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Arizona Lou kiteboarding in San Carlos, Mexico; 1.6 minute video with Christian Canese on the camera

Arizona Lou Kiteboarder

LOUisms

We have called them "Tidbits" "Self Sayings" but now call them "LOUisms" - sayings we have collected over the years. Sayings with no tribute are mostly my own.

Maybe you will be inspired by some of them as we have been; maybe disgusted by others as we have been.

  1. Retired life’s tough, but somebody’s got to do it - Arizona Lou
  2. People are about as happy as they make up their minds to be – Abraham Lincoln
  3. Look at the doughnut! (not the hole)
  4. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do... - Mark Twain
  5. ... So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. - Mark Twain
  6. For most of life, nothing wonderful happens. If you don't enjoy getting up and working... then chances are you're not going to be very happy - Andy Rooney
  7. Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product, Eleanor Roosevelt
  8. Happiness is not getting what you want, but wanting what you have
  9. Do what you can do...
  10. Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there - Will Rogers.
  11. You can't do everything but you can start with one thing, so get going
  12. DON'T GIVE PEOPLE THINGS - GIVE THEM OPPORTUNITY.
  13. When you try to do something and fail you are vastly better off than when you try nothing and succeed, quoted by C. Darrell Guy, President Arizona Education Association 89,90
  14. WEAKNESS INVITES AGGRESSION AND STRENGTH STOPS IT.
  15. JUST FOR TODAY I'LL NOT IMPROVE ANYBODY EXCEPT MYSELF - ABIGAIL VANBUREN
  16. A BRIGHTER FUTURE FOR ME BEGINS NOW
  17. If you are on time- you are late. If you are early- you are on time. And if you are late- you are fired: Meshulam Riklis, head of McCrory stores
  18. We have the future in our hands
  19. Give people opportunity - not handouts
  20. To get things right in the long run - you often have to have a difficult time in the short term - Margaret Thatcher
  21. You must accept the consequences of your own irresponsibility - Margaret Thatcher
  22. You are accountable because you have freedom - Margaret Thatcher
  23. You must always make certain that the terrorist does not think he has gotten your morale - your spirit - Margaret Thatcher
  24. My creed is just to get things done. - Margaret Thatcher
  25. One man can make a difference, and every man can try. - JFK
  26. Imagination is more important than Knowledge... Albert Einstein
  27. It's not the situation that's causing your stress; it's your thoughts... Gerald G. Jampolsky, M.D.
  28. If you don't have the guts to hold someone accountable for his imprudence, how can he learn to do better? Economist Walter E. Williams
  29. Sometimes the fool who rushes in gets the job done. Al Bernstein
  30. Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want - Dan Stanford
  31. We choose to go to the moon in this decade, and the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, J.F. Kennedy, 1961
  32. We all live under the same sky, but we don't have the same horizon, Konrad Adenauer
  33. The way someone responds to you is more a function of his style than of you as a person or of your style.
  34. It is a lot easier to change your expectation of another person than it is to change the person.
  35. Lives based upon having, are less free than lives based either on doing or being. William James
  36. Sometimes doing your best is not good enough. Sometimes you just have to do it right. Winston Churchill
  37. You can not teach a man anything; you can only help him to find it within himself, Galileo
  38. Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from poor judgment
  39. Democracy does not guarantee equality, only equality of opportunity, Irving Kristol
  40. You're never as good as everyone tells you when you win, and you're never as bad as they say when you lose: Lou Holtz
  41. The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it
  42. You can get everything you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want in life - Carl Sewell, author of Customers for Life
  43. I enjoy learning, but I dislike being taught. - Winston Churchill
  44. I never know anyone who was good at giving excuses who was good at anything else - Ben Franklin
  45. Any society that would give up liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both - Ben Franklin
  46. It doesn’t always matter what is best, but rather, what is done.
  47. When politicians see the light at the end of the tunnel, they appropriate more money to build some more tunnel.
  48. Serenity Prayer. It goes, "God grant me the courage to change the things I can, the strength to accept the things I can't, and the wisdom to know the difference."
  49. Listen boys, you can't help getting older, but you don't have to get old," George Burns @ 100 yr.
  50. You can't make chicken pie out of chicken shit
  51. It's hard to make chicken pie out of chicken shit
  52. Do the right thing & win, Anne Curry? re the ?? quintuplets
  53. Find something you are good at and have fun doing it - Amelia Earhart
  54. Vision without action is a day dream; Action without vision is a nightmare - Chinese saying
  55. Indecision is often worse than the wrong decision, Barnum
  56. Money is a wonderful slave but it's a horrible master, P.T. Barnum
  57. Raising a child is a lot like teaching a child to ride a bike. The trick is knowing when to hold on and when to let go; Joan Saxon
  58. The goal when you are raising a child is to have an adult when you're done; Dave Ramsey
  59. Some rich people have the illusion that they can out-earn their stupidity and immaturity
  60. Never say "No" when a client asks for something, even if it's the moon. You can always try. Anyhow, there is plenty of time later to explain why it was not possible. Caesar Ritz, Switz, cow herder who created the Ritz hotels.
  61. The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight but has no vision, Helen Keller
  62. The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it's the same problem as you had last year, Phillip Brooks - (i.e. everybody should expect tough problems)
  63. I've never been poor, I've only been broke. Poor is a state of mind, Mike Tod
  64. There are three types of people in this world: Thos who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened. Mary Kay Ash
  65. What we see depends mainly on what we look for, John Levet (sp?)
  66. He who has the most information in a negotiation wins, Roger Fisher, author of The Harvard Negotiations Project
  67. Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." - Winston Churchill

            Failure vs success:
  68. The only way to avoid criticism is to say nothing, do nothing and definitely be nothing - Aristotle
  69. The only way to find success is to risk failure, Mike Wistubur;
  70. The greatest failure would be not to try at all; Good enough, never is: Debbi Fields (Mrs. Field's Cookies)
  71. You never fail as long as you learn.
  72. Two kinds of people do not do well: Those who do not do what they're told and those who do nothing more
  73. Do not persist in folly. It is not a badge of character to continue down the wrong road – Helen Keller
  74. Those who do not make mistakes usually work for those who do, Henry Ford
  75. One of the nicest things about problems is that a good many of them do not exist except in our imaginations. Steve Allen
  76. If you aim at nothing you will hit it every time - Unknown
  77. If you can take the worst then take the risk - Joyce Brothers
  78. Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men full of talent -Calvin Coolidge - (persistence & determination needed)
  79. In life you miss 100% of the shots you do not take, Roger Crawford w one leg, no forearms, or real hands.
  80. There is only one way to avoid criticism: Be nothing; Do nothing; Say nothing - Aristotle
  81. The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one - Ralph Waldo Emerson
  82. I can not give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is, Try to appease everybody
  83. MOTIVATION is greatest when success is neither a certainty nor an impossibility. Just have a sense that you can achieve your goals
  84. You’ll always pass failure on the way to success, Mickey Rooney
  85. The dictionary is the only place where you’ll find SUCCESS before WORK
  86. If you succeed in all you do, it's a sure sign you're not reaching high enough, Richard? Feldman?
  87. You're making progress if each mistake is a new one, Ken Colburn
  88. Failure is the opportunity to begin again |more intelligently|, Henry Ford
  89. Don't worry about failure. Worry about the chances you miss when you don't even try. - United Technical Corporation
  90. Success consists of going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm, Winston Churchill
  91. When you try to do something and fail you are vastly better off than when you try nothing and succeed, quoted by C. Darrell Guy, Pres AEA 89,90
  92. THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN POSSIBLY FAIL IS TO QUIT, Dennis Van Roekel's parents, '87 AEA & NEA Pres.
  93. The harder you fall the higher you bounce (American proverb)
  94. We have 40 million reasons for failure, but not one excuse. Rudyard Kipling
  95. We're still not where we're going, but we're not where we were. - Natash Jasefowitz
  96. Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal. - Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
  97. It's not over until it's over (go out with a bang, not a fizzle)
  98. YOU MAKE YOUR OWN LUCK
  99. DEPEND ON YOURSELF AND NO ONE ELSE
  100. WE GO BY WHAT WE SEE YOU DO, NOT WHAT YOU SAY YOU'LL DO
  101. It's "fair" if everyone is treated the same
  102. There is no easy way to excellence - Richard Nixon
  103. BE THE FIRST ONE... TO TELL IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM
  104. ORGANIZE FIRST - BREAK DOWN A BIG JOB INTO LITTLE JOBS, USE A CALENDAR
  105. PLAN SUCCESS! Where you are going is more important than how fast you are going.
  106. ACCEPT YOURSELF - DON'T TRY TO BE SOMETHING YOU AREN'T
  107. CONTROL YOUR CURIOSITY: HOOKED ON TV SHOW, GOSSIP, GETTING IN TO THINGS
  108. SAY "NO" AND STAND A LITTLE TALLER
  109. STARTING IS HALF THE JOB
  110. EVERYBODY GETS TEASED
  111. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF - DON'T MISS ONE DAY OF SCHOOL.
  112. WITHOUT GOOD HEALTH HAPPINESS IS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE.

            School and being a student:
  113. Academic Excellence has nothing to do with A's & B's, but with all kids reaching their greatest personal achievement level. - Dick Buscher.
  114. YOU'VE LOST EVERYTHING WHEN YOU'VE LOST YOUR CREDIBILITY
  115. YOUR EDUCATION IS YOUR FUTURE
  116. YOU ARE CHOOSING YOUR FUTURE WHEN YOU CHOSE YOUR FRIENDS
  117. SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE KNOW HOW TO HANDLE THEIR MISTAKES: IBM EXECUTIVE LOST $2 MILLION, WANTED TO RESIGN, BOSS SAID, "NO, WE JUST SPEND $2M EDUCATING YOU."
  118. Nobody gets their own way, so don't expect it.
  119. Everyone has handicaps: yours can make you weaker or stronger
  120. THOMAS J. WATSON, FOUNDER OF IBM "THE WAY TO SUCCEED IS TO DOUBLE YOUR FAILURE RATE
  121. GIVE SOLUTIONS NOT EXCUSES
  122. Winners are losers who got up and gave it just one more try, Kristin Alexander
  123. DREAM A LITTLE EACH DAY (SPEND SOME TIME ALONE WITH YOUR THOUGHTS)
  124. If you don't have a sense of humor, you probably don't have any sense at all: C. W. Metcalf
  125. YOUR PARENTS ARE ON YOUR SIDE
  126. Trust yourself. You know more that you think you do (Benjamin Spock, M.D.)
  127. SOLVE THE LITTLE PROBLEMS, THEY GROW LIKE WEEDS
  128. YOU CAN BE YOUR OWN WORST ENEMY OR YOUR OWN BEST FRIEND
  129. WRITE IT DOWN IF YOU NEED TO REMEMBER IT
  130. Surprise yourself: ACT like a good student: pencil, paper, study time/place, anticipate...
  131. GIVE YOURSELF A TIME LIMIT BEFORE YOU START A JOB
  132. MEMORIZE THE ALPHABET IN REVERSE: Z Y X W V U T S R Q P O N M L K J I H G F E D C B A
  133. ENCOURAGE ONE ANOTHER TO BE EXCELLENT (NO PUTDOWNS)
  134. SAY "OK" WHEN CORRECTED (OR "I'LL TRY")
  135. DEVELOP YOUR OWN STANDARDS AND STICK WITH THEM: DECIDE BEFORE YOU'RE ASKED ABOUT
  136. YOUR FRIENDS ARE FRIENDS ONLY IF THEY LIKE YOU AFTER YOU SAY, "NO"
  137. FOCUS YOUR ATTENTION AND LET NOTHING SLIP PAST YOU
  138. YOU LEARN NOTHING WHILE TALKING or YOU LEARN WHILE LISTENING
  139. DO SOMETHING FOR YOUR EDUCATION: NEVER JUST SIT (IN A CLASS) (BRAIN FRICTION)
  140. ENJOY BEING YOUR OWN AGE & SPREAD SMILES (LET OTHERS SEE YOUR PLEASANT SIDE)
  141. Polite persistence pays with parents - teachers and others
  142. ACT ON YOUR OWN DESTINY
  143. IF IN DOUBT - DO IT! (ACADEMICS)
  144. FOCUS ON THE JOB - NOT THE BLAME
  145. YOU CAN MAKE UP THE CREDIT BUT YOU CAN NEVER MAKE UP THE EXPERIENCE IF YOU MISS SCHOOL.
  146. GETTING AN EDUCATION IS LIKE BUILDING A HOUSE. DAILY JOB: FUNNY IF ONE WALL UNDONE. DON'T LIKE THAT PART (NAILS) BUT LOVE ROOFING
  147. ADVICE: WISE MEN DON'T NEED IT & FOOLS WON'T HEED IT.
  148. YOU ARE IN CHARGE OF YOUR OWN GRADE
  149. THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE ASSIGNMENT: TREAT THIS (EACH) ASSIGNMENT AS IF IT IS THE LAST CHANCE TO IMPROVE YOUR GRADE, BECAUSE IT IS THE LAST CHANCE YOU WILL HAVE TO IMPROVE YOUR GRADE WITH THIS ASSIGNMENT.
  150. NOW YOU'RE NOT JUST IN SCHOOL - YOU'RE IN SCIENCE
  151. Following instructions means making yourself do what you don't want to do
  152. We need to make a special effort to help kids feel good about themselves when they fail, rather than prending they are successful when they are not.
  153. If your output exceeds your income, your upkeep will be your downfall.
  154. Hard now and easy later or easy now and realy hard later; Dr. Henry Cloud - True with life, money, relationships and EVERYTHING
  155. FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real, Dave Ramsey
  156. Scientists have discovered three New Elements. Here's a summary of what they found.
    • 2010 New Year's Thoughts:
    • Life is sexually transmitted.
    • Good health is simply the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
    • Give a person a fish and you can feed them for a day; Teach them to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks.
    • Some people are like a Slinky; not good for anything, but you still can't help smile when you shove them down a stair.
    • Health nuts are going to feel stupid some day lying in a hospital dieing of nothing. - Red Fox
  157. What you're willing to DO to hit your goals is not nearly as important as what you're willing to GIVE UP...You WILL pay a price of some kind to hit your goals. - Dave Ramsey
  158. When you get desperate is right before you get stupid. Stupid runs around with Desperate. - Dave Ramsey
  159. The American Republic will endure until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money. (Variant of : Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government…the majority always vote for the candidate promising the most benefits from the treasury with the result that democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy) - Alexander Fraser Tyler (1747-1813)
  160. Compassionate broke people are what are known as liberals. They like to be righteous with other people's money. - Dave Ramsey
  161. Success is not final; failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts. - Winston Churchill
  162. I am NOT impressed with what people own. But I AM impressed with what they achieve - Ken's dad in Thomas J. Stanley's The Millionaire Next Door
  163. Money is icing on the cake of life - Thomas J. Stanley

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