Quotations about Problem Solving
For every failure, there's an alternative course of action. You just have to find it. When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.
~Mary Kay Ash
Learn to adjust yourself to the conditions you have to endure, but make a point of trying to alter or correct conditions so that they are most favorable to you.
~William Frederick Book
Leaders are problem solvers by talent and temperament, and by choice.
~Harlan Cleveland
A man who has committed a mistake and doesn't correct it is committing another mistake.
~Confucius
He who asks a question may be a fool for five minutes, but he who never asks a question remains a fool forever.
~Tom Connelly
Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.
~Marie Curie
A problem well stated is a problem half solved.
~John Dewey
Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
~Thomas Edison
It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.
~Albert Einstein
The important thing is not to stop questioning.
~Albert Einstein
The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.
~Albert Einstein
You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created.
~Albert Einstein
A problem is a chance for you to do your best.
~Duke Ellington
Don't find fault. Find a remedy.
~Henry Ford
Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them.
~Henry Ford
There are no big problems, there are just a lot of little problems.
~Henry Ford
Hot heads and cold hearts never solved anything.
~Billy Graham
Nobody is bored when he is trying to make something that is beautiful, or to discover something that is true.
~William Inge
The greatest and most important problems in life are all in a certain sense insoluble. They can never be solved, but only outgrown.
~Carl Jung
Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.
~John F. Kennedy
All who have accomplished great things have had a great aim, have fixed their gaze on a goal which was high, one which sometimes seemed impossible.
~Orison Swett Marden
When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail.
~Abraham Maslow
A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.
~John C. Maxwell
Focus on remedies, not faults.
~Jack Nicklaus
Believe it is possible to solve your problem. Tremendous things happen to the believer. So believe the answer will come. It will.
~Norman Vincent Peale
How you think about a problem is more important than the problem itself - so always think positively.
~Norman Vincent Peale
Problems are to the mind what exercise is to the muscles, they toughen and make strong.
~Norman Vincent Peale
The "how" thinker gets problems solved effectively because he wastes no time with futile "ifs" but goes right to work on the creative "how".
~Norman Vincent Peale
When a problem comes along, study it until you are completely knowledgeable. Then find that weak spot, break the problem apart, and the rest will be easy.
~Norman Vincent Peale
When I dig another out of trouble, the hole from which I lift him is the place where I bury my own.
~Norman Vincent Peale
Problems do not go away. They must be worked through or else they remain, forever a barrier to the growth and development of the spirit.
~Scott Peck
Have you got a problem? Do what you can where you are with what you've got.
~Theodore Roosevelt
Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best.
~Theodore Rubin
The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.
~Theodore Rubin
Do not think of your faults; still less of others' faults. Look for what is good and strong and try to imitate it. Your faults will drop off like dead leaves when their time comes.
~John Ruskin
I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is: try to please everybody.
~Herbert Bayard Swope
It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.
~James Thurber
"I must do something" always solves more problems than "Something must be done."
~author unknown
Worry is like a rocking chair - it gives you something to do but won't get you anywhere.
~author unknown
No problem can stand the assault of sustained thinking.
~Voltaire
Don't dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer.
~Denis Waitley