Friction Quotes

• The gem cannot be polished without friction nor man without trials.

  Confucius

  Inspirational, Life, Success

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• In family life, love is the oil that eases friction, the cement that binds closer together, and the music that brings harmony.

  Eva Burrows

  Love, Family, Meaningful

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• Change means movement. Movement means friction. Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world can movement or change occur without that abrasive friction of conflict.

  Saul Alinsky

  Change, Mean, Vacuums

  Saul Alinsky (2010). “Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals”, p.21, Vintage

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• The world is wide, and I will not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum.

  Frances E. Willard

  Inspirational, Motivational, Momentum

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• Change means movement. Movement means friction.

  Saul Alinsky

  Change, Mean, Vacuums

  Saul Alinsky (2010). “Reveille for Radicals”, p.224, Vintage

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• A diamond cannot be polished without friction, nor a person perfected without trials. Someone is enjoying shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.

  Warren Buffett

  Long, Tree, Shade

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  Of all the frictional resistances, the one that most retards human movement is ignorance.

  Nikola Tesla

  Ignorance, Movement, Resistance

  Nikola Tesla, David Hatcher Childress (2000). “The Tesla Papers”, p.30, Adventures Unlimited Press

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• Friction makes sparks and sparks start creative conflagrations.

  Leo Burnett

  Creative, Sparks

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• Ninety percent of the friction of daily life is caused by tone of voice.

  Arnold Bennett

  Communication, Voice, Tone

  20 Copy quote

• To be aware of a single shortcoming within oneself is more useful than to be aware of a thousand in somebody else. Rather than speaking badly about people and in ways that will produce friction and unrest in their lives, we should practice a purer perception of them, and when we speak of others, speak of their good qualities.

  Dalai Lama

  Practice, People, Perception

  Dalai Lama (1994). “The Path to Enlightenment”, p.114, Shambhala

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• Iteration, like friction, is likely to generate heat instead of progress.

  George Eliot

  Progress, Literature, Heat

  George Eliot (2016). “The Mill On The Floss”, p.186, George Eliot

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• It's not the work which kills people, it's the worry. It's not the revolution that destroys machinery it's the friction.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  People, Worry, Revolution

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• The only things that evolve by themselves in an organization are disorder, friction and malperformance.

  Peter Drucker

  Inspirational, Business, Organization

  Peter Drucker (2013). “People and Performance”, p.172, Routledge

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• Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Machines, Life Is, Civil Disobedience

  Civil Disobedience (1849) See Savio 1

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• Free societies are societies in motion, and with motion comes friction.

  Salman Rushdie

  Free Society

  "Joseph Anton: A Memoir". Book by Salman Rushdie, September 2012.

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• In family life, love is the oil that eases friction.

  Eva Burrows

  Family, Love Life, Love Is

  13 Copy quote

• Of all the frictional resistances, the one that most retards human movement is ignorance, what Buddha called 'the greatest evil in the world.' The friction which results from ignorance ... can be reduced only by the spread of knowledge and the unification of the heterogeneous elements of humanity. No effort could be better spent.

  Nikola Tesla

  Ignorance, Knowledge, Science

  Nikola Tesla (2013). “The Problem of Increasing Human Energy, With Special References to the Harnessing of”, p.15, Simon and Schuster

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• One might call habit a moral friction: something that prevents the mind from gliding over things but connects it with them and makes it hard for it to free itself from them.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Mind, Gliding, Might

  "Aphorisms". Book by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. Notebook A 10, 1799.

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• If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Motivational, Religious, Freedom

  Civil Disobedience (1849) See Savio 1

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• It is not work that kills men; it is worry. Worry is rust upon the blade.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Men, Worry, Stressed

  Henry Ward Beecher (1871). “Lectures to young men, on various important subjects”, p.303

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• Heat can also be produced by the impact of imperfectly elastic bodies as well as by friction. This is the case, for instance, when we produce fire by striking flint against steel, or when an iron bar is worked for some time by powerful blows of the hammer.

  Hermann von Helmholtz

  Powerful, Blow, Fire

  Hermann von Helmholtz, David Cahan (1995). “Science and Culture: Popular and Philosophical Essays”, p.116, University of Chicago Press

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• Everything in war is very simple, but the simplest thing is difficult.

  Carl von Clausewitz

  War, Simple, Difficult

  "On War (Book 1)". Book by Carl von Clausewitz, 1832.

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• A fully developed bureaucratic mechanism stands in the same relationship to other forms as does the machine to the non-mechanical production of goods. Precision, speed, clarity, documentary ability, continuity, discretion, unity, rigid subordination, reduction of friction and material and personal expenses are unique to bureaucratic organization.

  Max Weber

  Unique, Organization, Unity

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  Only three things happen naturally in organizations: friction, confusion, and underperformance. Everything else requires leadership.

  Peter Drucker

  Organization, Confusion, Excellence

  346 Copy quote

• Lying increases the creative faculties, expands the ego, and lessens the frictions of social contacts.

  Clare Boothe Luce

  Lying, Creativity, Creative

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