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This collection of
great thoughts from the past may interest leaders as they confront our
mission.
We welcome
suggestions of other inspirational quotes which are relevant to our mission.
Global and local
networking among thought leaders can transform social and economic progress.
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Contact Us to explore how we
can uplift the world today by working together in many places.
Biographic
Profile : Bruce Donnelly - refer to
OnTheShortList.com or
GDI-Solutions.com |
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"Mind is the great lever of
all things; human thought is the process by which human ends are ultimately
answered".
- Daniel
Webster, 1825 - address laying
the Bunker Hill monument cornerstone
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The
meaning of our logo , About
Us,
Market Impact, The
GDI Foundation
and background
about the GDI Forum.
Great progress is
not achieved by famous leaders alone.
They inspire great
legacies to be achieved with others.
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"Be the change you want to see
in the world."
- Mahatma Gandhi
(1869 - 1948) |
"Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared
water, or do you want a chance to change the world?"
- Steve Jobs (1955 - ) of Apple to John Sculley
of Pepsico |
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"Markets are not
created by God, nature, or by economic forces, but by businessmen."
- Peter Drucker |
"Companies pay too much attention to the cost of doing
something. They should worry more about the cost of not doing it." -
Philip Kotler |
"Understanding the good is fundamental, and if we hold this
firm we shall have begun. If we enlarge it, we can become great; but if we
regard it lightly, we shall shrivel. The potentiality of its flourishing
rests with man and no other."
- Zhu Xi (1130 - 1200) |
"What men call
social virtues, good fellowship, is commonly but the virtue of pigs in a
litter, which lie close together to keep each other warm. It brings men
together in crowds and mobs in barrooms and elsewhere, but it does not
deserve the name of virtue."
- Henry David
Thoreau (1817 - 1862) |
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"Change will be
the ethical challenge of the future. How do we preserve the good, the
desirable, the worthwhile human characteristics as we run down the rapid
track of development?"
- William F.
Dietrich (1901-1989) in "A Philosophy for the Business of Living",
1987.
Former President
and CEO, Green Giant Company (ten years of tenfold growth to 1959)
C.I.E. Community
Investment Enterprises - early stage venture capital / coaching from 1960 |
"Despite many
exceptions there is a growing consciousness among business leaders of the
importance of corporate social responsibility, to make their operations
compatible with an overall sound economy. This is not altruistic, it
makes sense. The profit motive is not ignored, profits are essential
for growth, but, they are not all encompassing."
- William F.
Dietrich (1901-1989) - ibid. - in 1987 |
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"O, it is
excellent
To have a giant's strength! But it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant."
- William
Shakespeare (1564 - 1616) , Measure for Measure |
"Content thyself
to be obscurely good.
When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway,
The post of honour is a private station."
- Joseph
Addison (1672 - 1719) |
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"You on the
cutting edge of technology have already made yesterday's impossibilities the
commonplace realities of today."
- President Ronald
Reagan in a White House address to Nobel prize winners |
"We meant to
change a nation, and instead, we changed a world."
- President Ronald
Reagan |
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"While we're
asleep, two thirds of the world is up to some mischief."
- attributed to a
former US Secretary of State in a moment of candor |
"A government
agency is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth."
- attributed to
US President Ronald Reagan |
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"It is rather for
us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us ...
that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not
perish from the earth."
- US President
Abraham Lincoln at the conclusion of the Gettysburg Address, 1863 |
"We must indeed
hang together, or most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."
- Benjamin
Franklin (1706-1790) |
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"Think of the
poorest person you have ever seen and ask if your next act will be of any
use to him."
- Mahatma Gandhi
(1869 - 1948) - epitaph |
"I like the dreams
of the future better than the history of the past."
- US President
Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826) |
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"If freedom were
not so economically efficient it certainly wouldn't stand a chance."
- Milton Friedman
(1912 - ) |
"History, in
general, only informs us of what bad government is."
- US President
Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826) |
"No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece
of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor
of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because
I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell
tolls; It tolls for thee."
- John Donne (1572 - 1631) |
"The public be
damned. I am working for my stockholders."
- William Henry Vanderbilt (1821 - 1885) refusing to talk to a journalist
asking about luxury trains |
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"With the great
part of rich people, the chief employment of riches is the parade of
riches."
- Adam Smith (1723
- 1790 ) The Wealth of Nations - plural, not just of one nation |
"The only
irreplaceable capital an organization possesses is the knowledge and ability
of its people. The productivity of that capital depends on how effectively
people share their competence with those who can use it."
- Andrew Carnegie
(1835 - 1919) |
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"No man will make
a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for
doing it."
- Andrew Carnegie
(1835 - 1919) |
"If emerging
economies have to relive the entire Industrial Revolution with all its
waste, its energy use, and its pollution, I think it's all over."
- Robert B.
Shapiro (1938 - ) - US executive, in the Harvard Business Review |
