What They Do Quotes

As I've gotten older, and now that my kids are starting to do what they do, I am now really focusing on sharing my knowledge and insights with them to help guide them on their journeys. ~ Jada Pinkett Smith

I have always loved contemporary dance, but it has always been a bit of a mystery to me. But choreography is very much like what I do when you are putting characters in frame on the page. It's so impressive what they do with their bodies. It's like painting: an abstraction. ~ Michael Leunig

I love working if it's with people who are capable of having a good time. People with a little bit of enjoyment of what they do. If it's enormous pressure, and people feel that their lives are at stake, then it's agony. So I try to pick projects where I feel like I'm going to avoid those traps. ~ Alan Arkin

What they [the 9/11 attackers] abominate about 'the west', to put it in a phrase, is not what western liberals don't like and can't defend about their own system, but what they do like about it and must defend: its emancipated women, its scientific inquiry, its separation of religion from the state. ~ Christopher Hitchens

You're not smarter than your competitor. Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers. ~ Mark Pincus

I have so much respect for people in the service. The mental strength it takes to do what they do is unbelievable. ~ Torrey DeVitto

A profound theme is of trifling importance if the characters knocked around by it are uninteresting, and brilliant technique is a nuisance if it pointlessly prevents us from seeing the characters and what they do. ~ John Gardner

Every cow in the world, you know, when they do what they do, you've got more carbon dioxide. ~ John Boehner

It's like all guys want to do is make a dunk, grab their shirt and yell out and scream - they could be down 30 points but that's what they do. Okay, so you made a dunk. Get back down the floor on defense! ~ Oscar Robertson

First at the outset, let me commend the great men and women of the United States Coast Guard for what they do. ~ Vito Fossella

I think as feminists we have a way of looking at problems that other people appear not to understand. To name names, the right and the
left appear not to understand what it is that feminists are trying to do. Feminists are trying to destroy a sex hierarchy, a race hierarchy, an
economic hierarchy, in which women are hurt, are disempowered, and in which society celebrates cruelty over us and refuses us the integrity of our own bodies and the dignity of our own lives.

... So feminists look at the society we live in and try to understand how we are going to fight male power. And in order to try to figure out
how we're going to fight it, we have to figure out how it's organized, how it works. How does it survive? How does it work itself out? How
does it maintain itself as a system of power?

... So feminists come along, and we say: Well, we are going to understand how it is that these people do what they do. We are going to
approach the problem politically. That means that we are going to try to isolate and describe systems of exploitation as they work on us, from our point of view as the people who are being hurt by them. It means that even though we're on the bottom and they're on the top, we are examining them for points of vulnerability. And as we find those points of vulnerability - and you might locate them anatomically, as well as any other way - we are going to move whatever muscles we have, from whatever positions we are in, ~ Andrea Dworkin

No matter how bad the individual, everybody has reasons for why they do what they do. ~ Chris Pine

I think about and study people. I think I make people uneasy sometimes by being so curious as to why they do what they do. I find myself thinking about this fairly obsessively, and I can't stop until I've found an answer. ~ Antonya Nelson

What humans do when they're desperate is just an expression of fear. What they do when they feel safe is a better indication of whether or not you can trust them. ~ Michelle Sagara

Is that they come up with so many ideas and then they manage to carry them out and believe so strongly in what they do. ~ Tove Jansson

A. T. Stewart started life with a dollar and fifty cents. This merchant prince began by calling at the doors of houses in order to sell needles, thread and buttons. He soon found the people did not want them, and his small stock was thrown back on his hands. Then he said wisely, "I'll not buy any more of these goods, but I'll go and ask people what they do want." Thereafter he studied the needs and desires of people, found out just what they most wanted, endeavored to meet those wants, and became the greatest business man of his time. ~ Grenville Kleiser

I'm blessed to be supported by some brilliant staff, who are all experts in their field and dedicated to what they do. ~ Brendan Rodgers

Finally he said that if men drink the blood of God yet they do not understand the seriousness of what they do. He said that men wish to be serious but they do not understand how to be so. Between their acts and their ceremonies lies the world and in this world the storms blow and the trees twist in the wind and all the animals that God has made go to and fro yet this world men do not see. They see the acts of their own hands or they see that which they name and call out to one another but the world between is invisible to them ~ Cormac McCarthy

Once you have your character sitting right there in your head, all you really need to do is wind them up, put them down, and simply write down what they do, say, or think. ~ Terry Pratchett

Paul Theroux on Blogging, Travel Writing, and Three Cups of Tea

Speaking of books that contain an element of travel, Greg Mortenson's bestseller about Central Asia was in the news recently. Were you surprised by the allegations that Three Cups of Tea contained fabrications?

No, I wasn't. One of the things The Tao of Travel shows is how unforthcoming most travel writers are, how most travelers are. They don't tell you who they were traveling with, and they're not very reliable about things that happened to them. For example, everyone loved John Steinbeck's book Travels With Charley. Turns out he didn't travel alone, his wife kept meeting him, yet she was never mentioned in the book. Steinbeck didn't go to all the places he mentioned, nor did he meet all the people he said he met. In other words, Travels With Charley is fiction, or at least half-fiction. As for Three Cups of Tea, I think that philanthropists and humanitarians are even less forthcoming about what they do. I guess this guy did build a couple of schools in Afghanistan, but a self-promoting humanitarian is not someone I have a great deal of trust or belief in. I lived for six years in Africa and I've been to Africa numerous times since then. People build schools for their own reasons - not to improve a country.

The people I've known who've done great things of that type - you know, building hospitals, running schools - are very humble people. They give their lives to the project. Mi ~ Paul Theroux

Scientists can test only what they do not take for granted. That can make studying familiar phenomena particularly challenging...This may be especially true of masculinity, femininity and sexuality, because certain ideas abut gender and sexuality are so broadly shared in our culture ~ Rebecca M. Jordan-Young

I believe that there are certain attributes in a woman that give her some advantages over a man. Women are usually more honest, more sensitive to issues and bring a stronger sense of commitment and dedication to what they do. Maybe because they were mothers, and being a mother you have that special attention for the family, for the young, for children. ~ Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Perhaps there is no other way of reaching some understanding of being than through art? Writers themselves don't analyze what they do; to analyze would be to look down while crossing a canyon on a tightrope. To say this is not to mystify the process of writing but to make an image out of the intense inner concentration the writer must have to cross the chasms of the aleatory and make them the word's own, as an explorer plants a flag. ~ Nadine Gordimer

Men must be free to do what they believe. It is not our right to punish one for thinking what they do, no matter how much we disagree ~ Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad

I sighed and deleted the message, imagining the dirty clothes multiplying like rabbits, because that's what they do when I'm not around. ~ Alex Owens

We must continue to fight for funding for health technologies so that they can continue to do what they do best - save lives - but also because they confer a real benefit to America's economy. ~ Albio Sires

Introverts almost never cause me trouble and are usually much better at what they do than extroverts. Extroverts are too busy slapping one another on the back, team building, and making fun of introverts to get much done. Extroverts are amazed and baffled by how much some introverts get done and assume that they, the extroverts, are somehow responsible. ~ Mark Vonnegut

Fat-bashing in all its varied forms–criticism, exclusion, shaming, fat talk, self-deprecation, jokes, gossip, bullying–is one of the last acceptable forms of prejudice. From a very young age, before they can walk away or defend themselves, women are taught that they are how they look, not what they do or what they know. (1) ~ Robyn Silverman

Generally speaking, most of our vital, spontaneous, instinctual life gets shamed. Children are shamed for being too rambunctious, for wanting things and for laughing too loud. Much dysfunctional shame occurs at the dinner table. Children are forced to eat when they are not hungry. Sometimes children are forced to eat what they do not find appetizing. Being exiled to the dinner table until the plate is cleaned is not unusual in modern family life. The public humiliation of sitting at the dinner table all alone, often with siblings jeering, is a painful kind of exposure. ~ John Bradshaw

People are valuable because they're human, not because of what they do. ~ Meg Meeker

When I see Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity baying across the television screen, I find it hard to take them seriously. I assume that they must be saying what they do primarily to boost book sales or ratings, although I do wonder who would spend their precious evenings with such sourpusses. ~ Barack Obama

Apple's approach to career development is yet another way it runs contrary to the norms at other companies. The prevalent attitude for workers in the corporate world is to consider their growth trajectory. What's my path up? How do I get to the next level? Companies, in turn, spend an inordinate amount of time and money grooming their people for new responsibilities. They labor to find just the right place for people. But what if it turns out all that thinking is wrong? What if companies encouraged employees to be satisfied where they are because they're good at what they do, not to mention because that might be what's best for shareholders?

Instead of employees fretting that they were stuck in terminal jobs, what if they exalted in having found their perfect jobs? A certain amount of office politics might evaporate in a corporate culture where career growth is not considered tantamount to professional fulfilment. Shareholders, after all, don't care about fiefdoms and egos. There are many professionals who would find it liberating to work at what they are good at, receive competitive killer compensation, and not have to worry about supervising others or jockeying for higher rungs on an org chart. ~ Adam Lashinsky

Either way, we'll ride out together. That's how it is with soul mates. Thats just what they do. ~ Alyson Noel

If you want to have peace of soul, learn to forgive. Jesus' secret was His ability to see into people's hearts. Seeing their anguish and pain helped Him to understand their nastiness. So He could pity them rather than become angry with them. That is what we have to do: try to understand the pain in people's lives ... and not take personally what they do to us. ~ Joseph F. Girzone

The Genius Of The Crowd

there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average
human being to supply any given army on any given day

and the best at murder are those who preach against it
and the best at hate are those who preach love
and the best at war finally are those who preach peace

those who preach god, need god
those who preach peace do not have peace
those who preach peace do not have love

beware the preachers
beware the knowers
beware those who are always reading books
beware those who either detest poverty
or are proud of it
beware those quick to praise
for they need praise in return
beware those who are quick to censor
they are afraid of what they do not know
beware those who seek constant crowds for
they are nothing alone
beware the average man the average woman
beware their love, their love is average
seeks average

but there is genius in their hatred
there is enough genius in their hatred to kill you
to kill anybody
not wanting solitude
not understanding solitude
they will attempt to destroy anything
that differs from their own
not being able to create art
they will not understand art
they will consider their failure as creators
only as a failure of the world
not being able to love fully
they will believe your love incomplete
and then they wil ~ Charles Bukowski

Remind yourself regularly that you are better than you think you are. Successful people are not superhuman. Success does not require a super-intellect. Nor is there anything mystical about success. And success isn't based on luck. Successful people are just ordinary folks who have developed belief in themselves and what they do. Never ... yes, never ... sell yourself short. ~ David J. Schwartz

It is important for investors to understand what they do and don't know. Learn to recognize that you cannot possibly know what is going to happen in the future, and any investment plan that is dependent on accurately forecasting where markets will be next year is doomed to failure. ~ Barry Ritholtz

There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it.

Very few people or companies can clearly articulate WHY they do WHAT they do. By WHY I mean your purpose, cause or belief - WHY does your company exist? WHY do you get out of bed every morning? And WHY should anyone care?

People don't buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.

We are drawn to leaders and organizations that are good at communicating what they believe. Their ability to make us feel like we belong, to make us feel special, safe and not alone is part of what gives them the ability to inspire us.

For values or guiding principles to be truly effective they have to be verbs. It's not "integrity," it's "always do the right thing." It's not "innovation," it's "look at the problem from a different angle." Articulating our values as verbs gives us a clear idea - we have a clear idea of how to act in any situation.

Happy employees ensure happy customers. And happy customers ensure happy shareholders - in that order.

Leading is not the same as being the leader. Being the leader means you hold the highest rank, either by earning it, good fortune or navigating internal politics. Leading, however, means that others willingly follow you - not because they have to, not because they are paid to, but because they want to.

You don't hire for skills, you hire for attitude. You can always teach skills.

Simon Sinek

I want to work with people who are good at what they do, and people who are passionate. ~ Willem Dafoe

In a world where people are too languid to make something of themselves out of effort, I sell them hope. What they do with it is up to them. Invariably they drink it and then hurl it down a gutter, but that's their choice and their freedom. I won't judge them. ~ E.A.A. Wilson

Small churches become more effective when they specialize in what they do best. ~ Rick Warren

I don't mind staying in one place for a while - I like to spend a lot of time in Los Angeles. It's a place where nobody goes out, where people will leave you alone. People in Los Angeles love themselves and they love what they do and they leave you alone. If you're isolated, you have a real advantage. You can work. ~ Nicolas Berggruen

Individuality and originality is was separates good and great artists! How much they can move people with what they do! If they can shake the heart with what they do, is the key! ~ Hiromi

and what they do that looks so beautiful, is
hunt . ~ Paul Blackburn

Mathematicians - for what they do - are really poorly rewarded. And it's a very competitive field, almost as bad as being a concert pianist. ~ Gian-Carlo Rota

I will never understand children. I never pretended to. I meet mothers all the time who make resolutions to themselves. 'I'm going to ... go out of my way to show them I am interested in them and what they do. I am going to understand my children.' These women end up making rag rugs, using blunt scissors. ~ Erma Bombeck

Love isn't safe. And whoever you love will hurt you. It's part of the human experience. No one is perfect...People make mistakes. The secret is to focus on what they do right and decide what quirks you can live with. ~ Kristin Billerbeck

I structure the scripts and work on them on films and work on scenes with writers and but I haven't written a script myself, I really respect what they do and I'm fortunate I get to work with people that I really enjoy working with and we all kind of spitball and work together on these things, but I haven't written a script yet. ~ Tom Cruise

I like them all - I don't always approve. I see myself as a sort of benevolent uncle to these characters, and I can see why they do what they do; sometimes they make some mistakes, but at heart I think they're decent. ~ Patrick Marber

My kind of success has come a little bit later in life. I'm not 20 any more and these people I've been working with have been successful and good at what they do for a long time. ~ Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Teachers influence more by what they are, what they do, what they represent and what they believe than by what they teach and preach. ~ Kavita Bhupta Ghosh

I'm convinced many of America's heroes are public school teachers and administrators. Many of these people do what they do because of their faith. ~ Adam Hamilton

You know you've spent a lot of time writing fiction when you meet a new person and instead of asking them about what they do, or where they're from, you ask "what's your backstory? ~ David Filmore

Women have to be a lot smarter and brighter and have to work a lot harder to prepare themselves. They have to watch what they do and how they behave. It's not a free world yet. ~ Letitia Baldrige

It's difficult to put your own bare ass out on the limb every time you sit down to write a poem. But that's really sort of the ideal. Because if we don't discover something about ourselves and our world in the making of a poem, chances are it's not going to be a very good poem. So what I'm saying is that a lot of our best poets could be better poets if they wrote less and risked more in what they do. ~ Sam Hamill

Throughout history humans have inflicted countless violent, cruel, and hurtful acts on each other, and continue to do so. Are they all to be condemned; are they all guilty? Or are those acts simply expressions of unconsciousness, an evolutionary stage that we are now growing out of?
Jesus' words, "Forgive them for they do not know what they do," also apply to yourself. ~ Eckhart Tolle

There is nothing like suspense and anxiety for barricading a human's mind against the Enemy. He wants men to be concerned with what they do; our business is to keep them thinking about what will happen to them. ~ C.S. Lewis

You`re learning, friend.`
`The lessons of civilization.`
`Just so. There`s little value in seeking to find reasons for why people do what they do, or feel the way they feel. Hatred is a most pernicious weed, finding root in any kind of soil. It feeds on itself.`
`With words.`
`Indeedm with words. Form an opinion, say it ofren enough and pretty soon everyone`s saying it right back at you, and then it becomes a conviction, fed by unreasoning anger and defended with a fight to the death. ~ Steven Erikson

I get inspired with passion, I think. I get inspired by people who are just passionate, and it doesn't matter what they do or what they're passionate about. ~ Neil Jackson

You know, you have to do homework. You listen to who they are, what they do. I also compare it to designing clothes for people. If somebody brings in Tilda Swinton, you're not going to give her the same dress you'd give Gabourey Sidibe. Everybody looks different in a different line, a different color. The same thing with the way people speak. ~ Bruce Vilanch

I try to encourage people to really love what they do, like when it's about being a part of this business [entertaining], love what you do because it's not going to always be defined by who you are. It's going to be a lot of times your good name walks in the door before you do. ~ Cedric The Entertainer

All violence consists in some people forcing others, under threat of suffering or death, to do what they do not want to do. ~ Leo Tolstoy

If you cared enough about your characters, what happened to them was interesting ... It's important to care about them. About who they are and what they do.. I don't really care whose side they are on, and they can be monstrous on the outside, or worse, on the inside, but you still have to want to spend time with them. ~ Neil Gaiman

But isn't whipping some poor bastard's ass what Dominatrices do? I mean,at least that's what they do in pornos. Oh God, you don't want to pee on me do you? ". She shot him a dirty look and he grinned. "What? ~ Ann Mayburn

Don't listen to what the Communists say, but look at what they do. ~ Nguyen Van Thieu

Surgeons always underestimate the pain and disability involved in what they do to people. ~ Robert Winston

Democrat women lead the way in showing other women how to be stepped on and diminished by men. That's what they do, for a payoff somewhere down the line. ~ Rush Limbaugh

Fanatics are like debris following the course of the wind, they are swept around like sand, and convinced to believe in what they do not understand. ~ Michael Bassey Johnson

The USA marketing team are geniuses at what they do. They do the right kind of thing for every medium. They're very active on social media; they're releasing videos every day up to the premiere. ~ Lennon Parham

What men do to trees mirrors what they do to women. ~ Mary Daly

What they do no' understand, they fear, and they hate what makes them afraid, for they think it is a sign o' weakness. ~ Kate Forsyth

I'm a supporter of gay rights. And not a closet supporter either. From the time I was a kid, I have never been able to understand attacks upon the gay community. There are so many qualities that make up a human being ... by the time I get through with all the things that I really admire about people, what they do with their private parts is probably so low on the list that it is irrelevant. ~ Paul Newman

You can know everything there is to know about someone's life, who their parents are, what they do for a living, how much money they have, the friends they hang out with, and never really know anything. People who seem simple on the surface, are usually the most complex. ~ Devon Herrera

Somehow the Creator seems to favor those who know precisely what they want and what they do not want. ~ Napoleon Hill

Comfort zone... A zone in which drugs start to take a role... stress, depression watching others what they do and you start criticism. ~ Deyth Banger

At this moment in history, millions of 'working dads' are desiring to do what they do not feel they have the right to do: be more devoted as a dad, less devoted as a worker. This feeling is far more ubiquitous among men executives than women executives in many areas of the world because, for instance, Asia-Pacific women executives today are more than six times as likely to not have children than men executives are. The Asia-Pacific executive man is about six times as likely to be a working dad as an executive woman is to be a working mom. ~ Warren Farrell

People with a scientific mindset are analytical, open-minded, flexible and have the capacity to answer questions. They are basically focused on what they do not know, and only exceptionally on what they do know. ~ Eraldo Banovac

Jesus' words, "Forgive them for they do not know what they do," also apply to yourself."
― Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks ~ Eckhart Tolle

One of the things that is very silly - and I hear from educators all the time - is that schools essentially teach kids to learn. They don't need school for that. Learning is what they do best. ~ Ricardo Semler

Great business leaders of our time stand above the crowd not because of what they do, but what they don't do. ~ Shawn Casemore

Praise them for what they do well, both privately and publicly. ~ John C. Maxwell

I'm fascinated with design. I realized early that I had no talent in that direction, but I love talking with architects and designers about what they do. I appreciate applied creativity as a source of pleasure and meaning. ~ Alex Steffen

I've come to a view that humans will continue to do what we do well, and that computers will continue to do what they do very well, and the two will coexist, but in different spaces. ~ Eric Schmidt

I am no faerie. I am Mark Blackthorn of the Los Angeles Institute. It doesn't matter what they say or what they do to me. I still remember who I am. ~ Cassandra Clare

To play any character, you have to have a total understanding of why they do what they do. ~ Jamie Dornan

First of all, it's a blast. Just fun; it's a good environment to play. And Jayne and I have a great time together because we're somewhat familiar with each other; that's a fun and comfortable place to start at when building our relationship. Everyone's incredible and they're good at what they do. ~ Kendra Kassebaum

It is a well known fact that most artists produce their best work early in their career. They may refine what they do but you usually get the measure of what they are about on their first outing. ~ Bill Drummond

Complex people waste half their strength in trying to conceal what they do. Is it any wonder they should always come to grief? ~ Oscar Wilde

I do understand! I understand what they do not, and that is you can only do with what you have. What God has given you. If you try to be anyone else, it is the worst thing that can happen because you cannot ever be them - and then you give up being you ~ Siri Mitchell

I think you've got to be very, very careful when you start making blanket statements about what people say and think, as opposed to what they do. It's a very, very slippery slope. ~ Mark Cuban

I will never begin to know what the accountants do or what the camera guys do, as much as I try to learn just out of respect for what they do and to try to make my job as manager more efficient. The most important thing is to let those people do their jobs while making it clear what the parameters are. ~ Robert Carlock

Nothing hard about politics

Citizens control government right wing
Government controls citizens left wing
Balance the two constitutional centrist

Of course it helps to observe what they do not what they say. ~ Michael Aaretun

Men should soon make up their minds to be forgotten, and look about them, or within them, for some higher motive in what they do than the approbation of men, which is fame, namely, their duty; that they should be constantly and quietly at work, each in his sphere, regardless of effects, and leaving their fame to take care of itself. ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Let's begin with a quotation from mindfulness expert and teacher Bhante Henepola Gunaratana. It beautifully encapsulates what deceptive brain messages are, what they do to you, and how they keep you from following the path of your true self: We see life through a screen of thoughts and concepts, and we mistake those [thoughts] for reality. We get so caught up in this endless thought-stream that reality flows by unnoticed. We spend our time engrossed in activity, caught up in an eternal pursuit of pleasure and gratification and eternal flight from pain and unpleasantness. We spend all our energies trying to make ourselves feel better, trying to bury our fears, endlessly seeking security.16 To phrase it another way: We spend a considerable amount of our time engrossed in following deceptive brain messages until we begin to see them for what they are and value our true emotions and needs. ~ Jeffrey M. Schwartz

That's what they do, psychopaths. They figure out your language, your currency, your needs, your dreams and fears. Then they figure out how to use those things to get what they want from you. Most ~ Lisa Unger

There are so many things I can't believe. That people deserve what they get, both bad and good. That one day I'll live in a world where people are judged by what they do instead of who they are. That happy endings don't have contingencies and conditions. ~ Jodi Picoult

How many thousands ... earnestly seeking what they do not want, while they neglect the real blessings in their possession
I mean the innocent gratification of their senses, which is all we can properly call our own. ~ Mary Wortley Montagu

You know what they do in San Francisco? Some in the gay community there, they want to get people. So if they got the stuff they'll have a ring, you shake hands and the ring's got a little thing where you cut your finger. Really. It's that kind of vicious stuff, which would be the equivalent of murder. ~ Pat Robertson

The average estimate themselves by what they do, the above average by what they are. ~ Friedrich Schiller

People do what they do to each other and they feed on it. ~ Bob Saget