Quotes About Resourcefulness

which of our efforts are value-creating and which are wasteful?

when you were out of options, then you were using the wrong tactics? You had to bend the rules. Shift perspective—anything to find a way out of a hopeless situation.

Creative brains are a valuable, limited resource. They shouldn't be wasted on re-inventing the wheel when there are so many fascinating new problems waiting out there.

When information is sticky, innovators tend to rely largely on information they already have in stock.

idea, he immediately sent a worker to an electrical supply

Goosefeather padded to a smooth silver birch and started tearing off strips of the bark with deft claws.

In one story, he describes a man who is blind in one eye, myopic in the other, too poor to buy eyeglasses, who wears only the frames, with no lenses. When asked why he replies: "It's better than nothing." As

In June, 1864, a Texan summed up with striking aptness the Rebel clothing situation. "In this army," he wrote from near Atlanta, "one hole in the seat of the breeches indicates a captain, two holes a lieutenant, and the seat of the pants all out indicates that the individual is a private.

Aut viam inveniam aut faciam,' I said which means, 'I'll either find a way or make one

there's nothing quite like Latin for disguising the fact that you're making it up as you go along.

Aunts, I have learned, never admit defeat. In the face of overwhelming forces, or incontestable facts, they simply change tack. Had Napoleon been an aunt, he would never have done anything so vulgar as to 'retreat' from Moscow. Rather, he would have framed his return to Paris casually as a question of clothing and etiquette, noting it was unseasonably cold for October and declaring that–like fish and family–armies of invasion go off after three days.

When the well is dry, we learn the worth of water.

Waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. Without industry and frugality, nothing will do, and with them everything.

You have on hand those things that you need if you have but the wit and wisdom to use them.

in 1742, invented an open stove for the better warming of rooms, and at the same time saving fuel, as the fresh air admitted was warmed in entering,

Get what you can, and what you get hold; 'Tis the stone that will turn all your lead into gold.

persuaded, therefore, that ere long some ingenious

The wise are who they are. They work with what they've got and do what they can do.

The Wise are Who They Are. They work with what they've got and do what they can do.

If you file your waste-paper basket for 50 years, you have a public library.

People don't take enough advantage of the refrigerator door.

I can put together a pretty decent meal from whatever happens to be in the refrigerator and the pantry. I like the challenge of this sort of improvisation, the rigor of limitation and sometimes having to take a risk.

Always have to think like a guy with no food in his refrigerator.

I thought it was normal to recycle pants and shoes from your older cousins. That was just my way of life. At the end of the month, there was not much food in the refrigerator and you're hoping the first comes so food can come again. You never forget those things.