David Abshire Quotes

Neither man nor nation can prosper unless, in dealing with the present, thought is steadily taken for the future.

We must be patient if we would act wisely. What we do today may bear fruit long after we are dead, for no good work is ever really lost. The important thing is to get the tendency right. We should think of all these subjects in terms not of brief individual life, but long continued national life.

The longer you can look back, the farther you can look forward.

I think long-term, not short-term.

The educator must above all understand how to wait; to reckon all effects in the light of the future, not of the present.

Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.

Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming.

The long run may be too long.

There is only one conflict, and that’s between short-term and long-term thinking.

In a scheme of policy which is devised for a nation, we should not limit our views to the operation during a single year, or even a short term of years. We should look at its operation for a considerable time.

A nation has to look ahead.

I don't do anything unless I think about it six months in advance.

One can have only as much preparation as he has foresight.

If I always appear prepared, it is because before entering an undertaking, I have meditated long and have foreseen what might occur. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly and secretly what I should do in circumstances unexpected by others; it is thought and preparation

I always looked ahead.

The big picture doesn't just come from distance; it also comes from time.

It's not worth getting too excited about thinking about the larger picture. The larger picture doesn't come into focus for an awfully long time.

Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there.

It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see.

Plans are nothing; planning is everything.

I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.

If you attempt certain things at the right time, they are easy to accomplish - in fact, they almost get done by themselves. If you undertake them before the time is right, not only will they fail, but they will often become impossible to accomplish even when the time would have been right.

One who does not look ahead remains behind.

Fully consider the future and the immediate results of all undertakings, and the good and bad sides of all past actions.

The future comes one day at a time.