Thursday, August 5, 2010

Wisdom

Wisdom comes in many forms, and comes to us through many avenues. This morning, while checking my usual webpages, I checked out the latest cartoon at DBS. Well, he's also got a Facebook page, where, this morning, his wife was asking,"We all like a good motto, right? Do you have a personal motto?" Some of the wisest words I ever read are in those mottoes that were posted. Most, I am guessing, were posted by active or former members of the US military. We hope those guys and girls are using their noggins out there.

The greatest risk is not taking one.

The worst thing you can do is fail miserably and become the laughingstock of the entire free world.

If we're facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep walking.

If you fall down 10 times, stand up 11.

It is better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission. (My personal permutation of this is It saves more time to beg forgiveness than to ask permission.)

If the enemy is in range, then so are you! (Of course, many of these have military significance. But I can also see civilian applications in them, even this one!)

When in doubt, get a bigger hammer.

Pain is good. It means you're still alive.

Smart people know the answers. Geniuses know where to find them.

When going through Hell, DON'T STOP, keep going.

If you can't duck it, well, you're supposed to do something to it that rhymes with duck. You can figure it out.

Illegitimus non carborundum. (Modern street Latin for don't let the...bad guys...make it hard for you. People in the military often use colorful metaphors. We call it Military Mouth at our house.)

Love many, trust few, and ALWAYS cut the cards.

Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig.

A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal or tolerate those who do. (Someone was thinking seriously.)

Deeds, not words.

If Engineers were supposed to be sociable, the Army wouldn't have given us concertina wire.

I set out to save the world, but I saw something shiny. (That one's for Mary.)

Trust, but verify. (One of my favorites; I've used it since I was pretty young.)

Does it affect the fate of the free world? (When my kids would argue or bicker over some petty thing, I would ask them something like this.)

Find anything in there you'd like to make your own? Have one to add? I'd love to see them! Use the Comments page.

2 comments:

Elephantschild said...

No way out but through.



Somehow just admitting that it sucks but there's no way to avoid the problem except to just plow on through is helpful.

Cheryl H said...

My personal favorite, and one I've used as my sig line for many years:
"If dessert isn't chocolate, it's just another appetizer."
:-)