It’s Easier To Act Your Way Into a New Way of Thinking Than To Think Your Way Into a New Way of Acting

John S. White? F. J. Finch? Glenn Franc? E. Stanley Jones? Orval Hobart Mowrer? Harry Emerson Fosdick? J. P. Allen? Zig Ziglar? Bruce Norman? Susan Glaser? John C. Maxwell? Jerry Sternin? Millard Fuller? Dear Quote Investigator: In self-help and motivation books I’ve encountered the following saying: It is easier to act yourself into a new …

Hold Fast To Dreams

Langston Hughes? Robert Frost? Zig Ziglar? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: A poem about the need to maintain aspirational dreams employed a vivid metaphor based on a bird with a damaged wing. The author was Langston Hughes or Robert Frost. Would you please help me to find a citation? Quote Investigator: In 1932 Langston Hughes published …

Tact Is the Art of Recognizing When To Be Big and When Not To Belittle

Zig Ziglar? Charles Thompkins? Dana Robbins? Bob Talbert? Choupique? Bill Copeland? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: There is a fun definition of “tact” that employs a pun which contrasts the terms “be big” and “belittle”. I saw this humorous statement in a book by the prominent motivational author Zig Ziglar. Would you please explore this topic? …

No One Wants a Drill. What They Want Is the Hole

Clayton M. Christensen? Theodore Levitt? L. E. ‘Doc’ Hobbs? Percy H. Whiting? Leo McGivena? Robert G. Seymour? Zig Ziglar? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Companies sell products to solve the problems that their customers encounter. An emphasis on existing products and incremental changes causes an organization to ignore or misunderstand customer motivations. Here is one version …

What You Get By Reaching Your Goals Is Not Nearly So Important As What You Become By Reaching Them

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe? Henry David Thoreau? Zig Ziglar? Dear Quote Investigator: Many self-help and inspirational books contain this guidance: What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. These words have been ascribed to three disparate individuals: German literary titan Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, …

We Cannot Go Back and Start Over, But We Can Begin Now, and Make a New Ending

Zig Ziglar? C. S. Lewis? Carl Bard? James R. Sherman? Philadelphia Eagles Football Team? Barrie M. Tritie? Dennis Reinhart? Maria Robinson? Jessie Jones? Michael York? Dear Quote Investigator: Whenever I reach a dead-end or feel that I am stuck in a rut I can be re-energized by the following inspirational saying. Here are two versions: …

Attitude Is a Little Thing That Makes a Big Difference

Winston Churchill? Theodore Roosevelt? Zig Ziglar? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: I work in an office where they hang inspirational posters on the wall. The caption of one sign credits the following words to the master orator Winston Churchill: Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference. I think that the person who created …