Something that always tickles me is when writers or comic strips have a “cop out” entry. For example, I once saw a comic on The Lumberjack newspaper where the two main characters were talking about lazy comic strip artists who reuse the same drawing in the panels of the strip… and all three panels were the same drawing.  Also, I once saw another comic that featured a graph that depicted “the probability of a graph related comic versus the time until deadline.” I’d love to have links to both of those comics for you all. I’m not copping out this week. Really. You better believe it. More various sentences, with commas, also increasing the length of this post.

Anyway, at work I have a little routine. I get an email everyday that has a collection of interesting news articles related to my profession from the previous day, and at the bottom they always have a quote. Sometimes it is funny, sometimes inspiring, and sometimes it is incredibly cheesy, and if it is any of these things I usually save it on my desktop on a Windows 7 sticky note. I just happened to notice today that there are exactly 10 Windows 7 sticky notes of quotes on my computer desktop (because I copped out of– I mean, having actual sticky notes of quotes is wasteful and so 90s).  I know what you’re thinking, “Why not make a post about that?” Well, thanks for asking!

Here are the ten quotes that I recently saw and chuckled, made me want to work harder, or made me want to add a picture to give it an entirely new meaning because of how cheesy it is. And no, there is nothing about using other people’s words as the meat of your post that screams “cop out”.

First, the cheese:

– “When a man finds no peace within himself, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.” – Francois De La Rochefoucauld

– “Success is blocked by concentrating on it and planning for it… Success is shy — it won’t come out while you’re watching.” Tennessee Williams

– “Even the most tedious chore will become endurable as you parade through each day convinced that every task, no matter how menial or boring, brings you closer to fulfilling your dreams.” – Og Mandino

– “Act boldly and unseen forces will come to your aid.” – Dorothea Brande

(that last one I wanted to put on an inspiration poster with a picture of ninjas following a guy in a suit at work)

And now the humorous:

– “You’re never as good as everyone tells you when you win, and you’re never as bad as they day when you lose.” – Lou Holtz

– “For disappearing acts, it’s hard to beat what happens to the eight hours supposedly left after eight of sleep and eight of work.” – Doug Larson

And now the inspiring:

– “One person with a belief is equal to a force of 99 who have only interests.” – John Stuart Mill

– “Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if not altered for the better designedly.” – Francis Bacon

(gotta love that one, as an engineer)

– “Any supervisor worth his salt would rather deal with people who attempt too much than those who try too little.” – Lee Iacocca

And the last is actually one of my all-time favorites:

– “Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.” – Matsuo Basho

Anyway, hope you enjoy them too. Just to let you all know, I’ll try to have a post next week but I’m heading out of town, so connecting might be iffy. I hope I inspired you enough to do without me if I don’t make it.