Quotes About Commitment

If people wish to love a 7th century preacher more than their own families, that's up to them, but nobody else is obliged to take it seriously.

Little lies are unfortunately what keeps most marriages together these days. I'm just exhausted from the effort to come up with new ones, I guess.

Maybe, ironically, marriages lasted longer because people who really weren't made for each other could put off that realization for years with the distraction. Maybe that was a bad thing because prolonging a bad marriage was worse than cutting it off at the knees.

Elise Shelly, whose parents were divorced, told her that Elise's mother said people fall in love for ten minutes, get married and follow the dots. She finally figured out that Elise's mother meant they do everything together afterward because that's the way it was supposed to be and not because they wanted to, passionately.

As I looked across the table at Ronnie and watched how he studied this uncomplicated menu, I wondered if the simple answer to all bad marriages is that one outgrows the other. Maybe people shouldn't marry until they're in their fifties.

You wanted to know how I did it? That's how I did it, Anton. I never saved anything for the swim back.

You've got to be a prose professional, get out of bed every morning and say, what is pressing on my nerves? You've got to come out of your trap every morning life you are equal to your times.

David. She is you. So you have to prove your love for her every goddamn minute of every goddamn day. Anything less and you fail the Human Being Test.

The most important was not to threaten to resign unless one is prepared to go into the wilderness. If one is not so prepared, then only threaten to resign along with several other people capable of bringing down the Government.

You would rise in the world? . . . You must work while others amuse themselves. Are you desirous of a reputation for courage? You must risk your life. Churchill, Savrola

Many people say I ought to have retired after the war, and have become some sort of elder statesman, but how could I? I have fought all my life and cannot give up fighting now!

not to threaten to resign unless one is prepared to go into the wilderness.

But what has been begun must be carried through.'86

Derek frowned, looking down. "That's fine... I'll just, uh, stand here. And protect you. Yes. That is definitely what I will be doing.

Words without action behind them are about as useful as an empty cup in the hands of a man dying of thirst.

delegation without follow-through is abdication.

Hedging is expensive and dilutes commitment.

People who plan have to have the guts, honesty, and discipline to drop projects as well as to initiate them, to shake their heads "no" as well as to smile "yes.

Finally, everyone involved must give the decision reached by the group full support. This does not necessarily mean agreement: so long as the participants commit to back the decision, that is a satisfactory outcome.

To make things work, people do not need to side with you; you only need them to commit themselves to pursue a course of action that has been decided upon.

an organization does not live by its members agreeing with one another at all times about everything. It lives instead by people committing to support the decisions and the moves of the business.

Finally, remember that by saying "yes"—to projects, a course of action, or whatever—you are implicitly saying "no" to something else. Each time you make a commitment, you forfeit your chance to commit to something else.

My day always ends when I'm tired and ready to go home, not when I'm done. I am never done. Like a housewife's, a manager's work is never done.

Remember too that your time is your one finite resource, and when you say "yes" to one thing you are inevitably saying "no" to another.