Preparation Quotes

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected .”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“I will prepare and some day my chance will come.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“Another way to be prepared is to think negatively. Yes, I'm a great optimist. but, when trying to make a decision, I often think of the worst case scenario. I call it 'the eaten by wolves factor.' If I do something, what's the most terrible thing that could happen? Would I be eaten by wolves? One thing that makes it possible to be an optimist, is if you have a contingency plan for when all hell breaks loose. There are a lot of things I don't worry about, because I have a plan in place if they do.”
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

“We should live our lives as though Christ was coming this afternoon.”
― Jimmy Carter

“Opportunity does not waste time with those who are unprepared.”
― Idowu Koyenikan, Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability

“Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing. I have only begun to learn content and peace of mind since I have resolved at all risks to do this.”
― Thomas Huxley, Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley — Volume 1

“What has mood to do with it? You fight when the necessity arises—no matter the mood! Mood's a thing for cattle or making love or playing the baliset. It's not for fighting.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.”
― H. Jackson Brown Jr., P.S. I Love You

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“All things are ready, if our mind be so.”
― William Shakespeare, Henry V

“Why not seize the pleasure at once? -- How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation!”
― Jane Austen, Emma

“Even seasonal situations can bring with them lessons that last a lifetime. If the love doesn’t last, it prepares you for the one that will.”
― Mandy Hale, The Single Woman: Life, Love, and a Dash of Sass

“Unfortunately, there seems to be far more opportunity out there than ability.... We should remember that good fortune often happens when opportunity meets with preparation.”
― Thomas A. Edison

“He who is best prepared can best serve his moment of inspiration.”
― Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“Plan for what it is difficult while it is easy, do what is great while it is small.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“What we are waiting for is not as important as what happens to us while we are waiting. Trust the process.”
― Mandy Hale, The Single Woman: Life, Love, and a Dash of Sass

“If you believe you can accomplish everything by "cramming" at the eleventh hour, by all means, don't lift a finger now. But you may think twice about beginning to build your ark once it has already started raining”
― Max Brooks, The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead

“I believe luck is preparation meeting opportunity. If you hadn’t been prepared when the opportunity came along, you wouldn’t have been lucky.”
― Oprah Winfrey

“Champions do not become champions when they win the event, but in the hours, weeks, months and years they spend preparing for it. The victorious performance itself is merely the demonstration of their championship character.”
― Alan Armstrong

“hope for the best, prepare for the worst”
― Chris Bradford, The Ring of Earth

“Why should we look to the past in order to prepare for the future? Because there is nowhere else to look.”
― James Burke, Connections

“There is always a part of my mind that is preparing for the worst, and another part of my mind that believes if I prepare enough for it, the worst won’t happen.”
― Kay Redfield Jamison

“Only I have no luck any more. But who knows? Maybe today. Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.”
― Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea

“Some fish love to swim upstream. Some people love to overcome challenges.”
― Amit Ray, Walking the Path of Compassion

“Opportunity is a haughty goddess who wastes no time with those who are unprepared. a”
― George S. Clason

“No matter how kind you are, always expect a few imbeciles.”
― Criss Jami, Healology

“The death of a parent, he wrote, 'despite our preparation, indeed, despite our age, dislodges things deep in us, sets off reactions that surprise us and that may cut free memories and feelings that we had thought gone to ground long ago...”
― Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking

“All great nations spend peacetime preparing for the day war breaks out.”
― Tim Marshall, Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics