Quote O' The Week : Ideas

My car broke down on a trip through New Jersey last week.

The local mechanic had this taped on the wall.

I asked him if the sign was good for business or bad for business.

He just smiled and shrugged.

 

 

Where Ideas Come From: Part 2

Where Ideas Come From: Part 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[anon]

good stuff... this is paraphrased from an Eleanor Roosevelt quote

[Alya]

Perhaps his reaction came because your question did not show understanding of the idea.

[justin]

people who TALK about ideas are not great. people who actuate the ideas that they have are great. a huge difference exists between the two. some jackass living in someone's basement can talk about their ideas, but that does not make him or her great.

[Jayne]

LOL - that is hanging in my office to keep the gossipers away :)

[Household Name®]

Glad you enjoyed, Jayne.

HN

[Nikole]

also hanging in my office in response to gossip!

[Mr. Blocher]

Sometimes attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt (as cited by anon), and sometimes to Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, but the original author is not known. As Rickover wrote in "The World of the Uneducated" in The Saturday Evening Post (28 November 1959),

"As the unknown sage puts it...

"Great minds discuss ideas,
"average minds discuss events,
"small minds discuss people."

Note that discussing ideas does not guarantee that you have great mind, but if you have a great mind, the big ideas are going to be more prominent in your conversation, and gossip will hold no interest for you.

[Household Name®]

At Household Name we believe that evidence trumps opinion, so thank you for the education Mr. Blocher.

[are emm]

what if said individual tells an idea to someone who actuates it? are they both great?

[Hvarfredriksen]

It’s a Fran Lebowitz quote revised. Here’s the original:

“Great people talk about ideas. Average people talk about things. Small people talk about wine.”

[Christopher Darling]

quotation, my good sir. The correct word is quotation. You may 'quote' a person but you find or hear a 'quotation'.

[Household Name®]

Yes you are grammatically correct Mr. Darling, however I took editorial license for brevity.

Thanks for following...

[CanisCaeleste]

Hell, I talk about all three. Ideas, things AND people. Occasionally wine. Maybe cheese.

[Kentucky Mary]

When I was in high school in the fifties, we had to write about a similar quote: Great minds deal with ideas; medium-sized minds with people; small minds with things. I tried to look it up that way but could find only the Roosevelt quote reversing the second and third.

[Live Life Every Day]

Great quote! We all need to start talking about things that actually matter and stop worrying insignificant things (especially bickering about one another).