Martha Beck Quotes

It's more fun to arrive a conclusion than to justify it.

Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted... but to weigh and consider.

I reckon I would be able compare anything to anything else if you gave me enough time.

Ideas never quite exist for him until they have been pitted against something else.

Reasons come first. Answers come second

I'm not very good at strategizing.

Don't forget that some things count more than other things.

Learn how to separate the majors and the minors. A lot of people don't do well simply because they major in minor things.

We're constantly making choices about the way we spend our time. The issue is not between the good and the bad, but between the good and the best. So often, the enemy of the best is the good.

All claims deserve consideration but some claims are more important than others.

Someday you're going to have to learn to separate what seems to be important from what really is important.

We must make a decision of values.

Observe, Remember, Compare.

We always plan too much and always think too little.

Scepticismcan never be thoroughly applied, else life would come to a standstill.

The Pertinent Question is NOT how to do things right - but how to find the right things to do, and to concentrate resources and efforts on them.

Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.

There's always a project around, but you have to pick and choose.

There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing.

It takes courage to set priorities because doing so is an admission that American policy cannot be all things to all people - or rather to all interest groups

You rarely have time for everything you want in this life, so you need to make choices. And hopefully your choices can come from a deep sense of who you are.

Study the situation thoroughly, go over in your imagination the various courses of action possible to you and the consequences which can and may follow from each course. Pick out the course which gives the most promise and go ahead.

The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding. We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter.

If there was one thing life had taught her it was that there are times when you do not go back for your bag and times when you do. It had yet to teach her to distinguish between the two types of occasion.

To have a major breakthrough in policy, you have to be able to stop and think.