20100617

Bon mots: success and failure (part 2)

"One's best successes comes after their greatest disappointments."
--Henry Ward Beecher

"Contrary to popular belief, the brain is not designed for thinking. It's designed to save you from having to think, because the brain is actually not very good at thinking. Thinking is slow and unreliable. Nevertheless, people enjoy mental work if it is successful. People like to solve problems, but not to work on unsolvable problems. If schoolwork is always just a bit too difficult for a student, it should be no surprise that she doesn't like school much. The cognitive principle that guides this article is: People are naturally curious, but they are not naturally good thinkers; unless the cognitive conditions are right, people will avoid thinking. The implication of this principle is that teacher should reconsider how they encourage their students to think in order to maximize the likelihood that students will get the pleasurable rush that comes from successful thought."
--Daniel T. Willingham, "Why Don't Students Like School? Because the Mind Is Not Designed for Thinking," American Educator vol. 33, no. 1, Spring 2009, p. 4

"Our bravest and best lessons are not learned through success, but through misadventure."
--Amos Bronson Alcott

"If you set your goals ridiculously high and it's a failure, you will fail above everyone else's success."
--James Cameron

"Fourth Law of Thermodynamics: If the probability of success is not almost one, then it is damn near zero."
--David R. Ellis

"Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor."
--Truman Capote

"Victory is sweetest when you've known defeat."
--Malcolm Forbes

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
--Thomas A. Edison

"I think and think for months and years.
Ninety-nine times, the conclusions are false.
The hundredth time I am right."
--Albert Einstein

"Optimism can keep a fool from accepting failure."
--Ernest Hemingway

"If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative."
--Woody Allen

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