Over the course of my career, my jobs have required me to become proficient in speechwriting for a variety of people and a variety of audiences. Whether working for generals, senators or foreign dignitaries, I have been responsible for crafting messages they would deliver to global audiences.
In doing this, I learned an effective way to craft a message is to use someone else’s thoughts to build around. So I became adept at studying quotes from a variety of sources and applying them to the topic my presenter would be speaking about. Through this study, I’ve learned there have been some pretty astute people out there whose quotes are timeless.
Coming on the heels of Commencement, where approximately 3,500 graduates received their degrees and went off to pursue their destiny, it’s easy for them to think they’ve completed their learning responsibilities and now is the time to apply that learning in the “real world.” I felt the same way some 30 years ago. However, as we all have learned over time, life requires us to continue that learning pursuit, often learning, relearning and redefining ourselves. With respect to that, I thought I’d offer some quotes from people more profound than myself to emphasize the importance of learning over the span of a lifetime.
“You can tell you’re on the road to success; it’s uphill all the way.”
– Paul Harvey
“It is the capacity to develop and improve their skills that distinguishes leaders from followers.”
– Warren Bennis and Bert Nanus
“A piano sits in a room, gathering dust. It is full of the music of the masters, but in order for such strains to flow from it, fingers must strike the keys … trained fingers, representing endless hours of disciplined dedication. You do not have to practice. The piano neither requires it nor demands it. If, however, you want to draw a beautiful music from the piano, that discipline is required.
“You do not have to pay the price to grow and expand intellectually. The mind neither requires it nor demands it. If, however, you want to experience the joy of discovery and the pleasure of plowing new and fertile soil, effort is required. Light won’t automatically shine upon you nor will truth silently seep into your head by means of rocking-chair osmosis. It’s up to you. It’s your move.”
– Chuck Swindoll
“The illiterate of the future are not those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.”
– Alvin Toffler
“If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we are not really living. Growth demands a temporary surrender of security. It may mean a giving up of familiar but limiting patterns, safe but unrewarding work, values no longer believed in, relationships that have lost their meaning. As Dostoevsky put it, ‘taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.’ The real fear should be the opposite course.”
– Gail Sheely
“Once in seven years, I burn all my sermons; for it is a shame if I cannot write better sermons now than I did seven years ago.”
– John Wesley
“I never want to be
What I want to be,
Because there’s always something out there
Yet for me.
I get a kick out of living
In the here and now,
But I never want to feel
I know the best way how.
There’s always one hill higher,
With a better view,
Something waiting to be learned
That I never knew.
Till my days are over,
Never fully fill my cup;
Let me go on
Growing – up.”
– Art Linkletter