William A. Feather (1889–1981) was an American publisher and author, based in Cleveland, Ohio. Born in Jamestown, New York, Feather relocated with his family to Cleveland in 1903. After earning a degree from Western Reserve University in 1910, he began working as a reporter for the Cleveland Press. In 1916, he established the William Feather Magazine. In addition to writing for and publishing that magazine, and writing for other magazines as H.L. Mencken’s The American Mercury, he ran a successful printing business, and wrote several books.
Source: Wikipedia (via CC-BY-SA license) • READ: Works by William Feather
Brains aren’t everything, but they’re important.
—William Feather
Topics: Intelligence
Business is always interfering with pleasure – but it makes other pleasures possible.
—William Feather
Topics: Pleasure
A good man likes a hard boss. I don’t mean a nagging boss or a grouchy boss. I mean a boss who insists on things being done right and on time; a boss who is watching things closely enough so that he knows a good job from a poor one. Nothing is more discouraging to a good man than a boss who is not on the job, and who does not know whether things are going well or badly.
—William Feather
Topics: Leadership
Some of us might find happiness if we quit struggling so desperately for it.
—William Feather
Topics: Happiness
Once you have sold a customer, make sure he is satisfied with your goods. Stay with him until the goods are used up or worn out. Your product may be of such long life that you will never sell him again, but he will sell you and your product to his friends.
—William Feather
Except for excess decoration, excess commercialism, excess editorializing, excess caroling, excess bibbling, and excess cheer, I heartily approve of the Christmas spirit.
—William Feather
Topics: Holidays
Books open your mind, broaden your mind, and strengthen you as nothing else can.
—William Feather
Topics: Books, Book
A determination to succeed is the only way to succeed that I know anything about.
—William Feather
Topics: Perseverance
No man is a failure who is enjoying life.
—William Feather
Topics: Mistakes, Life, Ideas, Failure, Failures, Control
Experience seems to be the only thing of any value that’s widely distributed.
—William Feather
Topics: Experience
Next to doing a good job yourself, the greatest joy is in having someone else do a first-class job under your direction.
—William Feather
Topics: Mentoring, Leadership
Something that has always puzzled me all my life is why, when I am in special need of help, the good deed is usually done by somebody on whom I have no claim.
—William Feather
Topics: Help, Kindness
Experience and enthusiasm are two fine business attributes seldom found in one individual.
—William Feather
Topics: Enthusiasm
An uncontrolled sense of humor is often costly in business.
—William Feather
Topics: Humor
Management is the art of getting three men to do three men’s work.
—William Feather
Topics: Management
Some people are making such thorough preparation for rainy days that they aren’t enjoying today’s sunshine.
—William Feather
Topics: Fate, Preparation, The Present
Invest in yourself-if you have confidence in yourself.
—William Feather
Topics: Self-Discovery
Many of our prayers were not answered, and for this we are now grateful.
—William Feather
Topics: Prayer
A peculiarity of capital is that it cannot be employed productively without benefiting the community in which it is used.
—William Feather
Topics: Money
Mistakes occur when a man is over-worked or over-confident.
—William Feather
Topics: Mistakes
We all know that the nation can’t divide more than the people produce, but as individuals we try to get more than our share and that’s how we get ahead.
—William Feather
Topics: Achievements
One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure.
—William Feather
Topics: Adventure, Life
A man must not deny his manifest abilities, for that is to evade his obligations.
—William Feather
Topics: Ability
Loneliness is something you can’t walk away from.
—William Feather
Topics: Loneliness
If at first you don’t succeed try hard work.
—William Feather
Topics: Success
Laziness is the one common deficiency in mankind that blocks the establishment of a perfect world in which everyone leads a happy life.
—William Feather
Topics: Laziness
The primary asset of any business is its organization.
—William Feather
Topics: Organization
Whether it’s marriage of business, patience is the first rule of success.
—William Feather
Topics: Patience
Indifference and inaction must always pay a penalty.
—William Feather
Topics: Procrastination, Getting Going, Inaction
The philosophy behind much advertising is based on the old observation that every man is really two men—the man he is and the man he wants to be.
—William Feather
If we don’t discipline ourselves, the world will do it for us.
—William Feather
Topics: Discipline
Work is the best method devised for killing time.
—William Feather
Most of us regard good luck as our right, and bad luck as a betrayal of that right.
—William Feather
The prizes go to those who meet emergencies successfully. And the way to meet emergencies is to do each daily task the best we can; to act as though the eye of opportunity were always upon us. In the hundred-yard race the winter doesn’t cross the tape line a dozen strides ahead of the field. He wins by inches. So we find it in ordinary business life. The big things that come our way are seldom the result of long thought or careful planning, but rather they are the fruit of seed planted in the daily routine of our work.
—William Feather
Topics: One Step at a Time, Opportunities
Concentrate on your job and you will forget your other troubles
—William Feather
Topics: Trouble
The right man can make a good job out of any job.
—William Feather
Topics: Work
The superiority of the American system is eloquently proved by the pressure of people who want to crash our borders.
—William Feather
Topics: America
A lot of voters always cast their ballot for the candidate who seems to them to be one of the people. That means he must have the same superstitions, the same unbalanced prejudices, and the same lack of understanding of public finances that are characteristic of the majority. A better choice would be a candidate who has a closer understanding and a better education than the majority. Too much voting is based on affability rather than on ability.
—William Feather
Topics: Voting
Of all the young men in America only a few hundred can get into major league baseball, and of these only a handful in a decade can get into the Hall of Fame. So it goes in all human activity … Some become multimillionaires and chairmen of the board, and some of us must be content to play baseball at company picnics or manage a credit union without pay.
—William Feather
Topics: Perfection, Awareness, Realistic Expectations, Acceptance, Realization, Expectations
He isn’t a real boss until he has trained subordinates to shoulder most of his responsibilities
—William Feather
Topics: Challenges
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Katharine Graham American Publisher
Malcolm S. Forbes American Publisher
M. F. K. Fisher American Writer
C. P. Scott British Journalist, Editor
M. Scott Peck American Psychiatrist
Hugh Prather American Christian Author
Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan) American Columnist
James Freeman Clarke American Unitarian Clergyman
Diana Trilling American Literary Critic
Francine du Plessix Gray American Writer, Literary Critic