If we fail to prepare, we prepare to fail.

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.

The turning points of lives are not the great moments. The real crises are often concealed in occurrences so trivial in appearance that they pass unobserved.

Recipe or success: underpromise and overdeliver.

What goes wrong [in long-range planning] is that sensible anticipation gets converted into foolish numbers: and their validity always hinges on large loose assumptions.

Recipe for success: underpromise and overdeliver.

We are never prepared for what we expect.

We very often fail to see our present circumstances in right perspective.

As soon as we associate reading with a test, we've missed the point.

It is a common mistake in going to war to begin at the wrong end, to act first, and wait for disaster to discuss the matter.

The triggers for turning points in one’s life are mysterious things. A whole spectrum of different factors with complex physical, intellectual, and emotional overtones is involved, and all of them have to merge in the same place and time to form the blinding white light that urges one along a new path. Sheer chance plays an enormous role, unless one is programmed to believe (as I do not) that it was all meant to be.

In the operative part there are two defects and two corresponding prerogatives of instances. For operation either fails us or it overtasks us. The chief cause of failure in operation (especially after natures have been diligently investigated) is the ill determination and measurement of the forces and actions of bodies.

Failure is a frequent stop on the road to success.

When opportunity knocks, it’s too late to prepare.