Bill Gates recently shared his annual list of favorite books, a collection of powerful stories from 2019
I’d like to share my own year-end list, albeit of a different nature. I serve in many roles working with foundation and nonprofit leaders, boards and staff – thought-partner, planner, facilitator, coach and oftentimes organizational “therapist.”
The connecting thread is helping people and organizations pursue change – first in themselves and their organizations, then in their work out in the world.
In this spirit, here is my list of particularly insightful quotes I’ve come across over the past year or so.* Each piece of wisdom strikes me as a truth in our journey through change, as individuals and as organizations. Enjoy!
Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory.
– Franklin Pierce Adams
It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.
– Eugene Ionesco
We are often unable to tell people what they need to know because they want to know something else.
– George MacDonald
The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
– Arthur C. Clarke
We so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.
– Alexander Graham Bell
It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old; they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.
– Gabriel Garcia Marquez
*Tip of the hat to the Economist Espresso morning briefing where most of these quotes surfaced!