BITS & PIECES 考えるヒントを英語で　

世界中の働く人々に考えるヒントを与えてきた

感動的な挿話や引用句の「あれこれ」

今から約30年前に創立されたシカゴのL．ラーガン・コミュ二ケーションは、毎月正確に24ページの月刊小冊子「BITS & PIECES」を発行して感動的な挿話や引用句を紹介し、世界中の働く人々に、仕事や世の中を違った角度から見つめて考えるヒントを与えてきました。

この欄は特に同社の許可を得て、上に紹介した「BITS & PIECES」（「あれやこれや」）から、毎回私たちにも身近で親しめる記事を３つ選んで、原文でご紹介します。 日本語訳をつけておきますが、まずは原文を味わって考えることをお勧めします。

PEOPLE are seldom too busy to stop and tell how busy they are.	日本語訳
Many can argue; not many converse. ALCOTT	日本語訳
Some people are confident they could move mountain if only somebody would just clear the foothills out of the way.	日本語訳
Freedom is moving easy in harness. ROBRT FROST	日本語訳
GIVE YOUR decisions, never your reasons; your decisions may be right, your reasons are sure to be wrong. LORD MANSFIELD	日本語訳
People may fail many times, but they become failures only when they begin to blame someone else.	日本語訳
The great truths are too important to be new. SOMERSET MAUGHAM	日本語訳
We cannot really be for something we don’t understand.	日本語訳
We all want our friends to tell us of our bad qualities; it is only the particular ass who does so that we can’t tolerate. WILLIAM JAMES	日本語訳
GRATITUDE is something of which none of us can give too much. For on the smiles, the thanks we give, our little gestures of appreciation, our neighbors build up their philosophy of life. A.J. CRONIN	日本語訳
A SUPERVISOR who was tire all the time finally went to see the doctor. The doctor gave him a thorough examination and then announced, “I can’t seem to find a thing wrong with you physically. Tell you what, why don’t you give up part of your work for a while?” The patient thought this over for a moment, then asked, “Which part, Doc, thinking about it or talking about it?”	日本語訳
A company is known by the people it keeps.	日本語訳
The last thing one knows is what to put first. PASCAL	日本語訳
An old mountaineer from West Virginia was celebrated for his wisdom. “Uncle ZED,” a young man asked, “How did you get so wise?” “Weren’t hard,” said the old man. “I’ve got good judgment. Good judgment comes from experience. And experience --well, that comes from having bad judgment.”	日本語訳
THOREAU tells of the time he asked an old Irishman how many potatoes he could dig in a day. “Well,” was the reply, “I don’t keep any account. I just scratch away and let the day’s work praise itself.”	日本語訳
THOUGH George Bernard Shaw was a vegetarian, he once turned down an invitation to a vegetarian luncheon with this reply: "The thought of 2,000 people munching celery at the same time horrifies me."	日本語訳
BE like a duck-keep calm and unruffled on the surface but puddle like the devil underneath.	日本語訳
If you take pleasure in criticism, it's time to hold your tongue.	日本語訳
The biggest step you can take is the one you take when you meet the other person halfway.	日本語訳
Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best. H. van Dyke	日本語訳
SOME people will believe anything if it is whispered to them.	日本語訳
A CANNY Maine farmer was approached by a stranger one day and asked how much he thought his prize Jersey cow was worth, The farmer thought for a moment, looked the stranger over, then said: “Are you the tax assessor or has she been killed by your car?	日本語訳
THE SOLUTIONS to problems are not necessarily found in new and brilliant ideas. They are sometimes discovered by making the old, proven ideas work, such as: an honest day’s work, respect for the given word, living within income, and the willingness to make necessary sacrifices to attain a worthwhile goal.	日本語訳
It is in his pleasures that a man really lives, it is from his leisure that he constructs the true fabric of self. AGNES REPPLIER	日本語訳
To believe is to be strong. Doubt cramps energy. Belief is power.	日本語訳
When a customer buys a low-grade article, he feels pleased when he pays for it and displeased every time he uses it. But when he buys a well-made article, he feels extravagant when he pays for it and well pleased every time he uses it. HERBERT N. CASSON	日本語訳
A good leader inspires others with confidence in him; a great leader inspires them with confidence in themselves.	日本語訳
THERE are about three things we can do when we make a mistake. We can resolve that we will never make another, which is fine, but impractical. We may let that mistake make a coward of us, which is foolish. Or we can make up our minds that we will let it be our teacher, and so profit by the experience, Then, if the situation comes our way again, we will know just how to meet it.	日本語訳
It marks a big step in a man’s development when he comes to realize that other men can be called on to help him do a better job than he can do alone. ANDREW CARNEGIE	日本語訳
If you add only a little and do this often, soon that little will become great. HESIOD	日本語訳
A pig ate his fill of acorns under an oak tree and then started to root around the tree. A crow remarked, “You should not do this. If you lay bare the roots, the tree will wither and die. ” “Let it die,” said the pig. “Who cares as long as there are acorns?”	日本語訳
A person who can’t lead and won’t follow makes a dandy roadblock.	日本語訳
THE MERE act of hearing or reading wise statements and sound advice does little for anyone. In the process of learning, the learner’s dynamic cooperation is required.	日本語訳
THE SIMPLE realization that there are other points of view is the beginning of wisdom. Understanding what they are is a great step. The final test is understanding why they are held.	日本語訳
WHEN WE are right we can afford to keep our tempers. When we are wrong, we can’t afford not to.	日本語訳
TERE is no market for gloom. You cannot sell it. What the world wants, needs, and will buy is cheer.	日本語訳
THE LINES waiting to get into P.T. Barnum’s circus were usually long. One time, the story goes, in order to move those inside through faster, Barnum hung a sign over one of the exits which read, “This way to egress.” Many people in the crowd, eager to see what kind of strange animal an egress was, passed through the door and found themselves out on the street.	日本語訳
PEOPLE who fail to understand their past mistakes may be condemned to make them over again.	日本語訳
ADVICE from an old carpenter: measure twice and saw once.	日本語訳
If you are doing something　the same　way you have been doing it for ten years, the chances are you are doing it wrong.	日本語訳
A NEW IDEA is delicate. It can be killed by sneer or a yawn: it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right man’s brow.	日本語訳
It is what we are that get across, not what we try to teach.	日本語訳
A man had bought a new gadget-unassembled, of course-and after reading and rereading the instructions couldn’t figure out how it went together. Finally, he sought the help of an old handyman who was working in the backyard. The old fellow picked up the pieces, studied them, then began assembling the gadget. In a short time, he had it all put together. “That’s amazing,” said the man. “And you did it without even looking at instructions!” “Fact is,” said the old man, “I can’t read, and when a fellow can’t read, he’s got to think.”	日本語訳
A TELEVISION weatherman recently came up with his prediction: “It will be cloudy yesterday.” Not to be outdone, a sportscaster, giving the highlights of a basketball, reported that “ Both team were tied at half-time.”	日本語訳
Everyone has talent at twenty-five. The difficulty is to have it at fifty. EDGAR DEGAS	日本語訳
None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.	日本語訳
A CERTAIN sea captain and his chief engineer argued as to which of them was the more important to the ship. Failing to agree, they resorted to the unique plan of swapping places. The Chief ascended to the bridge and the Captain went into the engine room. After a couple of hours the Captain suddenly appeared on the deck covered with oil and soot. “Chief!” he yelled, wildly waving aloft a monkey wrench. “You’ll have to come down here; I can’t make ‘er go!” “Of course you can’t,” replied the Chief. “She is aground!”	日本語訳
The only way to conquer fear is to keep doing the thing you fear to do.	日本語訳
To profit from good advice requires as much wisdom as to give it.	日本語訳
MAKE OTHER people like themselves a little better and rest assured they’ll like you very much.	日本語訳
THE MOST successful executives carefully select understudies. They don’t strive to do everything themselves. They train and trust others. This leaves them foot-free, mind-free, with time to think. They have time to receive important callers, to pay worthwhile visits. They have time for their families. No matter how able, any employer or executive who insists on running a one-man enterprise courts unhappy circumstances when his powers dwindle. B.C. FORBES	日本語訳
I am a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it. STEPHEN LEACOCK	日本語訳
IF WE could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’ life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility. LONGFELLOW	日本語訳
THE LESS some people know the more eager they are to tell you about it.	日本語訳
You cannot antagonize and persuade at the same time.	日本語訳
The shortest answer is doing the thing. OLD PROVERB	日本語訳
Most of us will never do great things, but we can do small things in a great way.	日本語訳
Now we know: doctors report that some people are actually afraid of work. The word for it is Ergophobia.	日本語訳
Enthusiasm without knowledge is like running in the dark.	日本語訳
THAT THE birds of worry and care fly above your head, this you cannot change, but that they build nests in your hair, this you can prevent. Chinese Proverb	日本語訳
REWARDS are usually anticlimactic-the fun is in the doing.	日本語訳
Any 20-year-old who isn't a liberal doesn't have a heart, and any 40-year-old who isn't conservative doesn't have a brain. WINSTON CHURCHILL	日本語訳
IF THINGS are not going well within you, begin your effort at correcting the situation by carefully examining the service you are rendering, and especially the spirit in which you are rendering it.	日本語訳
The higher you go the more dependent you become on others.	日本語訳
What Counts in management is the action you take. One executive puts it this way: “To look is one thing. To see what you look at is another. To understand what you see is a third. To learn from what you understand is still something else. But to act on what you learn is all that really matters.”	日本語訳
A GRAY-HAIRED old lady, long a member of her community and church, shook hands with the minister after the service one Sunday morning. “That was a wonderful sermon,” she told him, “―just wonderful. Everything you said applies to someone I know.”	日本語訳
Every great improvement has come after repeated failures.　Virtually nothing comes out right the first time. Failures, repeated failures, are fingerposts on the road to achievement. CHARLES F. KETTERING	日本語訳
Don’t waste time in doubts and fears; spend yourself in the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour’s duties will be the best preparation for the hours or ages that follow it. EMERSON	日本語訳
One moment of patience may ward off a great disaster; one moment of impatience might ruin a whole life.	日本語訳
IN TIME, and as one comes to benefit from experience, one learns that things will turn out neither as well as one hoped nor as badly as one feared. JEROME S.BRUNER	日本語訳
DISCIPLINE is the refining fire by which talent becomes ability. ROY L. SMITH	日本語訳
Good managers learn to share decisions with others even though they alone must accept responsibility for the results.	日本語訳
A LEADER is best when people barely know he exists…. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say, “We did this ourselves.” LAO-TSE	日本語訳
A SUCCESSFUL person is one who went ahead and did the thing the rest of us never quite got around to. OLD PROVERB	日本語訳
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life.	日本語訳
PEOPLE who wait until they feel like doing a job rarely do.	日本語訳
ONE worthwhile task carried to a successful conclusion is worth half-a-hundred half-finished tasks. B.C. FORBES	日本語訳
If you can give your son only one gift, let it be enthusiasm. BRUCE BARTON	日本語訳
WHEN OTHER people take a long time to do something, they’re slow; when we take a long time, we are thorough. When they don’t do something, they are lazy; when we don’t, we are too busy. When they succeed, they are lucky; when we do, we deserve it.	日本語訳
THE MOST USED EXCUSE… 1. I forgot. 2. No one told me to go ahead. 3. I didn’t think it was that important. 4. Wait until the boss comes back and ask him. 5. I didn’t know you were in a hurry for it. 6. That’s the way we’ve always done it. 7. That’s not in my department. 8. How was I to know this was different? 9. I’m waiting for an O.K. 10. That’s his job --not mine.	日本語訳
SOME PEOPLE who slap you on the back are trying to help you swallow what they just told you.	日本語訳
THE PEOPLE most preoccupied with titles and status usually the least deserving of them.	日本語訳
best time to look for work is after you get a job.	日本語訳
THE worst crime against working people is a company which fails to operate at a profit. SAMUEL L GOMPERS	日本語訳
MANY PEOPLE go throughout life committing partial suicide - destroying their talents, energies, creative qualities. Indeed, to learn how to be good to oneself is often more difficult than to learn how to be good to others. JUSHUA LIEBMAN	日本語訳
MANY of us spend half our time wishing for things we could have if we didn't spend half our time wishing. ALEXANDER WOOLLCOTT	日本語訳
A POPULAR singer who recently went from rags to riches was quoted as saying, "I still don't understand it. If you don't have any time for yourself, any time to hunt or fish, that's success."	日本語訳
Forget your opponents; always play against par. SAM SNEAD.	日本語訳
Success is doing what you like to do and making a living at it.	日本語訳
IN Africa some of the native tribes have a custom of beating the ground with clubs and uttering spine-chilling cries. Anthropologists call this a form of self-expression. In America we call it golf.	日本語訳
The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides. HENRI-FREDERIC AMIEL	日本語訳
NATURAL talent, intelligence, a wonderful education - none of these guarantees success. Something else is needed: the sensitivity to understand what other people want and the willingness to give it to them. Worldly success depends on pleasing others. No one is going to win fame, recognition, or advancement just because he thinks he deserves it. Someone else has to think so too. JOHN LUTHER	日本語訳
WE ACT as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about. CHARLES KINGSLEY	日本語訳
All the troubles of man come from his not knowing how to sit still. PASCAL	日本語訳
THE question, “Who ought to be boss?” is like asking “Who ought to be tenor in the quartet?” Obviously the man who can sing tenor. HENRY FORD	日本語訳
NOTHING is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task. WILLIAM JAMES	日本語訳
LEADERSHIP, at its highest, consists of getting people to work for you when they are under no obligation to do so.	日本語訳
Anticipation of problems is half the battle. And the only way to anticipate is to think.	日本語訳
Experience is not what happens to you; it is what you do with what happens to you. ALDOUS HUXLEY	日本語訳
COLORS fade, temples crumble, empires fall, but wise words endure.	日本語訳
When prosperity comes, it’s best not to use all of it.	日本語訳
Stability is more essential to success than brilliance.	日本語訳
NINETY percent of the scientists who ever lived, reports Nation’s Business, are alive today.	日本語訳
THE MORE right one is, the more careful he should be to express his opinion　tactfully. The other fellow never likes to be proved wrong.	日本語訳
SIGN IN a loan company window: “Now you can borrow enough MONEY to be completely out of debt.”	日本語訳
Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists of not exceeding the limits.	日本語訳
LIFE is sometimes hard to love, though we must love it because we have no other. To fail to love it is to cease to exist.	日本語訳
Your mental health will be better if you have lots of fun outside of that office. DR. WILLIAM MENNINGER	日本語訳
People will be happy in about the same degree that they are helpful.	日本語訳
EVERYONE needs a normal amount of recognition for their accomplish- ments, but it is possible to carry the need too far.　Such people are like the little boy who says to his father: “Let's play darts. I’ll throw and you say ‘Wonderful!’ ’”	日本語訳
People may forget how fast you did a job, but they will remember how well you did it.	日本語訳
It is not enough to do the right thing; one must also do it the right way.	日本語訳
IT HAD BEEN a rather stormy board meeting and some very harsh things had been said.　One man-always highly respected and unusually wise in his judgments'-had said nothing throughout the proceedings. Suddenly one of the leaders in the argument turned to him: “You have not said a word. I am sure we would all like to hear your opinion about this matter.” “I have discovered,” replied the quiet one, “that there are many times when silence is an opinion.”	日本語訳
The superior man rises by lifting others. -ROBERT INGERSOLL	日本語訳
BE VERY SLOW to believe that you are wiser than all others; it is a fatal but common error. While one has been saved by a true estimation of another’s weakness, thousands have been destroyed by a false appreciation of their own strength. CHARLES C. COLTON	日本語訳
YOU CAN judge a leader by the size of the problems he tackles - people nearly always pick a problem their own size, and ignore or leave to others the bigger or smaller ones.	日本語訳
MANY PEOPLE have ambition to succeed in their work; they may even have special aptitude for their job. And yet they do not move ahead. Why? Perhaps they think that since they can master the job, there is no need to master themselves. JOHN STEVENSON	日本語訳
THE OLDER I get the more wisdom I find in the ancient rule of taking first things first - a process which often reduces the most complex human problems to manageable proportion. DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER	日本語訳
THE American penchant for using big words is deplorable. If an American had uttered Winston Churchill’s famous line, “Give us the tools and we will finish the job,” it would have come out, “Donate the implements and we will finalize the solution of the matter.” LORD CONFORD	日本語訳
THERE’S a mighty big difference between good, sound reasons and reasons that sound good. BURTON HILLS	日本語訳
People are never as happy or as unhappy as they think.	日本語訳
Little progress can be made merely by repressing what is bad. Our great hope lies in developing what is good.	日本語訳
No one is as tired as the person who does nothing.	日本語訳
In our haste to deal with the things that are wrong, let us not upset the things that are right.	日本語訳
AMBITION usually progresses through the following stages: to be like Dad …to be famous …to be a millionaire …to make enough to pay the bills … to hang on long enough to draw a pension.	日本語訳
A NATION-WIDE fast food chain recently sent out coupons for discounts on its specialties through a local newspaper in a Florida city. The coupons offered good discounts on meals at any of the chain’s franchised restaurants at the addresses listed on the coupons. Only problem was that the coupons listed only the chain’s restaurants in Anchorage, Alaska.	日本語訳
WHAT you think means more than anything else in your life. More than what you earn, more than where you live, more than your social position, and more than what anyone else may think about you. GEORGE ADAMS	日本語訳
Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action. DISRAELI	日本語訳
IF A MAN is happy in his work-exerting himself to the full extent of his limitations and capabilities, and enjoying it-I’d say he’s a success. WILLIAM ROMAIN	日本語訳
People who will not admit they’ve been wrong love themselves more than they love the truth.	日本語訳
IMAGINATION is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire; you will what you imagine; and at last you create what you will. GEORGE BARNARD SHAW	日本語訳
WHEN YOU CAN, always advise people to do what you see they really want to do… Doing what they want to do, they may succeed; doing what they don’t want to do, they won’t. JAMES GOULD COZZENS	日本語訳
It is excellent to have a giant’s strength, but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE	日本語訳
BE TORELANT of those who disagree with you ? after all, they have a right to their ridiculous opinions.	日本語訳
ARGUMENTS seem futile to me, for behind every argument I have ever heard lies the astounding ignorance of someone.- LOUIS D. BRANDEIS（1856-1941）	日本語訳
For the people in an organization to get along together, each must give the others credit for their skills and abilities. There must be mutual respect. It takes many different temperaments, talents and abilities -all working harmoniously together- to make an organization go. Giving others credit for their abilities, whether they are above us, below us, or on the same level, is what cooperation is all about. And no company or organization can prosper and grow without it.	日本語訳
APATHY can only be overcome by enthusiasm, and enthusiasm can only be aroused by two things; first, an ideal which takes the imagination by storm, and second, a definite intelligible plan for carrying that ideal into practice. - ARNOLD TOYNBEE（1889-1975）	日本語訳
EVERY problem contains within itself the seeds of its own solution.	日本語訳
TO COMPREHEND a man's life, it is necessary to know not merely what he does but also what he purposely leaves undone. There is a limit to the work that can be got out of a human body or a human brain, and he is a wise man who wastes no energy on pursuits for which he is not fitted; and he is still wiser who, among the things that he can do well, chooses and resolutely follows the best.-WILLIAM GLADSTONE	日本語訳
MEN will never establish any equality with which they can be contented. Whatever efforts a people may make, they will never succeed in reducing all the conditions of society to a perfect level.-ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE	日本語訳
WISE people learn to tolerate only productive anxiety in themselves. They make tension work for them instead of against them. Their aggressiveness is outgoing and initiating, not hostile or arrogant.	日本語訳
I AM grateful for all my problems. As each of them was overcome I became stronger and more able to meet those yet to come. I grew on all my difficulties.‐J. C. PENNEY	日本語訳
The quality of your work will be affected as much by your attitude as by your skill.Most good managers understand this. They realize that our job performance will be directly related to how we feel about it, about ourselves, and about our employers.And because people's attitudes are so important, modern managers or supervisors must be able to give advice and counsel when they are needed. Improving people's attitudes through counsel, in turn, requires certain attitudes on the part of their leaders:	日本語訳