Neverisms Read online

  if you take it bravely, gallantly, as a splendid Adventure,

  in which you are setting out into an unknown country,

  to face many a danger, to meet many a joy,

  to find many a comrade, to win and lose many a battle.ANNIE BESANT, quoted in a 1924 article

  in The Theosophist

  Never mistake knowledge for wisdom.

  One helps you make a living and the other helps you make a life.SANDRA CAREY

  If you don’t like it, stop doing it.

  Never continue in a job you don’t enjoy.JOHNNY CARSON

  Carson offered this advice in a 1976 commencement address at Norfolk High School in Nebraska. Carson, who had graduated from the school in 1943, was thrilled to be invited back to his home town to speak to graduates. His proud parents were in attendance, as was one of his former teachers, Miss Jenny Walker, who had said to him when he was a high school senior, “You have a fine sense of humor and I think you will go far in the entertainment world.” After the speech, Carson took questions from the audience. When asked what he was proudest of, he said, “Giving a commencement address like this has made me as proud as anything I’ve ever done.” As the Q&A session ended and Carson prepared to leave, he was so moved by the prolonged applause, he added one final thought, a lovely expansion on his earlier advice about working only in a job that is enjoyable:If you’re happy in what you’re doing, you’ll like yourself. And if you like yourself, you’ll have inner peace. And if you have that, along with physical health, you will have had more success than you could possibly have imagined. I thank you all very much.

  Never do reluctantly that which you must do inevitably.HARLON B. CARTER

  Never stand begging for that which you have the power to earn.MIGUEL DE CERVANTES, in Don Quixote (1605)

  Never forget the difference between things of importance and trifles;

  yet remember that trifles have also their value.SUSAN FENIMORE COOPER, in Elinor Wyllys (1846)

  Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit.

  Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever,

  even if your whole world seems upset.ST. FRANCES DE SALES

  Never apologize for showing feeling.

  When you do so, you apologize for truth.BENJAMIN DISRAELI, from a character in Contarini Fleming (1832)

  Never place loyalty to institutions and things

  above loyalty to yourself.DR. WAYNE DYER, in Pulling Your Own Strings (1978)

  Never work just for money or for power.MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN

  This was one of twenty-five life lessons that Edelman laid out in The Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours (1992). About money and power, she explained, “They won’t save your soul or build a decent family or help you sleep at night.” Edelman, the founder of the Children’s Defense Fund, also offered this lesson: “Never give up. Never think life is not worth living. I don’t care how hard it gets.”

  Keep true; never be ashamed of doing right;

  decide on what you think is right, and stick to it.GEORGE ELIOT, quoted in The Sabbath Reporter (1911)

  Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion,

  against injustice and lying and greed.WILLIAM FAULKNER

  Faulkner said this in a 1951 commencement address to graduating seniors at University High School in Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner’s daughter Jill, a member of the senior class, had personally asked her father—a recent Nobel Prize winner—to deliver the speech. He added: “If you will do this, not as a class or classes, but as individuals, men and women, you will change the earth.”

  Never feel self-pity, the most destructive emotion there is.MILLICENT FENWICK

  She added: “How awful to be caught up in the terrible squirrel cage of self.” Fenwick was a fashion model, author, and Vogue magazine editor before becoming involved in politics via the civil rights movement. Blessed with striking good looks, exceptional intelligence, and a keen wit, she rose rapidly in the ranks of the Republican Party. She was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1974—at age sixty-four—and quickly became a media darling, famous for her pipe-smoking habit and memorable quips (in a 1981 60 Minutes interview, she said, “When the door of a smoke-filled room is closed, there’s hardly ever a woman inside”). During her four congressional terms she was one of the country’s most colorful politicians. She lives on in history as the model for the character of Lacey Davenport in Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury comic strip.

  Never be bullied into silence.

  Never allow yourself to be made a victim.

  Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself.HARVEY FIERSTEIN

  Never reach out your hand unless you’re willing to extend an arm.ELIZABETH FULLER

  Fuller was a seventeenth-century educator who founded a famous Free School for English girls and boys. Almost three centuries later, Jesse Jackson offered a similar thought: “Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping them up.” And on the same theme, Pope John XXIII said: “Never hesitate to hold out your hand; never hesitate to accept the outstretched hand of another.”

  Never forget that you are one of a kind.

  Never forget that if there weren’t any need for you

  in all your uniqueness to be on this earth,

  you wouldn’t be here in the first place.

  And never forget, no matter how overwhelming

  life’s challenges and problems seem to be,

  that one person can make a difference in the world.

  In fact, it is always because of one person

  that all the changes that matter in the world come about.

  So be that one person.R. BUCKMINSTER FULLER

  Never accept an evil that you can change.ANDRÉ GIDE, in The Fruits of the Earth (1897)

  Gide’s book had a major influence on the thinking of French intellectuals like Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. It also contained another powerful admonition: “Never cease to be convinced that life might be better—your own and others.”

  Never “for the sake of peace and quiet,”

  deny your own experience or convictions.DAG HAMMARSKJÖLD, in Markings (1963)

  Hammarskjöld was a respected Swedish economist and diplomat when he was named as his country’s first delegate to the UN in 1949. Elected secretary-general in 1953, he was reelected for a second term in 1957. He was on a peacekeeping mission to Northern Rhodesia in 1961 when he died in an airplane crash. Shortly after his death, he was posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1963, his private journal—with a foreword by W. H. Auden—was published in Sweden, and a year later it was published in English under the title Markings. A compilation of philosophical reflections, the book was hailed by the New York Times as “Perhaps the greatest testament of personal devotion published in this century.” The book also contained these other words to live by:

  Never measure the height of a mountain until you have reached the top.

  Then you will see how low it was.

  Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step;

  only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find the right road.

  Life yields only to the conqueror. Never accept what can be gained by giving in. You will be living off stolen goods, and your muscles will atrophy.

  Never be afraid to sit awhile and think.LORRAINE HANSBERRY, from the character Asagai,

  in the 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun

  Never be afraid to dare.VLADIMIR HOROWITZ

  Never give up on anybody.HUBERT H. HUMPHREY

  Never ruin an apology with an excuse.KIMBERLY JOHNSON

  Never regret the time that was needed for doing good.JOSEPH JOUBERT

  Never succumb to the temptation of becoming bitter.MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., in a 1956 sermon

  Never walk away from failure. On the contrary,

  study it carefully—and imaginatively—for its hidden assets.MICHAEL KORDA

  Never allow
the integrity of your own way of seeing things and saying things

  to be swamped by the influence of a master, however great.GEORGE PARSONS LATHROP

  Never pretend to be something you’re not.RICHARD LEDERER,

  in A Treasury for Dog Lovers (2009)

  Lederer, who is best known for his books on words and language, has recently turned his attention to the world of pets. He offered this thought in a chapter titled “All I Need to Know I Learned from My Dog.” The saying is not original to Lederer; he was simply passing along a principle that human beings can learn from dogs. He also offered one other example of canine wisdom: “Never pass up an opportunity to go for a joy ride.”

  Live each day of your life in a day-tight compartment.

  Always go the extra mile, at home, at work, at play.

  Never neglect the little things.

  Never let anyone push your kill switch.

  Never hide behind busy work.OG MANDINO, in The Spellbinder’s Gift (1994)

  These five principles come from the spellbinding orator in Mandino’s 1994 parable. He continues: “If you follow these five, then the final rule of life I have for you will be easy. Never commit an act that you will have to look back on with tears and regret.”

  Never let the odds keep you from pursuing

  what you know in your heart you were meant to do.LEROY “SATCHEL” PAIGE

  Never tell people how to do things.

  Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.GEORGE S. PATTON JR.,

  in War As I Knew It (1947)

  This became a popular quotation after the publication of Patton’s autobiography, but it became a signature line after it appeared in the 1970 film Patton, with George C. Scott in the title role. When speaking to troops, Patton often spoke neveristically. In his 1996 biography Patton: A Genius for War, Carlo D’Este wrote about the iconic general:His exhortations were a series of “nevers”: Never give up; never dig in; never defend, always attack; never worry about defeat, think of and plan only for victory; you win by never losing. He would caution that to win a battle a man had to make his mind run his body because the body will always give up from exhaustion. But when you are tired, the enemy is just as exhausted: “Never let the enemy rest.”

  Never think you know all.

  Though others may flatter you, retain the courage to say, “I am ignorant.”

  Never be proud.IVAN PAVLOV, in a 1936 magazine article

  aimed at Russian science students

  Never react emotionally to criticism.NORMAN VINCENT PEALE, from

  The Positive Principle Today (2003)

  Peale added: “Analyze yourself to determine whether it is justified. If it is, correct yourself. Otherwise, go on about your business.” The book also included these additional attempts at dissuasion:

  Never use the word “impossible” seriously again.

  Toss it into the verbal wastebasket.

  Never think negatively,

  for the negative thinker does a very dangerous thing.

  He pumps out negative thoughts into the world around him

  and thus activates the world negatively.

  Never forget that all the enthusiasm you need is in your mind.

  Let it out—let it live—let it motivate you.

  Never let your ego get so close to your position

  that when your position goes, your ego goes with it.COLIN POWELL, citing a valuable maxim

  I’ve seen this quotation attributed to Powell for so many years that I was surprised to discover he did not author it. In his 1995 autobiography My American Journey, he wrote that he first heard the saying in 1979, while he was helping his old boss Charles Duncan make the transition from Deputy Secretary of Defense to Secretary of Energy in the Carter administration. During a heated debate, a lawyer on the transition team walked off in a huff after losing an argument. Powell watched as Bernard Wruble, another lawyer on the team, walked over to the man and said: “You forgot what you learned in law school. Never let your ego get so close to your position that when your position goes, your ego goes with it.” The saying resonated with Powell—who later adopted it as a motto—and he credited Wruble with making “a permanent contribution to my philosophy.” The original author of the saying is not known, but Powell gets credit for popularizing it. In a 1988 Working Woman article, Van Gordon Sauter, the former president of CBS News, offered a similar thought:

  Never allow your sense of self to become associated with your sense of job.

  If your job vanishes, your self doesn’t.

  One must never fail to pronounce moral judgment.AYN RAND, in The Virtue of Selfishness (1964)

  Writing in an era when “being judgmental” was disparaged, Rand offered a powerful challenge, arguing that the very idea of neutrality in the realm of human behavior and moral values was “an abdication of moral responsibility.” As a replacement for the biblical precept “Judge not, that ye be not judged,” Rand suggested a pithy alternative: “Judge, and be prepared to be judged.”

  Never lose interest in life and the world.

  Never allow yourself to become annoyed.JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER

  These were two of ten “Rules of Living” that the sixty-year-old Rockefeller formulated in 1899 (others included, “Get plenty of sleep” and “Don’t overdo things”). He guided his life by the rules until his death in 1937 at age ninety-seven.

  Never be above asking for advice from those competent to give it . . .

  and never affect to understand what you do not understand thoroughly.CHARLES ARTHUR RUSSELL,

  Lord Chief Justice of England (1894–1900)

  Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore.ALBERT SCHWEITZER, in The Schweitzer Album (1965)

  Schweitzer, one of the foremost ethical leaders of the twentieth century, added: “There is always something to make you wonder, in the shape of a leaf, the trembling of a tree.”

  Never stagnate.

  Life is a constant becoming: all stages lead to the beginning of others.GEORGE BERNARD SHAW,

  in an 1897 letter to Ellen Terry

  Here is a psychological suggestion for acquiring peace of soul.

  Never brag, never talk about yourself,

  never rush to first seats at table or in a theater,

  never use people for your own advantage,

  never lord it over others as if you were better than they.FULTON J. SHEEN, in On Being Human:

  Reflections of Life and Living (1982)

  Bishop Sheen added: “These are but popular ways of expressing the virtue of humility, which does not consist so much in humbling ourselves before others as it does in recognizing our own littleness in comparison to what we ought to be.”

  Whatever you are by nature, keep to it;

  never desert your line of talent.

  Be what nature intended you for, and you will succeed.SYDNEY SMITH, quoted in Pushing to the Front,

  an 1896 book by Orison Swett Marden

  Never think that you’re not good enough yourself.

  A man should never think that.

  People will take you very much at your own reckoning.ANTHONY TROLLOPE, from a character in his

  1864 novel The Small House at Allington

  One must never let the fire go out in one’s soul, but keep it burning.VINCENT VAN GOGH,

  in an 1878 letter to his brother Theo

  Never let work drive you; master it and keep in complete control.BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, quoted in

  Speeches of Booker T. Washington (1932)

  Never dream of forcing men into the ways of God.JOHN WESLEY

  Wesley, an Anglican clergyman who founded Methodism, added:Think yourself, and let think. Use no constraint in matters of religion. Even those who are farthest out of the way never compel to come in by any other means than reason, truth, and love.

  Unlike so many of his fervid contemporaries, Wesley eschewed a doctrinaire approach to religion. He urged his followers: “Beware you are not
a fiery, persecuting enthusiast.”

  Never swallow anything whole.ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD,

  in a 1944 conversation

  “To swallow” literally means to ingest through the mouth and throat, but since the late sixteenth century has been extended to mean “to believe uncritically or accept without question.” This sense of the word shows up in sayings like “it was hard to swallow” or “he swallowed it hook, line, and sinker.” Whitehead added:We live . . . by half-truths and get along fairly well as long as we do not mistake them for whole-truths, but when we do mistake them, they raise the devil with us.

  Albert Schweitzer was thinking similarly when he wrote: “To blindly accept a truth one has never reflected upon retards the advance of reason.”

  Never love anything that can’t love you back.BRUCE WILLIAMS, American radio personality

  This is one of Williams’s personal maxims—and a beautiful way of making the point that we should never place more importance on possessions than we do on people.

  Never lose sight of the fact that old age needs so little

  but needs that little so much.MARGARET WILLOUR, quoted in Reader’s Digest (1982)

  Never let a crisis go to waste.FAREED ZAKARIA

  Zakaria, an Indian-born American journalist and television news host, offered this in a December 2008 Newsweek essay. He may have been inspired by a remark made six months earlier by Stanford University economist Paul Romer, who piggybacked on the motto of the United Negro College Fund to observe, “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.” The underlying idea also showed up in remarks made by Rahm Emanuel, the newly named White House chief of staff, shortly after the 2008 presidential election. In a New York Times column, Emanuel was quoted as saying, “You don’t ever want a crisis to go to waste; it’s an opportunity to do important things that you would otherwise avoid.” All of these observations were stimulated by the financial meltdown occurring at the time, and they were all anticipated by a famous 1959 observation from John F. Kennedy: “When written in Chinese, the word crisis is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.”