Words of Wisdom - S

70% of the answer is not an answer.

Sacrifice the few to save the many (Iactura Paucorum Serva Multos)

Sacrifices must be made.

Sadness has no end, but happiness does.

Sadness is almost never anything but a form of fatigue.

Sage on the stage, guide on the side.

Sales cure all.

Same bed, different dreams.

Satire is a sort of glass wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own.

Satisfying to the point of sensuousness.

Savor kindness because cruelty is always possible later.

Say half of what you think.

Say only what you believe and what you can defend (Diller)

Say what you think, do what you say.

Say “yes” and do “no”.

Saying you’re going to be an artist for a career is like buying a cardboard box as a house.

Shackled by illiteracy.

Schadenfreude-Schaden=damage; freude=joy.

“Scientia est Potentia” – Knowledge is power.

Screenwriting is like ironing.  You move forward a little bit and go back and smooth things out.

Screenwriting is like writing in the sand with the wind blowing.

Search is the 24/7 focus group.

Second place is really the first loser.

Secure people are emotionally generous, while people who feel like failures will take their frustrations out on you.

See things not as they are, but as they might be.

Seeing through the branded world is not the same thing as rejecting it.

Seize the day and put the least possible trust in tomorrow.

Seldom, if ever, have so many tried so hard to keep one man happy.

Self abuse with sandpaper.

Self-awareness can be crippling.

Self-destructive people often come equipped with intoxicating charisma.

Self-esteem from accomplishments, not compliments.

Self-interest is the enemy of all true affection.

Self-pity and gratitude are mortal enemies. Where one exists, the other cannot. Since both are highly contagious, individuals must choose gratitude before becoming too thankless to do otherwise.

Self-pity is a lead shoe.

Self-praise is no recommendation.

Self-starting: the ability to light your own fire.

Selfies are the new autographs.

Sell a business to a rock

Sell shoes to a snake.

Selling pearls you own to someone who wants to buy them is not business.  Selling pearls you don't own to someone who doesn't want to buy them is business.

Semper Ubi Sub Ubi   (Always Wear Underwear)

Sensible solutions do not present themselves as sensible to the minds of the overwrought.

Sentimentality is the reverse side of brutality.

Sentimentality: too much feeling for too small an event.

Separate what must be done well now from what can be improved later

Service after the sale is as important as the sale itself.

Service is about self-esteem, more than training.

Service is just a day-in, day-out, ongoing, never-ending, unremitting, persevering, compassionate type of activity.

Service is your next sale in the making.

Set a thief to catch a thief.

Set a time limit on trying (failing) and then turn away.

Set impossible standards.  Expend extraordinary efforts.  Achieve remarkable results.

Setting the goal is easy; the rest is plain hard work.

SF: The homeless have Android phones. The techies have iPhones.

Shame is fear of disconnection.

Shame is the social side of guilt.

Sharing does not make one a victim.

Sharing is the way we make things real.

She always got what she wanted because she never wanted what she couldn’t have.

She can bring the match or she can bring the water.

She cried and the judge wiped her tears with my checkbook.

She doesn't cook, she melts food.

She doesn’t speak with flour in her mouth.

She fascinates but does not invite affection.

She gave him sex and he gave her class.

She had a gender but no agenda.

She has friends she hasn’t used yet.

She looked like Bert Lahr with long hair.

She looks good for an age she won’t actually reach for a decade.

She makes coffee nervous.

She meant well in the worst sense of the word.

She reached out suddenly, took both my hands, and pulled me close to her.  Close enough so that I could see the tears begin, the love.

She thought cooking and fucking were two cities in China.

She was a fiercely independent and stubborn woman, full of contradictions, who embraced life with the quiet exuberance of one who realized it was all tenable but suspect, and it was worthy of the highest celebration and the most passionate observance.

She was a large woman who seemed not so much dressed as upholstered.

She’s a little bald-headed girl.  She won’t complain; she just sustain.  Bounce her, and she comes back.  All she wants is more.

She’s like a nun with a knife.

She’s not good, but she’s bad in an interesting sort of way.

Sheepwalker (mindless follower)

Shoot it up or sleep in the streets.

Shoulda, coulda and woulda won't get it done.

Shout at the wind and it will fill your mouth with sand.

Shouting a lie doesn’t make it true.

Show me a good loser, and I'll show you a loser.

Shrouds have no pockets.

Shut off your competitor's oxygen.

Si, non oscillas noli tintinnare

Silence is a tax on the truth.

Silence is argument carried on by other means.

Silence is sometimes the best answer.

Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.

Silence propagates itself, and the longer talk has been suspended, the more difficult it is to find anything to say.  (Johnson)

Silent gratitude isn't of very much use to anyone.

Simple things are not easy.

Simplicity, of all things, is the hardest to be copied.

Since no one’s done it before, there are no rules to stop you.

Sir, a woman’s preaching is like a dog’s walking on his hinder legs.  It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.

Sister, I won’t ask for forgiveness.  My sins are all I have.

Sitzfleisch - a German word that means the ability and the strength to sit on your ass. 

Sizzle >> Fizzle

Skeptical of conventional explanations of what is possible.

Skepticism is healthy and an appropriate attitude toward those who wield power.  Cynicism is corrosive and self-corrupting.

Skepticism is not a sign of intelligence.  It is a sin.

Sleep is a gift that God gives to you.

Sleep is for the weak -- the week after launch.

Sleep like a baby every night-that is-sleep for an hour-wake up-cry all night.

Slick as a button on a backhouse door.

Slights unseen.

Slipping into madness is good for the sake of comparison.

Sloppiness steals from the bottom line.

Sloppy thinking gets worse over time.

Slump?  I ain’t in no slump.  I just ain’t hittin’.

Small pieces loosely joined

Small wins can improve the odds of bigger successes later on.  (Focus on milestones).

Smart is the new handsome.

Smart people spend hours learning to use new technology.  Smarter people find ways to weasel out of it.

Smelled like she’d been sucking donkeys off all day.

So brilliant yet so corrupt that, like a rotten mackerel by moonlight, he both shines and stinks.

So long as you are praised, think only that you are not yet on your own path, but on that of another.

So many faces in and out of my life, some will last, some will just be now and then, life is a series of hellos and goodbyes, I'm afraid it's time for goodbye again.

So much information, so little accountability.

So much precious time goes by and it seems to me that I get so little out of it.

So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains and we never even know we have the key.

So take it from me, you’ll learn more from your accidents, than anything that you could ever learn in school.

So that men may see, I throw dust in their eyes.

So that the memory of your friends does not hinder you from being what you have become.

So we bear on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

So what are we waiting for?

So wherever he lands, he’s at home.

So wherever I am, there's always Pooh,

There's always Pooh and Me.

"What would I do?" I said to Pooh,

"If it wasn't for you," and Pooh said:

"True..."

So you get a good idea, and it just moves forward and usually by the time you’re finished, it doesn’t resemble anything of what might have been the inspiration. It’s simply the spark that starts the fire. (Quentin Tarantino)

So you’re scared and you’re thinking/That maybe we ain’t that young anymore….Show a little faith, there’s magic in the night.

So you’re unhappy. Relax. No law says you got to be happy.

Social cohesion – the natural impulse to seek consensus

Social media: we know that it works, but we don’t know how it works.

Social media adds conversation to consumption

Social media is the new TV

Socialism is founded on sand.

Society doesn’t need newspapers. What we need is journalism. (Independent, unbiased, and accurate real-time reporting)

Software is one brief moment of creation and a lifetime of maintenance.

Software is the donkey, and everyone loves to beat the donkey. (Motorola)

Software is the resting place of afterthoughts.

Solitude is enriching.

Solitude is the place where we find our better selves.

Solutions.  Not problems.

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.

Some dance to remember, some dance to forget.

Someday my ship will come in, but with my luck, I’ll be at the airport.

Some days you’re the bug; some days you’re the windshield.

Some days you’re the pigeon, and some days you’re the statue.

Some experience doesn’t toughen you, it wears you out.

Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe in them.

Some leaders are born women.

Some like to understand what they believe in.  Others like to believe in what they understand.

Some men see things as they are and say, "Why?"  I dream things that never were and say, "Why not?"

Some of the worst mistakes in my life have been haircuts.

Some of our defenses are more primitive than others.

Some of us will do our jobs well and some will not, but we will all be judged by only one thing: the result.

Some opportunities arrive in their own mysterious hour, on their own terms and not yours, to be seized or relinquished forever.

Some part of the journey is going to be uphill.

Some people are alive today only because it's against the law to kill them.

Some people are born to be customers.

Some people are like horses, they have only their manual labor to offer.

Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.

Some people do not become thinkers because their memories are too good.

Some people don’t know when or how to stop fighting.

Some people have five years of experience, and some have one year's experience five times.

Some people lay track and some people drive the train.

Some people pay so much attention to their reputation that they lose their character.

Some people should be required to wear warning signs.

Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity. (C.Chanel)

Some people's dreams are too big for them.

Some people think only intellect counts; knowing how to solve problems, knowing how to get by, knowing how to identify an advantage and seize it.  But the functions of intellect are insufficient without courage, love, friendship, compassion and empathy.

Some problems never get solved.  They just get older.

Some terrible things are done in the name of love.

Some things can only be said in fiction, but that doesn't mean they aren't true.

Some things are true no matter how and when you're told.

Some things have to be believed to be seen.

Some things you teach yourself to remember to forget.

Somebody has to do something, and it’s just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us.

Somebody put it there.  When you see a turtle on a fencepost, it didn’t get there by itself.

Someday all of this will have as much validity, no more and no less, as speculation as to the masculinity or femininity of the sun.

Someday computer power will be synonymous with wealth itself.

Someday needs to be today.

Somehow pain and regret seem to be the only things that can trigger my feelings, and songs are the only way to say what I feel-but once your feelings become a song, they don't belong to you anymore.  They belong to all the people who identify with them.

Someone else’s fear doesn’t have to be yours unless you let it.

Someone is always pretending whenever the lights go down.

Someone is always selling – either you or the customer.

Someone who doesn’t know the difference between good and evil is worth nothing.

Someone who learned to shave on someone else’s beard.

Something not worth arguing about is not worth digging.

Sometimes a dream postponed is a dream lost.

Sometimes a leap of faith can make a big splash.

Sometimes a little smile can make my day, but usually it takes money or chocolate.

Sometimes a scream is better than a thesis.

Sometimes he keeps things moving by not doing anything.

Sometimes I feel like my whole life's been a mistake.

Sometimes I like to just go home at night and let someone else vomit.

Sometimes it’s good to remember. Being hurt? Being stupid.

Sometimes it is a good choice not to choose at all.

Sometimes it is more important to discover what you cannot do, than what you can do.

Sometimes it’s necessary to kill a chicken to frighten the monkeys. (Chinese)

Sometimes one must duel with skunks, but no one should be fool enough to allow the skunks to choose the weapons.

Sometimes revolutions happen in an evolutionary way.

Sometimes success is a dream that keeps you from realizing what’s important.  I was living that dream, but now I’m awake.

Sometimes the best way to lead . . . is to find a parade and get in front.

Sometimes the fool who rushes in gets the job done.

Sometimes the measure of feelings is not how you feel in someone’s presence, but how acutely you miss the person when they’re gone.

Sometimes the most creative aspect of an idea is not how much it's different,

but how much it's the same.

Sometimes the most difficult act of leadership is not fighting the enemy; it’s telling your friends that it’s time to change.

Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason.

Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.

Sometimes things seem to happen of their own accord.

Sometimes to Cure

Often to Relieve

Always to Comfort

Sometimes wrong, but never in doubt.

Sometimes you don’t get to understand everything.

Sometimes you have to get to know someone really well to realize you’re really strangers.

Sometimes you sleep through someone else's dream.

Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug.

Sometimes we simply realize that there's no particular virtue in doing things the way we've always done them.

Sometimes, when everyone says you’re wrong, it’s because you’re wrong.

Somewhere in a burst of glory, sound becomes a song.

Song shows us a world that is worthy of our yearning, it shows us ourselves as they might be, if we were worthy of the world.

Sooner or later a fox runs through all its tricks and that’s when the dogs take over.

Sooner is better.  Right now is best.

Sorry but the last time was the last time.

Sorry for the inconvenience – we are trying to change the world.

Sorry is a full-time job.

Sound that is liquid horror.

Sophistication is a feeble substitute for decadence.

Speak last, say less

“Speaking one’s mind” usually turns out to be a way of aggrandizing the speaker at the expense of the helpless listener.”

Specialization keeps you from learning from your mistakes. 

Speech is silver, silence is golden.

Speed comes from alignment.

Speed is God and time is the devil.

Speed is useful only if you're running in the right direction.

Spending money easy; making money hard.

Spin control is like changing the tires on a moving car.

Spray & pray

Springsteen’s early music is to rock ‘n’ roll what west side story is to real gang warfare.

Stability cannot be purchased at the expense of liberty.

Stainless steel is “poor people’s platinum”.

Standards of living rise not because people work harder but because they work smarter.

Star spelled backwards is rats.

Stardom used to be predicated on a mystique derived from scarcity. Now it’s predicated on a familiarity derived on ubiquity.

Stars at the top come out of the community you empower at the bottom

Start by doing things by hand that you later plan to automate.

Start-up – a race against insolvency.

Start-ups and speed-ups.

Start-ups run out of money, but big companies don't.  So, they tend to keep mediocre projects going for too long.

Statistics are no substitute for judgment.

Stay away from pity parties.

Stay focused and keep shipping.

Stay loose enough from the flow to observe, calibrate and refine.

Staying out of the quicksand is much better than getting a good deal on a towing contract.

Staying together is then no longer a choice but a duty.

Steel loses much of its value when it loses its temper.

Stocks are sold, not bought.

Stop hustling and you sink without a trace, but move a little too swiftly, and you’d drown.

Stop it some more.

Stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone ought to be.

Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey.

Stories are just data with a soul.

Stories are the lies we like.

Story is a way to build connection.

Storytelling is the ability to put facts into context and deliver them with emotional impact.

Straight but not narrow.

Strangers to ourselves.

Strategy is not a long action plan-it’s the evolution of a central idea through

continually changing circumstances.

Strategy is the commitment of present resources to future expectations.

Strategy is what you don’t do.

Stress is an orthogonal dimension.

Strive for excellence, not perfection.

Strive to become the partner of choice.

Striving for excellence is stimulating and rewarding; striving for perfection-in

practically anything-is both neurotic and futile.

Strong emotional attachment stems from basic insecurity.

Structure is essential. If you’re going to commit suicide, you need a building to jump off of.

Structure is stronger than steel.

Students need to be inspired – not extrinsically motivated – inspiration happens from within.

Stupid is forever.

Stupid people shouldn’t breed.

Stupidity-with-confidence.

Style is originality; fashion is fascism. The two are eternally and unalterably opposed.

Style is nothing but keeping the same idea from beginning to end. (August Wilson)

Subcultures aren’t defined by outsiders passing judgment; they are defined by participants.

Substituting rules for judgment starts a self-defeating cycle, since judgment can only be developed by using it.  You end up with an army of people who live by rote rather than reason, and whose reason cannot be depended on.

Subtle and insubstantial, the expert leaves no trace; divinely mysterious, he is inaudible.  Thus, he is master of his enemy’s fate.

Subtlety isn’t everything; it’s everything else

Success.  Complacency.  Failure.  Struggle.  Breakthrough.  Success.

Success didn’t spoil me; I’ve always been insufferable.

Success happens when opportunity meets preparation.

Success in life comes not from holding a good hand, but in playing a poor hand well.

Success in reform movements is won when an energetic minority presents an indifferent majority with a fait accompli which is then accepted.

Success is a child of audacity.

Success is a journey, not a destination.

Success is a numbers game.

Success is a toy balloon among children armed with pins.

Success is about consistency.

Success is best when it’s shared.

Success is enriched when achieved through cooperation but only diluted when it comes at the expense of others.

Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get. (Dale Carnegie)

Success is going from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.

Success is having the people whom you love love you. 

Success is having what you want and wanting what you have.

Success is more a function of consistent common sense than of genius.

Success is more attitude than aptitude.

Success is never final.  Failure is never fatal.  It's courage that counts.

Success is almost never linear.

Success is not about starting, it’s about finishing.

Success is on the far side of failure.

Success is what happens while you are trying very hard to be as good as you think

everyone else is.

Success is when you look around and can't find anyone who does it better than you.

Success isn’t about the boldness of the gamble.  It’s about knowing what’s bold about the boldness, knowing how to keep the risk from coming back to bite you, and about knowing what your company will get from taking such a big risk.

Success isn't permanent, and failure isn't fatal.

Success knows no shortcuts.

Success only hits a moving target.

Success requires first expending ten units of effort to produce one unit of results.  Momentum will then produce ten units of results with each unit of effort.

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.

Successes combine reasonable talent with the ability to keep going in the face of defeat.

Such as we were we gave ourselves outright. (Robert Frost)

Such good grace in so bad a mood.

Suck It and See

Sue’s 5 Rules: (1) Don’t lose a deal over money. (2) Don’t remind them. (3) Don’t tell them the truth. (4) Don’t lie to them. (5) Know the Spouse. (Sue Mengers)

Suffering is the sole origin of consciousness.

Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Suicide is much easier and more acceptable in Hollywood than growing old gracefully.

Sumus quod sumus.  (We are what we are.)

Super Users

Supply is sweet, but nothing works without demand.

Suppressed ferocity

Sure things insure small margins.

Surrender gracefully the things of youth.

Surrounding yourself with dwarfs doesn't make you a giant.

Survival is based on observing and understanding others, not revealing yourself.

Swans don't swim in the sewer.

Symbols are more meaningful than things themselves.

Sympathy is like junk food.  It has no real nourishment.  The emptiness comes back very quickly.  And nothing gets accomplished in the meantime.  There is never, really, any release from the consequences of adversity until you decide to do something about them.

Sympathy is not a synonym of empathy:  Empathy means understanding; sympathy means agreeing or embracing.

Systems, not smiles.  (Carl Sewell)