Miguel McKelvey Quotes

Architecture and building is about how you get around the obstacles that are presented to you. That sometimes determines how successful you'll be: How good are you at going around obstacles?

The only way I work as a designer is to consciously avoid specialisation.

My ultimate goal is to do whatever I want, whenever I want to do it. And that keeps changing. I didn't want to host my own show until I wrote for someone else's.

Those that yield are not always weak

In times of turbulence and rapid change, you must constantly be re-evaluating yourself relative to the new realities.

Running around accusing others is not as good as laughing. And enjoying a good laugh is not as good as going along with things.

Remain open to as much input as possible.

Find a way to say yes to things.

Map out your future, but do it in pencil.

If it's not a hit, switch.

Rapid change, accommodating it can be one of the great human capacities. But living through it can be the stuff of stress and often suffering.

Try any goddam thing you like, no matter how boringly normal or outrageous. If it works, fine. If it doesn't, toss it. Toss it even if you love it.

Wise men put their trust in ideas and not in circumstances.

None of our men are 'experts.' We have most unfortunately found it necessary to get rid of a man as soon as he thinks himself an expert because no one ever considers himself expert if he really knows his job... Thinking always ahead, thinking always of trying to do more, brings a state of mind in which nothing is impossible.

Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can't go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.

My faith has helped me to adjust to life whether I was a small farm boy, a submarine officer, governor, president or an ex-president. I've tried to remember the teaching that we have to accommodate change we can't control in our lives, whether it's disappointment, sorrow, loss or failure, while simultaneously clinging to principles that never change.

The plan itself is opportunism. There is no plan before that.

Sometimes you have to open yourself to the random possibilities of, I guess, destiny.

When we have a clear sense of our destination, we can be flexible in the route we take to reach it.

Inconsistency is the bugbear of fools! I wouldn't give a damn for a fellow who couldn't change his mind with a change of conditions.

Being open to correction means making ourselves vulnerable, and many people are not willing to do that.

The successful human being is adaptable. We have to adapt to changes in weather. We have to adapt to changes in climate. We have to adapt to changing economic circumstances. People that don't have the flexibility to adapt or who are afraid of change or who oppose it are going to be left behind.

Any fool can carry on, but a wise man knows how to shorten sail in time.

Let's play with the career, if we can't find anything else to do