Malice is the devil’s picture. Lust makes men brutish; malice makes them devilish—it is mental murder.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Would you like me to give you a formula for … success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure… You’re thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all… You can be discouraged by failure—or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember that’s where you’ll find success. On the far side.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Give, Failure, Fail, Success & Failure, Success, Mistakes, Perfectionism, Mistake
If you stand up and be counted, from time to time you may get yourself knocked down. But remember this: A man flattened by an opponent can get up again. A man flattened by conformity stays down for good.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Opposition
The way to succeed is to double your error rate.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Prayer is the soul’s breathing itself into the bosom of its heavenly Father.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Prayer
It is better to aim at perfection and miss, than to aim at imperfection and hit it
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Computers
If you aren’t playing well, the game isn’t as much fun. When that happens I tell myself just to go out and play as I did when I was a kid.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Excellence
To be successful, you have to have your heart in your business, and your business in your heart.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Business, Success
Heat water to the highest degree, you cannot make wine of it; it is water still; so, let morality be raised to the highest, it is nature still; it is old Adam put in a better dress.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Morality
The toughest thing about the power of trust is that it’s very difficult to build and very easy to destroy. The essence of trust building is to emphasize the similarities between you and the customer.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Trust, Customers
If you want to be a big company tomorrow, you have to start acting like one today.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Nothing so conclusively proves a man’s ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Leadership, Ability
The books of Nature and of Revelation equally elevate our conceptions and invite our piety; they are both written by the finger of the one eternal, incomprehensible God.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Books
Within us all there are wells of thought and dynamos of energy which are not suspected until emergencies arise. Then oftentimes we find that it is comparatively simple to double or triple our former capacities and to amaze ourselves by the results achieved.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
To obey God in some things, and not in others, shows an unsound heart.—Childlike obedience moves toward even command of God, as the needle points where the loadstone draws.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Obedience
Once an organization loses its spirit of pioneering and rests on its early work, its progress stops.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Organization, Progress
The Ediles among the Romans had their doors always standing open, that all who had petitions might have free access to them.—The door of heaven is always open for the prayers of God’s people.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Prayer
A man may read the figures on the dial, but he cannot tell how the day goes unless the sun is shining on it; so we may read the Bible over, but we cannot learn to purpose till the spirit of God shine upon it and into out hearts.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Bible
Prayer is the golden key that opens heaven.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Prayer
The man who does not take pride in his own performance performs nothing in which to take pride.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Performance
You work the first eight hours of each day for survival. Anything after that is an investment.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Survival
A manager is an assistant to his men.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Management
Wisdom is the power that enables us to use knowledge for the benefit of ourselves and others.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Wisdom
All the problems of the world could be settled easily if men were only willing to think. The trouble is that men very often resort to all sorts of devices in order not to think, because thinking is such hard work.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Problems, Thinking, Thought
Hope is like the cork to the net, which keeps the soul from sinking in despair; and fear, like the lead to the net, which keeps it from floating in presumption.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Hope
Whosoever is afraid of submitting any question, civil or religious, to the test of free discussion, is more in love with his own opinion than with truth.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Sin hath the devil for its father, shame for its companion, and death for its wages
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Shame
Oh! the snow, the beautiful snow,
Filling the sky and earth below,
Over the housetops, over the street,
Over the heads of the people you meet.
Dancing,
Flirting,
Skimming along.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Snow
Wisdom is the power to put our time and our knowledge to the proper use.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Wisdom
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