18 Quotes 'I Wish I Had Said'

In this week’s column, Jeff Brown, MD, offers up 18 pearls of wisdom from some of the great thinkers (and artists) of our time.

• “What good is envy? It’s the only sin that you can’t have any fun at.” - Charles Munger (Warren Buffett’s No. 2 guy)

• “Don’t be afraid of missing opportunities. Behind every failure is an opportunity somebody wishes they had missed.” - Lily Tomlin

• “The best answer is to any question is another question.” - Anon. (Although I personally favor “It depends….”)

• “Why should we look to the past to prepare for the future? Because there is nowhere else to look.” - James Burke

• “The past is a potent present force.” - Sigmund Freud

• “When there is an elephant in the room, introduce it.” - Modern psychiatric theory….

• “Few great men could pass personnel.” - Paul Goodman

• “If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.” - Margaret Thatcher

• “Suffer fools gladly; they may be right.” - Holbrook Jackson

• “Everything that irritates us about others can lead to an understanding of ourselves.” - Carl Jung

• “You will become way less concerned about what others think of you when you realize that they seldom do.” - David Foster Wallace

• “If you possess something that you can’t give away, then you don’t possess it, it possesses you.” - Frank Sinatra

• “If you chase two rabbits, you catch none.” - Confucius

• “Trust your hunches. They’re usually based upon facts filed away just below the conscious level.” - Dr. Joyce Brothers

• “The art of life is not controlling what happens, which is impossible; (the art) is using what happens.” - Gloria Steinem

• “Be kind, for every person you meet is fighting a harder battle.” - Plato

• “Hard things are hard because there are no easy answers or recipes. They are hard because your emotions are at odds with your logic. They are hard because you don’t know the answer and you cannot ask for help without showing weakness.” - Ben Horowitz, venture capitalist

• “If you dispense your own wisdom, others often dismiss it; if you offer wisdom from a third party it seems less arrogant and more acceptable.” - Randy Pausch