Who on Earth is William Feather?

“A budget tells us what we can't afford, but it doesn't keep us from buying it.”

“A determination to succeed is the only way to succeed that I know anything about.”

“A peculiarity of capital is that it cannot be employed productively without benefiting the community in which it is used.”

“Almost any idea is good if a man has ability and is willing to work hard. The best idea is worthless if the creator is a loafer and ineffective.”

“An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't. It's knowing where to go to find out what you need to know, and it's knowing how to use the information once you get it.”

“An invitation to a wedding invokes more trouble than a summons to a police court.”

“Before it can be solved, a problem must be clearly defined.”

“Beware the person who won't be bothered with details.”

“Blow your own horn loud. If you succeed, people will forgive your noise; if you fail, they'll forget it.”

“Books open your mind, broaden your mind, and strengthen you as nothing else can.”

“Business demands faith, compels earnestness, requires courage, is honestly selfish, is penalized for mistakes, and is the essence of life.”

“Business is scheming ways by which you can help your customers make an extra dollar in the hope that they will let you keep ten cents for yourself.”

“Concentrate on your job and you will forget your other troubles.”

“Conditions are never just right. People who delay action until all factors are favorable do nothing.”

“Deliver me from all evildoers that talk nothing but sickness and failure. Grant me the companionship of men who think success and men who work for it. Loan me associates who cheerfully face the problems of a day and try hard to overcome them. Relieve me of all cynics and critics. Give me good health and the strength to be of real service to the world, and I'll get all that's good for me, and will what's left to those who want it.”

“Do each daily task the best we can; act as though the eye of opportunity were always upon us.”

“Early morning cheerfulness can be extremely obnoxious.”

“Every job has two salaries. One is the pay you get. The other is the mental satisfaction you derive from working for the company.”

“Everybody knows how to utter a complaint, but few can express a graceful compliment.”

“Everybody loves to find fault, it gives a feeling of superiority.”

“Few of us get anything without working for it.”

“Finishing a good book is like leaving a good friend.”

“Giving advice isn't as risky as people say. Few ever take it anyway.”

“Here is the secret of inspiration: Tell yourself that thousands and tens of thousands of people, not very intelligent and certainly no more intelligent than the rest of us, have mastered problems as difficult as those that now baffle you.”

“If we do not discipline ourselves the world will do it for us.”

“If you do not have the capacity for happiness with a little money, great wealth will not bring it to you.”

“If you're naturally kind, you attract a lot of people you don't like.”

“Improvement of one's economic position is helped more by cool persistence than by hot enthusiasm.”

“In closing a deal, what you don’t say may be more helpful than what you do say.”

“Know and believe in yourself and what others think won't disturb you.”

“Life begins at 40 — but so do fallen arches, rheumatism, faulty eyesight, and the tendency to tell a story to the same person, three or four times.”

“Many people are thwarted by excessive ambition. They want a hundred thousand dollars but are unwilling to save a hundred dollars. They want a big house, but do not accumulate enough money to make the down payment on on a small house. They want to write a book, but will not learn to write a letter. Most men become successful and famous, not through ambition, but through ability and character.”

“Men do their hardest work at the bottom of the ladder, not at the top.”

“Most of us expect too much from others and not enough from ourselves.”

“Next to doing a good job yourself, the greatest joy is having someone else do a first class job under your direction.”

“No man is a failure who is enjoying life.”

“One of the indictments of civilizations is that happiness and intelligence are so rarely found in the same person.”

“One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure.”

“Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn’t stop to enjoy it.”

“Problems always appear big when incompetent men are working on them.”

“Setting a good example for children takes all the fun out of middle age.”

“Some of us might find happiness if we quit struggling so desperately for it.”

“Some people are making such thorough preparation for rainy days that they aren't enjoying today's sunshine.”

“Something that has always puzzled me all my life is why, when I am in special need of help, the good deed is usually done by somebody on whom I have no claim.”

“Success in business hinges mostly on the ability to get the important things done.”

“Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.”

“The best sermon is preached by the minister who has a sermon to preach and not by the man who has to preach a sermon.”

“The big things that come our way are the fruit of seeds planted in the daily routine of our work.”

“The happiest people are those who are too busy to notice whether they are or not.”

“The hardest job of all is trying to look busy when you're not.”

“The petty economies of the rich are just as amazing as the silly extravagances of the poor.”

“The sweaty players in the game of life always have more fun than the supercilious spectators.”

“The way to get ahead is to start now. If you start now, you will know a lot next year that you don't know now and that you would not have known next year if you had waited.”

“Unnecessary hustle is one of the American follies. We hustle at both work and play, and consequently enjoy neither to the utmost.”

“We all find time to do what we really want to do.”