A Lot o' Mottos: What are your words to live by?

[DeeDub]

Mottos are the most elegant and concise of literary compositions. They provide us with memorable summaries of those tidy rules by which we govern our lives. (Or sometimes not, unfortunately.) What are your favorite mottos?

I'll start with one of my favorites:

Measure twice, cut once.​

 

[Snookie]

When in doubt, just smile and nod.

 

[Dinerman]

Use a bigger hammer

 

[TraderRic]

I just finished the Surface Warfare Officer School Department Head Course. We were caught in the middle of a curriculum change, so things were confusing and in constant flux. Our class motto was:

"READINESS THROUGH BITTERNESS"

because change was the only constant.

 

[Samsa]

I was going to say "life is too short for mottos." But then I Googled the phrase, hoping that my new motto was an original one, when I came upon a personals page.

Time for a new motto.

Edit: I forgot the two mottos I actually live by! (And proudly tell people). They are:

1. Why do today what you can do tomorrow?
2. It will always get done.

Taken together, these have formed the backbone of my approach to just about everything in life.

 

[SpitfireXIV]

somewhere in the universe, my grandmother is smiling:

"be nice to everyone, but chose your friends with care."

"when you speak, think of these 5 things: to whom you speak, of whom you speak, and how and when and where...."

for my mother's contribution to my outlook:

"life is uncertain. eat dessert first."

 

[Jack Scorpion]

Everything gets better after two shots of vodka. Everything gets worse after three.

Great writers' lives were more interesting than their novels.

 

[Zemke Fan]

It always comes back to this...

Fergus spake these words and he said:

This shall be my creed whereby I shall live my life as it were a shining example of virtue and excellence well worthy to be enshrined in heaven as a model for all who are wise to follow:

• First, I shall constrain myself to Mind My Own Business.
• Second, I shall endeavor at all times and in all places to Keep My Nose Clean by the most expedient possible means.
• Third, and finally, I shall always exercise the utmost care to Keep My Hands to Myself.

Bored of the Rings (Harvard Lampoon, 1969)

 

[Zemke Fan]

My father's variant...

Measure twice, cut once.

I don't understand... I cut it off TWICE and it's STILL too short!

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Fergehtaboudit.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

I never did mind about the little things.





* I fail at this daily.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

My husband's is: If you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly.

 

[MrNewportCustom]

I've said this in another thread: "The power of the human mind is limited only by the human mind."

And I came up with this one in junior high school after having mom tell me to clean the yard several days in a row: "The only way to get the job done is to get up and do it."

And a friend of twenty-five years always says, "When in doubt, mumble."



Lee

 

[griffer]

In my business- which ain't accounting or rocket science- I don't give two figs for "significant digits", so I made this up-

"Magnitude, not exactitude."

One from my Texas father, doesn't play well in Yankee land-

"Shit'll do for brains, if you're lucky."

 

[LizzieMaine]

Live every day as though it were your last -- and someday you'll be right.

 

[CharlieH.]

Words I live by-

- Nothing good lasts forever, or even long enough to enjoy it.

- Thou shalt not pine.

 

[Novella]

"Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."
-Abraham Lincoln

"you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need"
- Rolling Stones, but via my Dad

 

[Quigley Brown]

Being a photographer:

Shoot first. Ask questions later.

 

[carebear]

Recently mine's been: "Often wrong, never uncertain."

There's so many military mottos I like, but that seems like cheating.

 

[Barry]

"If you are going through hell, keep going."

“Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.”

-- Winston Churchill