Ten Quotes From Barack Obama

I admire Barack Obama a lot. He is a phenomenal guy, the type who comes along once in a generation. Given his origins, the odds he was up against and where he is right now, I can only conclude as an avid student of history that he is a man of destiny with an important, if not urgent, mission to fulfill in the world.

I certainly wish we could have someone with Barack's caliber and sense of mission as among the serious contenders for our own Philippine presidential elections come 2010. The country has suffered long enough dwelling in the cellar among the community of nations in Southeast Asia. We were ahead of most developing countries in the region in the 1960s that's why it is unnatural for us to be where we are right now. We badly need to regain our national pride, become relevant and respected again on the regional, if not the global, stage and recover our rightful place in the sun.

Here are ten quotes from BARACK OBAMA that best highlight his character and personal philosophy--alternately inspiring, witty, wise and frank:

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.

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Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

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I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we've struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We've made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.

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If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists - to protect them and to promote their common welfare - all else is lost.

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Issues are never simple. One thing I'm proud of is that very rarely will you hear me simplify the issues.

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It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to where we are today, but we have just begun. Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today.

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My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or blessed, believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success.

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The fact that my 15 minutes of fame has extended a little longer than 15 minutes is somewhat surprising to me and completely baffling to my wife.

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We need to internalize this idea of excellence. Not many folks spend a lot of time trying to be excellent.

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You know, my faith is one that admits some doubt.

Ten Quotes on Victory

Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao did the Philippines proud again today as he snatched the WBC lightweight title from Mexican-American David Diaz in an impressive ninth round knockout at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. With this spectacular win, Pacquiao became the first Filipino as well as the first Asian to win four world titles, not counting the Ring Magazine featherweight championship he bagged in 2003 after beating Mexican boxer Marco Antonio Barrera.

Everybody loves a winner. Why, even recent NBA champions, the Boston Celtics, were there cheering for Pacquiao from their special ringside seats. After the game, I even caught them on cable TV having a picture taken together with Pacquiao and his team. Apparently, both are self-confessed members of a "mutual admiration society." According to Ronnie Nathanielsz, "Pacquiao endeared himself to the Celtics when, despite training in Los Angeles, he picked the Celtics as his favorite team to beat the Lakers and when they did their admiration for one another was strengthened even further."

Let's examine the mystique that lies behind VICTORY, in the words of others who have earned one:

Victory is sweetest when you've known defeat. -Malcolm S. Forbes

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If you can't accept losing, you can't win. -Vince Lombard

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Expect victory and you make victory. -Preston Bradley

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If you think you can win, you can. Faith is necessary to victory. -William Hazlitt

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There is no victory at bargain basement prices. -Dwight D. Eisenhower

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To be prepared is half the victory. -Miguel Cervantes

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Victory belongs to the most persevering. -Napoleon Bonaparte

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Victory always starts in the head. -Douchan Gersi

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There are some defeats more triumphant than victories. -Michael Eyquen de Montaigne

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Victory is a thing of the will. -General Ferdinand Foch

(Photo credit: www.sxc.hu)

Ten Quotes on Entrepreneurship

It's been nearly two weeks since my last post. As I have explained in my other blog, we recently launched, together with some former colleagues in investment banking, a new consultancy group that's now busy seeking mandates in what we believe to be an underserved niche in the Philippine market. Of course, nothing is ever certain in this world except death and taxes. Who knows, in the end, we could be proven wrong about our analysis and perception. But until then, we are hopeful and bullish about our prospects as a new business group. This is the wider context for my choice of subject for today's post.

The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It's as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer. -Nolan Bushnell (founder of Atari)

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The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. Remember, the greatest failure is to not try. Once you find something you love to do, be the best at doing it. -Debbi Fields (founder of Mrs. Fields Cookies)

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When you reach an obstacle, turn it into an opportunity. You have the choice. You can overcome and be a winner, or you can allow it to overcome you and be a loser. The choice is yours and yours alone. Refuse to throw in the towel. Go that extra mile that failures refuse to travel. It is far better to be exhausted from success than to be rested from failure. -Mary Kay Ash (founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics)

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Experience taught me a few things. One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sounds on paper. The second is that you're generally better off sticking with what you know. And the third is that sometimes your best investments are the ones you don't make. -Donald Trump (real estate and entertainment mogul)

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I had to make my own living and my own opportunity! But I made it! Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them! -Madam C.J. Walker (America's first black female millionaire)

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An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew hoping he'll quickly learn how to chew it. -Roy Ash (co-founder of Litton Industries)

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Entrepreneurs are risk takers, willing to roll the dice with their money or reputation on the line in support of an idea or enterprise. They willingly assume responsibility for the success or failure of a venture and are answerable for all its facets. -Victor Kiam

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Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage. -Niccolo Machiavelli

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I'm not sure I knew what an entrepreneur was when I was ten, but I knew that starting little businesses and trying to sell greeting cards or newspapers door-to-door or just vending machine kind of thing is.. there's just something very intriguing to me about that. -Steve Case

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Too often, we try to fit in with the crowd. We play it safe. But innovation is about taking risks while being true to you. This takes confidence. And it takes the belief that your “style” is what the world needs and wants. Yes, taking this risk may help you stand out. More importantly, it may be the ticket to your success. -Stephen Shapiro

(Photo credit: www.flickr.com)

Ten Quotes on Change

The bottomline in the ongoing political drama in the Philippines is the increasingly impatient clamor for leadership change and moral transformation. In America, change is also the winning battlecry of Barack Obama. Actually, in many aspects of life in many parts around the world, the mantra is change. This is why I chose it as my theme in this post today. See if you can learn an additional lesson or two about CHANGE in the following quotes:

It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power. -Alan Cohen

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If you want to make enemies, try to change something. -Woodrow Wilson

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The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. -Abraham Lincoln

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The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order. -Alfred North Whitehead

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He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery. -Harold Wilson

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All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another. -Anatole France

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Change always comes bearing gifts. -Price Pritchett

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The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind. -William Blake

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The wheel of change moves on, and those who were down go up and those who were up go down. -Jawaharlal Nehru

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All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward. -Ellen Glasgow

Ten Quotes on Corruption

It's been a week since my last set of quotes (on Truth) inspired by a new whistleblower on the aborted NBN/ZTE deal which has created a firestorm, which now threatens the Philippine president's continued hold on power. Over a period of just one week, I have had to adjust my own initial assessment of the likelihood of a new People Power movement materializing (being euphimistically labelled today as "communal action" by the Catholic Church heirarchy) from "zero" to "more than 50% probability".

In my view, unless President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) does something to turn the tide of history that is unfolding, she'll get knocked-over and swallowed-up by the developing political tsunami. At the very heart of the present maelstrom is the sickening culture of CORRUPTION that has been quietly tolerated for so long by Pinoys. Here are quotes that expound more on this evil spell that has turned Philippine governance hopelessly dysfunctional and badly in need of change:

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently. -Friedrich Nietzsche

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The accomplice to the crime of corruption is frequently our own indifference. -Bess Myerson

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It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power. -David Brin

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The more corrupt the state, the more laws. -Publius Cornelius Tacitus

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The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means. -Georges Bernanos

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Only the old are innocent. That is what the Victorians understood, and the Christians. Original sin is a property of the young. The old grow beyond corruption very quickly. -Malcolm Bradbury

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Corruption never has been compulsory. -Anthony Eden

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Money and corruption are ruining the land, crooked politicians betray the working man, pocketing the profits and treating us like sheep, and we're tired of hearing promises that we know they'll never keep. -Ray Davies

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As a columnist, I realize that whatever amount of corruption I expose, half my readers will block it out, although they may get a frisson of joy in the process. -Margaret Carlson

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Every man has his price. -Proverb

(Photo credit: www.sxc.hu)

Ten Quotes on Truth

There's a national drama being acted out on the Philippine Senate that, in my view, could potentially destabilize the country. This is the latest in a series of politically-motivated exposes, which has hounded President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) for sometime now, clearly intended to humiliate, discredit and, if luck is on the side of the President's political opponents, unseat her ahead of the scheduled elections in 2010.

The bone of contention is the TRUTH behind allegations, made earlier by the businessman-son of the ex-Speaker of the House and now reinforced by a new whistleblower, of huge pay-offs whose money trail presumably leads to the seat of power in Malacanang Palace. Here's a collection of quotes that dwell on that elusive TRUTH which has sown so much discord in the Philippines:

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time. -Abraham Lincoln

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Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods. -Albert Einstein

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There are no whole truths: all truths are half-truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays the devil. -Alfred North Whitehead

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Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it. -Andre Gide

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Whenever you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. -Arthur Conan Doyle

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We know the truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart. -Blaise Pascal

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Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true. - Buddha

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Chase after the truth like all hell and you'll free yourself, even though you never touch its coattails. -Clarence Darrow

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Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit. -Edward Murrow

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Truth is such a rare thing, it is delighted to tell it. -Emily Dickenson

(Photo credit: www.sxc.hu)

Ten Quotes on the Presidency

I've been intently monitoring the developments in the on-going primaries in the U.S., as well as the early start of party maneuverings in the Philippines that will build up to the presidential elections in mid-2010. Getting elected to the presidency is no joke, as we can glean from these quotes:

Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There's nothing to do but stand there and take it. -Lyndon B. Johnson

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[Running for President is] physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually the most demanding single undertaking I can envisage unless it's World War III. -Walter F. Mondale

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Any man who wants to be president is either an egomaniac or crazy. -Dwight D. Eisenhower

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To be a great president, you have to have a war. All the great presidents have had their wars.

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Anyone that wants the presidency so much that he'll spend two years organizing and campaigning for it is not to be trusted with the office. -David Broder

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It is dangerous for a national candidate to say things that people might remember. -Eugene McCarthy

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You can fool all the people some of the time, and some people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time. -Abraham Lincoln

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Those who have been once intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it, even though but for one year, never can willingly abandon it. They may be distressed in the midst of all their power, but they will never look to anything but power for their relief. -Edmund Burke

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Whenever there is authority, there is a natural inclination to disobedience. -Thomas C. Haliburton

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All the president is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing, and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway. -Harry S. Truman

(Thanks to www.stockxpert.com for the use of the royalty-free photo shown above).

Ten Quotes from Sun Tzu's " The Art of War"

I thought about Sun Tzu after the failed rebellion of Philippine Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, a PMAyer and former Navy officer, last Thursday, November 29, 2007. This was his second attempt to overthrow President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA). He may need to go back to the teachings of Sun Tzu in "The Art of War" if he will have a third chance, which is now a very big IF.

"We cannot enter into alliances until we are acquainted with the designs of our neighbors."

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"The general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose."

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"Though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays."

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"All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him."

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"He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight. He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces. He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks. He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared. He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign."

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"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."

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"Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated."

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"In all fighting, the direct method may be used for joining battle, but indirect methods will be needed in order to secure victory. In battle, there are not more than two methods of attack - the direct and the indirect; yet these two in combination give rise to an endless series of maneuvers. The direct and the indirect lead on to each other in turn. It is like moving in a circle - you never come to an end. Who can exhaust the possibilities of their combination?"

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"The clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy, but does not allow the enemy's will to be imposed on him."

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"In making tactical dispositions, the highest pitch you can attain is to conceal them."

(Thanks to www.geocities.com/Athens for the use of the photo shown above)