and thus for state officials a better preparation than this, in consequence whereof their whole substance and being, their body and soul, were entirely forfeited to the State, like bees in a beehive, and they had nothing else to work for … except to become efficient wheels, cooperating for the purpose of keeping in motion the great State machine, that ultimus finis bonorum [ultimate good]? The junior barrister and the man were accordingly one and the same. It was a real apotheosis of philistinism.”

Inzwischen verlangt die Billigkeit, daß man die Universitätsphilosophie nicht bloß, wie hier gescheht!, aus dem Standpunkte des angeblichen, sondern auch aus dem des wahren und eigentlichen Zweckes derselben beurtheile. Dieser nämlich läuft darauf hinaus, daß die künftigen Referendarien, Advokaten, Aerzte, Kandidaten und Schulmänner auch im Innersten ihrer Ueberzeugungen diejenige Richtung erhalten, welche den Absichten, die der Staat und seine Regierung mit ihnen haben, angemessen ist. Dagegen habe ich nichts einzuwenden, bescheide mich also in dieser Hinsicht. Denn über die Nothwendigkeit, oder Entbehrlichkeit eines solchen Staatsmittels zu urtheilen, halte ich mich nicht für kompetent; sondern stelle es denen anheim, welche die schwere Aufgabe haben, Menschen zu regieren, d. h. unter vielen Millionen eines, der großen Mehrzahl nach, gränzenlos egoistischen, ungerechten, unbilligen, unredlichen, neidischen, boshaften und dabei sehr beschränkten und querköpfigen Geschlechtes, Gesetz, Ordnung, Ruhe und Friede aufrecht zu erhalten und die Wenigen, denen irgend ein Besitz zu Theil geworden, zu schützen gegen die Unzahl Derer, welche nichts, als ihre Körperkräfte haben. Die Aufgabe ist so schwer, daß ich mich wahrlich nicht vermesse, über die dabei anzuwendenden Mittel mit ihnen zu rechten. Denn „ich danke Gott an jedem Morgen, daß ich nicht brauch’ für’s Röm’sche Reich zu sorgen,”—ist stets mein Wahlspruch gewesen. Diese Staatszwecke der Universitätsphilosophie waren es aber, welche der Hegelei eine so beispiellose Ministergunft verschafften. Denn ihr war der Staat „der absolut vollendete ethische Organismus,” und sie ließ den ganzen Zweck des menschlichen Daseyns im Staat aufgehn. Konnte es eine bessere Zurichtung für künftige Referendarien und demnächst Staatsbeamte geben, als diese, in Folge welcher ihr ganzes Wesen und Seyn, mit Leib und Seele, völlig dem Staat verfiel, wie das der Biene dem Bienenstock, und sie auf nichts Anderes, weder in dieser, noch in einer andern Welt hinzuarbeiten hatten, als daß sie taugliche Räder würden, mitzuwirken, um die große Staatsmaschine, diesen ultimus finis bonorum, im Gange zu erhalten? Der Referendar und der Mensch war danach Eins und das Selbe. Es war eine rechte Apotheose der Philisterei.
Sämtliche Werke, Bd. 5, p. 159, E. Payne, trans. (1974) Vol. 1, pp. 146-147
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851), On Philosophy in the Universities

Arthur Ponsonby photo
Thomas Campbell photo
Jonathan Edwards photo
Alexander Graham Bell photo

“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.”

Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922) scientist and inventor known for his work on the telephone

As quoted in Sophia's Fire (2005) by Sango Mbella, p. 133.

Calvin Coolidge photo

“For it is certain that the future will bring realities for which our traditional optimism fails to prepare us and against which our economic momentum fails to arm us.”

Robert L. Heilbroner (1919–2005) American historian and economist

Source: The Future As History (1960), Chapter III, Part 12, The Deepening Confusion, p. 170

Colin Meloy photo
Ray Comfort photo
Dick Cheney photo
Jonas Salk photo
Richard Cobden photo
John Lehman photo
Warren Farrell photo
A. James Gregor photo
Markandey Katju photo
Cesar Chavez photo
Charles Cooley photo
Stanley Baldwin photo
Rudyard Kipling photo
Mata Amritanandamayi photo

“There is no thinking except as aftermath or preparation of communication.”

Randall Collins (1941) American sociologist

Source: The Sociology of Philosophies (1998), p. 2

Michael Winner photo

“I don't want to do something for the sake of it. I am prepared to wait. If I wait until I am buried, too bad.”

Michael Winner (1935–2013) English film director, film producer, film editor and screenwriter

On regularly being asked to re-make Death Wish http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5315068.stm.

Eric Clapton photo
Frida Kahlo photo
Philip Schaff photo

“Editions and Revisions. The printed Bible text of Luther had the same fate as the written text of the old Itala and Jerome's Vulgate. It passed through innumerable improvements and mis-improvements. The orthography and inflections were modernized, obsolete words removed, the versicular division introduced (first in a Heidelberg reprint, 1568), the spurious clause of the three witnesses inserted in 1 John 5:7 (first by a Frankfurt publisher, 1574), the third and fourth books of Ezra and the third book of the Maccabees added to the Apocrypha, and various other changes effected, necessary and unnecessary, good and bad. Elector August of Saxony tried to control the text in the interest of strict Lutheran orthodoxy, and ordered the preparation of a standard edition (1581). But it was disregarded outside of Saxony.
Gradually no less than eleven or twelve recensions came into use, some based on the edition of 1545, others on that of 1546. The most careful recension was that of the Canstein Bible Institute, founded by a pious nobleman, Carl Hildebrand von Canstein (1667-1719) in connection with Francke's Orphan House at Halle. It acquired the largest circulation and became the textus receptus of the German Bible.
With the immense progress of biblical learning in the present century, the desire for a timely revision of Luther's version was more and more felt. Revised versions with many improvements were prepared by Joh.- Friedrich von Meyer, a Frankfurt patrician (1772-1849), and Dr. Rudolf Stier (1800-1862), but did not obtain public authority.
At last a conservative official revision of the Luther Bible was inaugurated by the combined German church governments in 1863, with a view and fair prospect of superseding all former editions in public use.”

Philip Schaff (1819–1893) American Calvinist theologian

Luther's Bible club

Bill Bryson photo
Warren Farrell photo
Bill Hybels photo

“Adoration in prayer purges our spirit and prepares us to listen to God.”

Bill Hybels (1951) American writer

Too Busy Not to Pray (2008, InterVarsity Press)

John Lehman photo
Mike Oldfield photo
Philip Schaff photo

“In the progress of the work he founded a Collegium Biblieum, or Bible club, consisting of his colleagues Melanchthon, Bugenhagen (Pommer), Cruciger, Justus Jonas, and Aurogallus. They met once a week in his house, several hours before supper. Deacon Georg Rörer (Rorarius), the first clergyman ordained by Luther, and his proof-reader, was also present; occasionally foreign scholars were admitted; and Jewish rabbis were freely consulted. Each member of the company contributed to the work from his special knowledge and preparation. Melanchthon brought with him the Greek Bible, Cruciger the Hebrew and Chaldee, Bugenhagen the Vulgate, others the old commentators; Luther had always with him the Latin and the German versions besides the Hebrew. Sometimes they scarcely mastered three lines of the Book of Job in four days, and hunted two, three, and four weeks for a single word. No record exists of the discussions of this remarkable company, but Mathesius says that "wonderfully beautiful and instructive speeches were made."
At last the whole Bible, including the Apocrypha as "books not equal to the Holy Scriptures, yet useful and good to read," was completed in 1534, and printed with numerous woodcuts.
In the mean time the New Testament had appeared in sixteen or seventeen editions, and in over fifty reprints.
Luther complained of the many errors in these irresponsible editions.
He never ceased to amend his translation. Besides correcting errors, he improved the uncouth and confused orthography, fixed the inflections, purged the vocabulary of obscure and ignoble words, and made the whole more symmetrical and melodious.
He prepared five original editions, or recensions, of his whole Bible, the last in 1545, a year before his death.
The edition of 1546 was prepared by his friend Rörer, and contains a large number of alterations, which he traced to Luther himself. Some of them are real improvements, e. g., Die Liebe höret nimmer auf, for, Die Liebe wird nicht müde (1 Cor. 13:8). The charge that he made the changes in the interest of Philippism (Melanchthonianism), seems to be unfounded.”

Philip Schaff (1819–1893) American Calvinist theologian

Luther's Bible club

Joe Lieberman photo
Calvin Coolidge photo

“Ever since the last great conflict the world has been putting a renewed emphasis, not on preparation to succeed in war, but on an attempt by preventing war to succeed in peace. This movement has the full and complete approbation of the American Government and the American people. While we have been unwilling to interfere in the political relationship of other countries and have consistently refrained from intervening except when our help has been sought and we have felt that it could be effectively given, we have signified our willingness to become associated with other nations in a practical plan for promoting international justice through the World Court. Such a tribunal furnishes a method of the adjustment of international differences in accordance with our treaty rights and under the generally accepted rules of international law. When questions arise which all parties agree ought to be adjudicated but which do not yield to the ordinary methods of diplomacy, here is a forum to which the parties may voluntarily repair in the consciousness that their dignity suffers no diminution and that their cause will be determined impartially, according to the law and the evidence. That is a sensible, direct, efficient, and practical method of adjusting differences which can not fail to appeal to the intelligence of the American people.”

Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)

1920s, Ways to Peace (1926)

Edgar Degas photo
Matthew Broderick photo

“My experience with first-time directors is that they’re all extremely prepared, because I guess they’re worried. They spend weeks preparing everything, and they have to get used to the fact that once you get there, everything goes wrong and you have to make everything up.”

Matthew Broderick (1962) American film, stage and voice actor

"Matthew Broderick on John Hughes, the Never-Finished Margaret, and His New Film Wonderful World" by Kyle Buchanan, in Movieline (7 January 2010) http://www.matthewbroderick.net/interview/movieline100107.html

Mao Zedong photo
Lama Ole Nydahl photo
Warren Farrell photo
Mumia Abu-Jamal photo
Phillip Abbott Luce photo

“The revolution which Black Theology advocates … [means] confronting white racists and saying: 'If it's a fight you want, I am prepared to oblige you.”

James H. Cone (1938–2018) American theologian

This is what the black revolution means.
Source: Black Theology and Black Power (1969), p. 136

Josiah Quincy III photo

“If this bill passes, it is my deliberate opinion that it is virtually a dissolution of the Union; that it will free the States from their moral obligation; and, as it will be the right of all, so it will be the duty of some, definitely to prepare for a separation,—amicably if they can, violently if they must.”

Josiah Quincy III (1772–1864) American politician

Regarding the admission of Orleans Territory as a U.S. State. Abridged Cong. Debates, Jan. 14, 1811. Vol. iv. p. 327. This was later famously paraphrased by Henry Clay: The gentleman [Mr. Quincy] cannot have forgotten his own sentiment, uttered even on the floor of this House, "Peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must." Speech, Jan. 8, 1813.

Ignatius of Loyola photo

“We should always be prepared so as never to err to believe that what I see as white is black, if the hierarchic Church defines it thus.”

Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556) Catholic Saint, founder of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits)

No. 365.
Spiritual Exercises (1548)

Daniel Patrick Moynihan photo
Nathanael Greene photo
Jacques-Yves Cousteau photo
Calvin Coolidge photo
Warren Farrell photo
Francis Scott Key photo

“If we believe in the existence of a great moral and political evil amongst us, and that duty, honour, and interest, call upon us to prepare the way for its removal, we must act.”

Francis Scott Key (1779–1843) American lawyer and poet

Speech before the Colonization Society https://books.google.com/books?id=AoS2cqFQCSoC&pg=PA50

Clement Attlee photo

“The Question of sovereignty is often raised. I am one of those who believe that in a modern world one has to give up a great deal of sovereignty. I am prepared to give up sovereignty to the world, but not to a selected number of European countries. That is not giving up something for world security; it is giving something up to sectional interests.”

Clement Attlee (1883–1967) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/1962/nov/08/britain-and-the-common-market in the House of Lords on the British application to join the Common Market (8 November 1962).
1960s

Craig Ferguson photo
S. I. Hayakawa photo
Calvin Coolidge photo
Chris Murphy photo

“Why did you sign up for this job if you are not prepared to use it — if you're not prepared to use it to try to solve big problems?”

Chris Murphy (1973) American politician

Powerful Moments From Chris Murphy’s Senate Filibuster on Gun Legislation" https://sojo.net/articles/5-powerful-moments-chris-murphy-s-senate-filibuster-gun-violence/"5, Sojourners, 15 June 2016.

Camille Pissarro photo

“I work mostly in the studio; as I mentioned several times, the leaves are burgeoning and change so rapidly that I have been unable to prepare a single sketch. I am making little watercolors and pastels, I think they will come out all right; in the studio I am preparing five or six canvases, I work on one after another, I am getting used to working that way.”

Camille Pissarro (1830–1903) French painter

Quote of Camille Pissarro, Eragny, 15 May 1888, in a letter to his son Lucien; from Camille Pissarro - Letters to His Son Lucien ed. John Rewald, with assistance of Lucien Pissarro; from the unpublished French letters; transl. Lionel Abel; Pantheon Books Inc. New York, second edition, 1943, pp. 125-126
1880's

Max Pechstein photo

“What a variety of shapes exists in the lithograph when one prepares the stone for printing, etches it, and prints oneself. Above all, one must do the printing oneself!”

Max Pechstein (1881–1955) German artist

quote, c. 1920; in Buchheim, Künstlergemeinschaft Brücke, p. 303; as cited in 'The Revival of Printmaking in Germany', I. K. Rigby; in German Expressionist Prints and Drawings - Essays Vol 1.; published by Museum Associates, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California & Prestel-Verlag, Germany, 1986, pp. 40-41

Matthew Simpson photo

“Wherever God's word is circulated, it stirs the hearts of the people, it prepares for public morals. Circulate that word, and you find the tone of morals immediately changed. It is God speaking to man.”

Matthew Simpson (1811–1884) American bishop and academic

Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 34.

Nathanael Greene photo
Maxwell D. Taylor photo
Jacques Ellul photo
Anton Chekhov photo
Anthony Burgess photo
Warren Farrell photo
Konstantin Chernenko photo
Marcus Tullius Cicero photo

“Before entering any occupation, diligent preparation is to be undertaken.”
In omnibus autem negotiis priusquam adgrediare, adhibenda est praeparatio diligens.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman

Book I, section 73
De Officiis – On Duties (44 BC)

Van Morrison photo

“Put your money where your mouth is
Then we can get something going
In order to win you must be prepared to lose sometime
And leave one or two cards showing.”

Van Morrison (1945) Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician

Hard Nose the Highway
Song lyrics, Hard Nose the Highway (1973)

Jason Biggs photo

“Truth be told, I don’t really prepare much. I’m not a very serious actor in those regards. I learn my lines, I show up, I take direction.”

Jason Biggs (1978) American actor

Interview with Larry Smith, basis for Bigg's character on the show Orange Is the New Black, interview excerpted in: — [December 4, 2014, http://popwatch.ew.com/2014/07/16/larry-smith-jason-biggs-orange-is-the-new-black/, Jason Biggs talks 'Orange is the New Black' with real-life Larry, Ariana Bacle, July 16, 2014, Entertainment Weekly]

Tommaso Campanella photo

“If You return to earth, come armed Lord,
because enemies are preparing other crosses
—not Turks, not Jews—but those of Your own kingdom”

Tommaso Campanella (1568–1639) Italian philosopher, theologian, astrologer, and poet

"To Jesus Christ", as cited in Roush, Sherry, 2011, Selected Philosophical Poems of Tommaso Campanella, University of Chicago Press, p. 18.

Erik Naggum photo
Stafford Cripps photo
Maxwell D. Taylor photo
Clarence Thomas photo
Richard Arkwright photo
Geert Wilders photo
Viktor Orbán photo
Luis Miguel photo

“I feel that destiny is a mixture of preparation and luck. You can be very lucky, but it is useless if you're not prepared. You can be prepared, but it is useless if you're not lucky.”

Luis Miguel (1970) Puerto Rican singer; music producer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aipyRne6dso
Interview in Mexico, 1995

Ernest King photo
Ken Livingstone photo

“What a squalid and irresponsible little profession it is. Nothing prepares you for how bad Fleet Street really is until it craps on you from a great height.”

Ken Livingstone (1945) Mayor of London between 2000 and 2008

City Limits, 1 May 1986, quoted in The New Penguin Dictionary of Modern Quotations by Robert Andrews
Source: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=VK0vR4fsaigC&pg=PT1062&lpg=PT1062&dq=ken+livingstone+%22squalid+and+irresponsible%22&source=bl&ots=F0cC08cyjK&sig=DZt7eobEcCQDQlN7fFdbQZ2suhQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjkiaiz6pHZAhXvp1kKHQvUAnwQ6AEISzAI#v=onepage&q=ken%20livingstone%20%22squalid%20and%20irresponsible%22&f=false

Anthony Burgess photo
Stéphane Mallarmé photo
Joyce Carol Oates photo
Luther Burbank photo