My Favourite Sayings

Collected by Stuart Orton-Jones

Please send me any of your saying that you think should be added to this list.

For what so ever you want, oh discontented man, step up and pay the price       or shut up.

If you don’t aim you won’t gain

Don’t follow paths. Walk on your own and leave a trail.

Some men become great by standing on the shoulders of other great men. Others become “great” by walking on the backs of ordinary people.

Man who says it cannot be done should not stand in the way of man already doing it.

Man who says he is too old to learn probably always has been.

” Here lies Dr Jones Qualified at the age of 24

Died at the age of 25

Buried at the age of 85 “

Marriage is not a case of finding the right person. It is a case of being the right person.

Why do I have to work like a slave in order to live like a king?

There are three types of people: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who say, “What happened? “

If you don’t have time to do a thing right the first time, when will you have time to do it over?

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn Ben Franklin

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand

Man who has a hammer, looks for nails.

I have a treatment. Now I am looking for a disease.

The more I practice, the luckier I get. Gary Player

A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies. Oscar Wilde

Life does not run on oiled wheels.

To jump a deep chasm, don’t take two steps.

To aim at excellence you need to have seen excellence.

What you measure, you improve.

No good deed goes unpunished.

Never enter into a correspondence with a paranoid.

Expect the unexpected.

If a thing is worth doing, it must be scheduled. If it is worth doing, it must be measured.

Unless you have a picture of where you want to go, you are unlikely to get there.

Trifles make perfection but perfection is no trifle.

Intellectual denial enables us not to hear what we don’t want to hear.

If you are standing still you are going backwards

When seeking revenge, first dig two graves.

Progress by the yard is hard. By the inch it’s a cinch.

Some people spend their time getting ready to get ready.

Everyone wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.

You can’t tell how deep a puddle is until you step in it, unless you use a measuring stick.

If you are good, you are lucky.

When something is history do not dwell on it

Even if you are on the right track, if you just sit there, you will get run over.

No seeds in the soil, no crop.

A stranger is a friend you haven’t met.

No risk, no gain.

You pack your own parachute.

Everybody has the right to make choices about their attitudes through out their lives.

Your perception is your reality and is measured by feel, touch, smell, hearing and sight.

Fear freezes us. Paralyses us. We are afraid of chaos.

Once you do something for someone else that they could do for themselves you destroy them.

Character is the ability to carry out a worthy decision after the emotion of making that decision has passed.

I may not agree with what you are saying, but I will defend your right to say it.

Excuses are the patches that patch the pants of failure.

People who say, ” I can’t ” are most probably right.

If it is not broken, don’t fix it.

An American Evangelist used to say,

“If a person wants to go to hell they have the right to do so “

If you keep on doing what you are doing, you will keep on getting what you’ve been getting.

No dentist can afford to be anything but a continuous student. G.V. Black

Experience is not what happens to you. It’s what you do with what happens to you that matters. Aldus Huxley

Professionalism is that quality of conduct, which accompanies the use of superior knowledge, care, skill, and judgement towards the benefit of another person or society prior to a consideration of self-interest. L.D. Pankey

A little progress at a time is better than no progress.

When you have more knowledge, you only fool yourself if you don’t apply it. C Langdon

Find what is difficult for you. Only through solving difficult things do you learn.

If you are in a hole, stop digging.

You can’t fall out of a well.

If you were arrested and put in jail for pursuing quality, would there be enough evidence to convict you.

Having a sense of humour failure.

Constipated Thinkers.

I learn more than you because, when you speak, I listen, whereas when I speak you don’t listen.

Continue what you are doing, until you are ready to do the next thing.

To help a friend is easier than helping an enemy. Helping an enemy may make a friend.

A blunt pencil is better than a sharp mind.

Sex is the price women pay for marriage. Marriage is the price men pay for sex.

Being at one with the rhythm of the day.

We look at ourselves, as we will be. Others see us as we were.

It is not what you know. It’s what you do with what you know.

Being one of the movers and shakers.

Nostalgia cannot assure the future.

How do you eat an elephant? A teaspoon at time.

Don’t make paperwork your god.

Everybody sees what you appear to be. Few feel what you are.

Nothing is more difficult to carry out than to initiate a new order of things. Machiavelli

Why be difficult when, with a little more effort, you could be bloody difficult.

If you are going up a ladder, make sure it is leaning against the right wall.

My employees can say anything they like, even if it costs them their jobs.

You see what you know and you see what you want to.

Said of Alvin Fillastre ” He worked as hard as he could to make other dentists become better than himself “

Dare greatly.

It is lonely at the top of a Success Mountain. If you can get everyone else up there with you, we can all have a party.

Minds are like parachutes. They only work if they are open.

Fashion comes and goes, but style lasts forever.

Accept the challenge so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory.

One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor.

Know yourself and your enemy, and then you may prevail in a thousand battles.

Sun Tsu 550 B.C.

It is easy to criticise from the sidelines.

Life looks better when you do.

Never play Good Samaritan to a masochist. (It is always misinterpreted. They want punishment not goodness and kindness.)

It is Thursday. It must be Paris.

Man entering the Louvre art gallery in Paris. ” Where is the Mona Lisa? I am double parked”.

Even paranoids have real enemies.

Being at the cutting edge is not conducive to mental stability.

Today’s fact is tomorrow’s fiction.

Value the humbling experience of catastrophic experiences

To avoid catastrophic experiences keep your head below the parapet. Leave others to lead the way.

Everybody puts his or her trousers on one leg at a time. (Nobody is special).

I don’t mind dying. It’s feeling so stiff the next day that bothers me.

I used to be indecisive but now I’m not sure.

Everybody has to walk in their own shoes.

You see what you know. You hear what you know.

What you have in your heart, you wear on your face.

Not much happenings without a dream.

Surrender to your teacher only as a teacher, not as a guru.

There is always a faster gun in the West.

Success is not the end of the road. There is no rainbow at the end of the road when you get there.

If it is to be, it’s up to me.

Principles are like lighthouses they don’t change course.

If you run with dogs, you are going to get fleas.

A man who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a fool. Shun him.

A man, who knows not and knows that he knows not, is ignorant. Teach him.

But a man, who knows and knows that he knows, is a wise man. Follow him.

Some people only swim in the shallow end.

If you are going to have an attitude, choose a good one.

A dead bird cannot fall out of its nest.

Even a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.

Just because you are on a diet, it does not mean you cannot look at the menu.

What we see is what we have learnt to see.

A good plan today is always better than a perfect plan tomorrow

It takes two hands to clap.

Denial is not just a river in Egypt.

Whatever works, works.

Geniuses bring new ideas on earth. Fools spread them.

It does not matter how you start the race it is how you finish that matters.

It is better to do a little with a good heart, than a lot from obligation.

Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice

I hate it when you leave, but I like watching you go.

Having thought of a good idea, think of a better one.

You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you meet your prince.

Experience is the hardest teacher. It gives you the test first and the lesson second.

You don’t start learning until you start doing.

Communication is the secret to success. Pass it on.

Attitudes are contagious. Is yours worth catching?

Quality products and quality service begin with quality thinking.

If you don’t take care of the customer, someone else will.

A positive attitude creates positive results.

The race for quality has no finishing line.

Perfection is our goal. Excellence will be tolerated.

The older we get, the faster we were.

If you have to talk, ask questions

Better to have tried and failed than to have done nothing and succeeded

People who know everything live in the dark.’

It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. Abraham Lincoln

If you don’t travel first class, your children will.

There are many ways to go forward but only one way to stand still.

If it won’ fit, don’t force it. Use a bigger hammer.

There are Old Pilots and Bold Pilots but No Old, Bold Pilots

Learn Principles and then use judgment.

I wish you would stop talking while I’m interrupting.

Gunpowder is perfectly safe, unless you forget it is dangerous Naval Gunnery School

From Admiral George Thrings death announcement and date of memorial service.

“It is his express wish that no one should give up a day’s shooting, fishing or golf to come to the service”

Well intentioned people suffer while conmen still prosper

Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent Eleanor Roosevelt

When death suddenly intervenes, for those remaining, all those “musts” become unimportant

People who can, do. People who can’t, teach.

Today is the tomorrow we talked about yesterday

Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday and all is well.

The difference between rape and seduction is time

Don’t cry over spilt milk

Hope for the best and fear the worst

Knowledge is Power

Who travels the furthest, travels alone

We don’t see things as they are. We see things as we are.

We see what we know.

Married women don’t squeal, they don’t yell, and what is more important they don’t tell.

These are my opinions and are subject to change.

When I am not fishing, I am mending my nets.

A caged parrot won’t come out of its nest.

Go to the Source of the River

You only as good as your last performance

Walls have ears

The young can be so cruel

Competence and Confidence often go hand in hand

The art of medicine is to amuse the patient while nature cures the disease Voltaire

Ignorance is prevalent

Why hang from the chandleers if you do not have to

It wasn’t a hill I wanted to die on

It is never too late, so long as you are on the right side of the grass

There is nothing worse than a weak handshake or a weak parsley sauce.

If you recognise a need, find a way of meeting it.

Many a slip between glass and lip

Honour those who go first, Even if those who came after go further.’                            Sydney Sunderland, 1910-1993

The penalty for those who do not know what has been tried in the past,                             is that they have to repeat it.      Frank McDowell

Academics are people who learn more and more about less and less until the know everything about nothing.

An Eye for an Eye will only make the whole world blind

Lead, follow or get the hell out of here

I like wine when I cook. Sometimes I put it in the food.

They say cooking won’t kill, but I’m not going to take the risk.

If you want learn about implants, you have to learn how to dance.

He who travels who travels fastest travels alone.

If you don’t understand history, you are doomed to live it again.

If you can’t get what you fancy, you fancy a bit of what you can get

A man runs after a woman until she catches him.

Our attitudes determine our altitudes

Never jump into a well yourself

Man occasionally stumbles across the truth but he picks himself up and hurries on as if nothing has happened

If you don’t think outside the box you will die inside the box

It is better to remain silent and appear dumb than to talk and remove all doubt

When you sing your own praises, you sing out of tune.

Concerning Retirement

For better for worse but not for lunch

Twice the husband, half the income.

Bad things happen to good people.

I would rather be right than happy.

See the funny side

When I was young I used to give it away. When I got older I learnt how to sell it.

Now I am old I have to buy it back Mae West

If a thing is worth doing it is worth doing, even if badly.

I would rather be right than happy.

Alcohol is the cause of, and the solution to, all life’s problems.

Nothing matters very much and most things don’t matter at all.

It is a long lane that has no turning.

I spent most of my money on women and drink and the rest I wasted.

Give you enemies a path to retreat.

Nihil Illegitimi Carborundum (Don’t let the Bastards grind you down)

Youth is wasted on the Young

Marriage is not a word but a sentence.

Don’t mess with him. He does origami.

If you don’t live life on the edge you can’t fall off the ledge

There is looking and there is looking with your eyes open

Happiness is not a function of how much people have achieved but how they feel about what they have achieved.

Forgive me for talking while you were interrupting

The best revenge you can have on a man who steals your wife is to let him keep her

Dying is the last thing I’ll do

If you can’t be with the woman you love

Love the woman you are with

In life there are shepherds and there are sheep

The art of selection is retrospective

When you throw dirt at people you lose ground from underneath you

The sign of a gentleman is someone who knows how to play the bagpipes but doesn’t play them

The sign of a gentleman is someone who uses a butter knife when dining alone

The Definition of a Gentleman

Someone who, when left alone in a room with a tea cosy, does not try it on

The best form of contraception is a wedding cake

If you have a choice, you do not have a problem

Thinking you know hinders your ability to learn

To live for a time close to great minds is the best kind of education

If you are going through hell, keep going.

Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm

Don’t speak if you don’t have anything to say

Engage the Brain before you open your mouth

If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got

Your biggest competitor is your own view of the future

Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven’t planted

Be brave, be bold, believe, then be relentless

To have a great idea you must have many ideas

Imagination is more important than knowledge

Opportunity sometimes knocks softly to see if your listening

Don’t assume there is a light at the end of the tunnel. It may be an oncoming train.

Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.-Dalai Lama

Only clean the teeth you want to keep

Measure twice, cut once

You don’t have to be a star to twinkle

Only diamonds are forever”

“Life is what happens when you are planning something else”… John Lennon

You don’t have a dog and bark

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes

Never look a gift horse in the mouth

Never boil an egg twice

A third class ride is better than a first class walk

An actuary is a person who finds accountancy too exciting

You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find a princess

Man who hasn`t made a mistake, hasn’t made anything

Old age is like a plane flying through a storm

Advice for Old Age

When bending over to pick something up, look around to see if there is anything else to pick up.

Once you’re aboard there’s nothing you can do

Only clean the teeth you want to keep

Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

A sharp tongue can cut your own throat.

If you want your dreams to come true, you mustn’t oversleep.

The best vitamin for making friends….. B1.

The heaviest thing you can carry is a grudge.

One thing you can give and still keep…is your word.

You lie the loudest when you lie to yourself

If you lack the courage to start, you have already finished.

One thing you can’t recycle is wasted time.

Ideas won’t work unless ‘ You’ do.

Your mind is like a parachute…it functions only when open.

‘I am not afraid of a fighter who knows a 1000 kicks, but I am afraid of a fighter who has practiced 1 kick a 1000 times’ – Bruce Lee

The beauty aspect of prayer is that ‘ You know whom you are praying for but do not know who all are praying for you “

An error does NOT have to become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.

The need to prove we are right, overwhelms our ability to think rationally.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

The Five “P”s

Perfect planning prevents pathetic performance.

If you break a leg, don’t come running to me.

The enemy of good is perfect

We all grow old together

What has the future generation done for us

Have an open mind not an open mouth

Common put downs

“I hear what you are saying”

“Whatever”

“with due respect”

“A point well taken”

That’s George’s opinion

That’s a matter of opinion

Changing a decision is not indecision

To err is human

We are all ignorant, just about different things

Even the dull and the ignorant have their story

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent

First class is for people who don’t own their own plane

If the evidence changes I’ll change my mind

True guidance is like a small lamp in a dark forest

It doesn’t show everything at once

But gives enough light for the next step to be safe and better

To get something we have to miss something. Whatever

Please don’t confuse me with the facts. My Mind’s made up already

You have to filter out the bullshit to get to the truth

Don’ put me down. That is my job

When one of us dies, I am going live in the south of France.

I am just going to drain my lizard

As thin as a racing Snake

The higher you climb the more arse you show

Let he who is without sin caste the first stone

Texas (USA) saying

He’s all hat and no cattle

He’s all barn and no horses

She had a nose that could sniff through a picket fence.

It is not a hill I am going to die on, anymore

A woman who is looking for a husband obviously has never had one

You have to be in it to win it

No one loves a fairy when you are over forty

A woman at a party

If I have another drink, I’ll be under the host

I have been happily married for ten years, married for forty years.

Loose lips sink the ship

Love is a misunderstanding between two fools

I am not perfect, but it scares me how close I am to it

The loudest one is the weakest one in the room

Some people cause happiness wherever they go and other people causes happiness whenever they go

If you are not nice at eighteen, you will not be nice at eighty.

Just because you are old, you don’t necessarily become lovable.

Bumper Sticker

Be alert. Britain needs lerts.

Desire to be great

One of the realities of life is having to deal with the realities of life.

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Dance as though no one in watching you

Love as though you have never been hurt before

Sing as though no one can hear you

Live

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When jumping narrow ravine do not take two steps

Don’t waste a good crisis.

You only want what you can’t have

You only want what you think you can’t have

Everyone has the right to grow up at any age and in as many small or large steps as they wish.

There is nowt so queer as folk

Less is really more

Rules are for the guidance of fools

Principles are for the guidance of wise men

An American “ We have the best politicians that money can buy”

There are a lot of hurdles to climb over

On a Tee-shirt

“I’m always in the shit. Only the depth varies”

He’s a foot soldier. He needs to be told

There are too many chiefs and not enough Indians

It is nothing that a shot gun can’t put right.

A bit of lead in the ear cures everything

Whatever is said in camp, stays in camp.

Ethically challenged

An old bison needs the freshest grass.

Blood is thicker than water

On time is ten minutes early

Clive Woodward (England rugby football coach)

It is easier to earn money than it is to keep it

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What is the most important thing in politics?

“Events my boy. Events “ Harold MacMillan

(Past prime minister of the UK)

Every cow wants to be eaten

Nobody loves a smart arse.

Fail to prepare. Prepare to fail.

It is all in the preparation

There are lots of sand and pebbles but no rocks

It is either my way or the highway

Success getting to the edge of the cliff without going over the edge

The truth, the whole truth and nothing like the truth.

Inspiration can strike at anytime

Try something new and you might surprise yourself

“One of the pleasures of life” Said when you get into bed and have pulled the bedclothes over you and have adjusted the pillow just right. “One of the pleasures of life”

I aspire to be the man my dog thinks I am

He is not the sharpest pencil

Perseverance is failing nineteen times and succeeding on the twentieth time

It is never too late to have a failure

In the race for excellence, there is no finishing post

Oh what a web we weave when we first practice to deceive #

At a party a lady said to Yehudi Menuhin, “I would give my life to play the violin like you do” He replied “I did”

Sufficiently Technical to baffle idiots

“The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.”   Cicero, circa 50 B.C.

I am not young enough to know everything Bernard Shore

Half his lies are untrue

I have given up hope on a better past Dali Lama

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future

Some people who are very smart, up by being too smart.

When you are young, you fall over. When you are old you have a fall.

I used to ask women to come upstairs and have sex, now it has to be one or the other (Clement Freud)

It is one thing to have a Ferrari.

It is another thing to possess the key to it

It is also another thing to afford to keep it

Everything we do is a trade off

No rain. No green

Go for Excellence not mediocrity Avoid the “Don’t worry Attitude”

It will be alright on the night only if it is right

Compromising unnecessarily leads to unnecessary mediocrity

Leaving no stone unturned leads to excellence

Meticulous attention to detail leads to excellence

Movers and shakers sacrifice popularity for the sake a progress

One small thing may be unimportant unless it is part of the jigsaw

Man who has time to sleep has time to do jobs

An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind

Dentistry is not a race, even though sometimes it may seem so

Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we attempt to deceive

No stone should be left unturned on the path to excellence

In the world of the blind a one eye man is king

Albert Einstein once said,

“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex… It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.”

When you say you talk to God, people say you are religious. When you say that God talks to you, people think you are a nutter (insane)

Measure it with a micrometer. Mark it in chalk Cut it with an axe

A rising tide raises all ships

Going around your arse to reach your armpit

What happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas

I am easily satisfied by the very best

I can resist all things but temptation

The easiest way to resist temptation is to submit to it

Everything in moderation including moderation Oscar Wilde

Expect the unexpected

You do not have to believe in God to be good

When you see a good body, beware of looking at the face

Never say never

It will be alright in the end.    If it is not alright it is not the end

If you marry you, regret it   If you don’t marry you, regret it