Marilyn vos Savant Quotes:

To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.

source: - "Courage: the heart and spirit of every woman : reclaiming the forgotten virtue". Book by Sandra Ford Walston, 2001.

Topics: Inspirational, Leadership, Wisdom, Knowledge And Wisdom, Columnists

Success is achieved by developing our strengths, not by eliminating our weaknesses.

Topics: Inspirational, Strength, Success, Eliminating

Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent.

source: - "Perfectionism: What's Bad About Being Too Good". Book by Miriam Adderholdt and Jan Goldberg, 1987.

Topics: Inspirational, Motivational, Positive, Journey To Success, Inspirational Determination

Be in the habit of getting up bright and early on the weekends. Why waste such precious time in bed?

Topics: Weekend, Literature, Waste, Precious Time

Suppose you're on a game show, and you're given the choice of three doors. Behind one door is a car, the others, goats. You pick a door, say #1, and the host, who knows what's behind the doors, opens another door, say #3, which has a goat. He says to you: 'Do you want to pick door #2?' Is it to your advantage to switch your choice of doors?

Topics: Doors, Games, Car, Game Shows

Multi-tasking arises out of distraction itself.

Topics: Madness, Distraction, Arise, Multitasking, Multi Tasking

Be able to defend your arguments in a rational way. Otherwise, all you have is an opinion.

Topics: Literature, Able, Way

Be able to keep a secret or promise when you know in your heart that it is the right thing to do.

Topics: Heart, Promise, Secret

The freedom to be an individual is the essence of America.

Topics: America, Essence, Individual

Know how to garnish food so that it is more appealing to the eye and even more flavorful than before.

Topics: Food, Eye, Literature

I believe that love--not imitation--is the sincerest form of flattery. Your imitator thinks that you can be duplicated; your lover knows you can't.

Topics: Believe, Thinking, Lovers, Imitator

The chess player who develops the ability to play two dozen boards at a time will benefit from learning to compress his or her analysis into less time.

Topics: Player, Two, Benefits

While you're writing, you can't concentrate nearly as well on what the speaker is saying.

Topics: Writing, Literature, Wells

Working in an office with an array of electronic devices is like trying to get something done at home with half a dozen small children around. The calls for attention are constant.

Topics: Children, Home, Office, Electronic Devices

A person who learns to juggle six balls will be more skilled than the person who never tries to juggle more than three.

Topics: Trying, Six, Three

Be able to draw an illustration as least well enough to get your point across to another person.

Topics: Illustration, Able, Literature

Although spoken English doesn't obey the rules of written language, a person who doesn't know the rules thoroughly is at a great disadvantage.

Topics: Literature, Language, Spoken English, Written Language

There's plenty of intelligence in the world, but the courage to do things differently is in short supply.

Topics: Courage, World, Plenty

Know how to travel from your town to a nearby town without a car, either by bus or by rail.

Topics: Travel, Car, Towns

Have you ever noticed that when you must struggle to hear something, you close your eyes?

Topics: Struggle, Eye, Literature

What is the essence of America? Finding and maintaining that perfect, delicate balance between freedom 'to' and freedom 'from.'

Topics: 4th Of July, Patriotic, Essence, July 4, Inspiring Patriotic

Teens think listening to music helps them concentrate. It doesn't. It relieves them of the boredom that concentration on homework induces.

Topics: Blessing, Thinking, Boredom, Teenage Life

Know how weather, especially humidity, can affect the movement of doors and windows.

Topics: Doors, Weather, Movement, Humidity

Know how your representatives stand on major national or state issues.

Topics: Issues, Literature, States, Representatives

A good idea will keep you awake during the morning, but a great idea will keep you awake during the night.

Topics: Morning, Night, Ideas, Inspirational Good Night, Have A Good Day

Skill is successfully walking a tightrope between the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center. Intelligence is not trying.

Topics: New York, Skills, Trying, World Trade Center, Twin Towers

An act of justice closes the book on a misdeed; an act of vengeance writes one of its own

Topics: Book, Writing, Justice, Misdeeds

Feeling is what you get for thinking the way you do.

Topics: Positivity, Thinking, Feelings

Know the function of a fuse box and the appearance of a tripped circuit breaker.

Topics: Literature, Appearance, Function, Circuits, Fuse

Be sure to expose yourself to criticism: A fine polish requires an abrasive.

Topics: Criticism, Fine, Polish

When you're in a good mood, bring up the past. When you're in a bad mood, stick to the present. And when you're not feeling emotional at all, it's time to talk about the future.

Topics: Emotional, Past, Feelings

An error becomes a mistake when we refuse to admit it.

Topics: Mistake, Errors, Refuse

A fool is someone whose pencil wears out before its eraser does.

Topics: Doe, Fool, Pencils, Erasers

You can't be wise without being intelligent, but you certainly can be intelligent without being wise.

Topics: Wise, Intelligent, Being Wise

The length of your education is less important than its breadth, and the length of your life is less important than its depth.

source: - The Reader's Digest, Vol. 140, p. 194, 1992.

Topics: Life, Education, Math, Breadth

The squeaky wheel may get the most oil, but it's also the first to be replaced.

Topics: Oil, Complaining, May, Squeaky Wheel

Common sense comes from experience, and kids need to fail as well as succeed in order to learn it. It's difficult to develop common sense when you spend a lot of time in your room where nothing much happens.

Topics: Kids, Order, Common Sense

Stop asking for directions so much. Assuming that you're in a safe environment, pay attention and figure things out for yourself. Have the nerve to take a wrong turn now and then. You'll develop better working instincts and have more self-esteem too.

Topics: Self Esteem, Safe Environment, Pay, Wrong Turn

The lower our self-esteem, the more we're attracted to our opposite, and the higher our self-esteem, the more we are attracted to another like ourselves.

Topics: Self Esteem, Opposites, Higher

If your head tells you one thing, and your heart tells you another, before you do anything, you should first decide whether you have a better head or a better heart.

Topics: Sweet Love, Heart, Firsts, Head And Heart

If achieving your potential requires favorable judgment by others, you are much less likely to succeed.

Topics: Succeed, Judgment, Achieve

Be able to notice all the confusion between fact and opinion that appears in the news

Topics: Confusion, News, Literature

Success may be the ability to be happy with whatever we're stuck with.

Topics: Happiness, Success, May

One of the few articles of clothing that a man won't try to remove from a woman is an apron.

Topics: Inspirational, Men, Trying, Aprons

Geometry is beautifully logical, and it teaches you how to think and prove that things are so, step by step by step. Proofs are excellent lessons in reasoning. Without logic and reasoning, you are dependent on jumping to conclusions or - worse - having empty opinions.

Topics: Thinking, Jumping, Lessons, Jumping To Conclusions

Almost all of the finer things in life are free or nearly free. You don't have to pay for the sky at night or snow in the morning or a kiss on the nose when you're sick. Forgetting that may put you at the mercy of those who seek to profit by convincing you to want whatever it is they have to sell.

Topics: Morning, Kissing, Night, Finer Things, Finer Things In Life

Just because you're unemployed doesn't mean you're not doing anything useful. You are, for example, at least keeping your mother-in-law's wit sharp.

Topics: Mother, Mean, Law, Mother In Law

Be able to analyze statistics, which can be used to support or undercut almost any argument.

Topics: Support, Literature, Statistics, Undercut

I believe that one becomes stronger emotionally by taking life less personally. If your employer criticizes your report, don't take it personally. Instead, find out what's needed and fix it. If your girlfriend laughs at your tie, don't take it personally. Find another tie or find another girlfriend.

Topics: Girlfriend, Believe, Ties, Your Girlfriend

My thoughts are like waffles - the first few don't look so good.

Topics: Looks, Waffles, Firsts

I think one of the problems [with raising intelligent children] is compulsory schooling...and that children are sitting there and they are taught and told what to believe. They are passive from the very beginning, and one must be very, very aggressive intellectually to have a high IQ [...] the child is taught. Right from the beginning, it's a passive process. He or she sits there, and they simply try to believe everything they're told.

Topics: Children, Believe, Intelligent, Intelligent Child, Schooling

A friend is someone who stays by your side all through the troubles he's caused you.

Topics: Friendship, Your Side, Sides

I've never found an interesting person with a foul mouth.

Topics: Interesting, Mouths, Found

Revenge feels right only to those directly involved. Justice feels right even to outsiders.

Topics: Revenge, Justice, Outsiders

Relatively few of us will find the time-or take it-to live an ever enlarging life.

Topics: Life, Vision

At first, I only laughed at myself. Then I noticed that life itself is amusing. I've been in a generally good mood ever since.

Topics: Literature, Firsts, Good Mood

How can we live in freedom and maintain that we are entitled to *anything* that we can't get without the labor of others? Remember, if we are entitled to the labor of others, that makes slaves of those others.

Topics: Liberty, Remember, Slave, Entitled

If you never heard opportunity knock, maybe you're never at home.

Topics: Home, Opportunity, Heard, Opportunity Knocking

Be able to cite three good qualities of every relative or acquaintance that you dislike.

Topics: Quality, Three, Literature

Yes. The original argument is defective. Substitute the word 'male' for 'gay,' and you'll see the flaw: 'Male people cannot be normal. If everyone were male starting tomorrow, the human race would die out, so being male cannot be nature's intended way.' Or you could substitute the word 'female.' In either case, the argument makes no sense: Being male or female is perfectly normal.

Topics: Gay, Perfectly Normal, Race

Loving behavior contributes to the group at the expense of the individual. Competition contributes to the survival of the individual at the expense of the group. In the garden of life, some people are more like flowers, and other people are more like weeds.

Topics: Weed, Flower, Garden

Avoid using cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs as alternatives to being an interesting person.

Topics: Interesting, Funny Sarcastic, Alcohol, Cigarettes And Alcohol

What women want is what men want. They want respect.

source: - "Evergreen : A Guide to Writing with Readings". Book by Susan Fawcett, 1980.

Topics: Respect, Men, Want, What A Man Wants

Many people feel they must multi-task because everybody else is multitasking, but this is partly because they are all interrupting each other so much.

Topics: People, Tasks, Literature, Interrupting, Multitasking

Know why certain foods, such as truffles, are expensive. It's not because they taste best.

Topics: Taste, Truffles, Certain

Ultimately, our future is like a mirror. Whenever we face it, it always reflects what we left behind.

Topics: Future, Mirrors, Faces

Make a habit of canceling every subscription to anything you don't have time to read

Topics: Literature, Habit, Subscription

Know where to find the sunrise and sunset times and note how the sky looks at those times, at least once.

Topics: Sunset, Sky, Sunrise, Sunrise And Sunset

I love having ten times as much stuff to do as I can possibly find time to do. That way, I can pick the one-tenth that I want to do most. But if I only have enough to just occupy all my time, I'm stuck doing all of whatever stuff it happens to be.

Topics: Want, Stuff, Way

You're who you think you are, even if you never admit it to yourself or to anyone else. You may be in the worst position to judge, but you're in the best position to know.

Topics: Thinking, Judging, May

The difference between America and England is that the English think 100 miles is a long distance and the Americans think 100 years is a long time. The difference between an autobiography and an unauthorized biography is like the difference between an account of your life written by your mother and one written by your mother-in-law.

Topics: Mother, Distance, Thinking, Mother In Law

Profit is what we have left after we make a donation to a worthwhile cause.

Topics: Causes, Donation, Profit

Understand why casinos and racetracks stay in business - the gambler always loses over the long term.

Topics: Long, Casinos, Term

Be able to correctly pronounce the words you would like to speak and have excellent spoken grammar.

Topics: Able, Speak, Excellent

Experts say you can't concentrate on more than one task at a time.

Topics: Experts, Tasks

It is a lot easier to prove that you don't love someone than it is to prove that you do, but one of the best 'proofs' I know is the desire to devote time to the person with no expectation of any sort of compensation, including gratitude, in return.

Topics: Love, Gratitude, Expectations

A good leader needs to stand behind his or her followers as often as he or she needs to stand in front of them.

Topics: Leadership, Needs, Followers

Email, instant messaging, and cell phones give us fabulous communication ability, but because we live and work in our own little worlds, that communication is totally disorganized.

Topics: Communication, Phones, Cells, Cell Phone, Instant Communication

The 40s are when you start trading your psychological problems for physical ones.

Topics: Age, Problem, Psychological, Psychological Problems

I believe a 'talented' person is one who has learned how to effectively cultivate and polish any of the many desirable capabilities with which most of us are born but few of us nurture.

Topics: Believe, Talent, Born, Talented Person

Be able to recognize many of the major constellations and know the stories behind them

Topics: Stories, Literature, Able, Constellations

Know which officials are voted into office and which are appointed, and by whom.

Topics: Office, Literature, Knows

The only real meaning in life can be found in a good man. And maybe Paris. Preferably the two together.

Topics: Real, Men, Two

I?d rather be rejected than used because they both amount to the same thing in the end, but being used takes a lot longer.

Topics: Rejection, Used, Ends

Play more than one game at a time. This is a painless way to learn how to do many things at once.

Topics: Games, Play, Literature, Painless

Be able to meet any deadline, even if your work is done less well than it would be if you had all the time you would have preferred.

Topics: Would Be, Done, Literature

I believe Picasso's success is just one small part of the broader modern phenomenon of artists themselves rejecting serious art- perhaps partly because serious art takes so much time and energy and talent to produce-in favor of what I call `impulse art': art work that is quick and easy, at least by comparison.

Topics: Art, Believe, Energy, Time And Energy

Know how to treat frostbite until you can get indoors.

Topics: Treats, Know How, Knows

Be able to confide your innermost secrets to your mother and your innermost fears to your father.

Topics: Mother, Father, Secret

Be able to live alone, even if you don't want to and think you will never find it necessary.

Topics: Thinking, Literature, Want

[When asked if the voice is an instrument:] Yes, of course. Some are violins, some are fountain pens and some are stethoscopes. And others are just washboards.

Topics: Voice, Violin, Fountain, Fountain Pens, Stethoscope

Evolution has long been the target of illogical arguments that use presumption.

Topics: Long, Target, Use, Presumption, Illogical

Be able to go shopping for a bathing suit and not become depressed afterward.

Topics: Witty, Shopping, Literature, Bathing, Bathing Suits

[Adulthood:] It's when you stop doing the stuff you have to make excuses for and when you stop making excuses for the stuff you have to do.

Topics: Stuff, Excuse, Adulthood, Stop Making Excuses, Making Excuses

When our spelling is perfect, it's invisible. But when it's flawed, it prompts strong negative associations.

Topics: Strong, Perfect, Negative

Have enough sense to know, ahead of time, when your skills will not extend to wallpapering.

Topics: Funny, Witty, Humorous, Ahead Of Time

The magnitude of an action may change not only the strength of its impact, but the direction. If you became a dentist, for example, you would certainly be an asset to our society. But what if everyone became a dentist? Who would bake the bread? Who would build the houses?

Topics: Change, Strength, Impact

Society needs people who can manage projects in addition to handling individual tasks.

Topics: People, Tasks, Needs

Be able to decline a date so gracefully that the person isn't embarrassed that he or she asked.

Topics: Aggravation, Able, Decline

People who work crossword puzzles know that if they stop making progress, they should put the puzzle down for a while.

Topics: People, Progress, Should, Crosswords

Know how to behave at a buffet. Take a clean plate for a second helping.

Topics: Buffets, Helping, Clean

Know the difference between principles based on right or wrong vs. principles based on personal gain, and consider the basis of your own principles.

Topics: Differences, Principles, Literature, Personal Gain

The original answer defines certain conditions. Anything else is a different question.

source: - "Ask Marilyn" column, Parade Magazine, February 17, 1991.

Topics: Different, Answers, Certain

Be able to set a table so that you feel like you're dining, not just sitting and eating.

Topics: Dining, Sitting, Tables

An ounce of sequins can be worth a pound of home cooking.

Topics: Fashion, Home, Cooking, Sequins

One cannot inherit a talent for the violin - there are no violins in nature. Instead, one must be motivated, able to benefit from practice, and persevering.

Topics: Practice, Benefits, Violin

Think of a hypothesis as a card. A theory is a house made of hypotheses.

source: - Proceedings of the Twenty-fifth Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 1991.

Topics: Thinking, House, Cards

I think change is possible, but only for individuals who were never truly gay in the first place and who have a strong personal motivation to recover their heterosexuality.

Topics: Motivational, Strong, Gay, Heterosexuality Is

...there are days when I feel I can do anything and days when I feel I can do nothing. But fortunately for those around me, neither sort occurs very often.

Topics: Feels, Can Do, I Can

Know how to effectively voice a complaint or make a claim at a retail store.

Topics: Voice, Retail, Stores

Try square dancing-at least long enough to no longer feel silly and begin to have fun.

Topics: Fun, Silly, Squares

Be able to blow out a dinner candle without sending wax flying across the table.

Topics: Blow, Flying, Literature

Know how to drive safely when it's raining or when it's snowing. The two conditions are different.

Topics: Rain, Two, Snow, Drive Safely

Attention-deficit disorders seem to abound in modern society, and we don't know the cause.

Topics: Attention, Literature, Causes, Attention Deficit Disorder

Be able to describe anything visual, such as a street scene, in words that convey your meaning.

Topics: Literature, Able, Scene

Be able to suffer wearing a necktie or slightly high heels for an entire evening without complaint or early removal.

Topics: High Heels, Suffering, Literature, Neckties

Know about the appeals process, especially in the case of the most serious crimes.

Topics: Literature, Serious, Crime

Capital punishment is the source of many an argument, both good and bad.

Topics: Punishment, Argument, Source

I suspect that some apparently homosexual people are really heterosexuals who deeply phobic about the opposite sex or have other emotional problems.

Topics: Sex, Emotional, Opposites, Emotional Problems

I believe that one can indeed work on two or more tasks at once, but in ways yet to be understood.

Topics: Believe, Two, Tasks

Be able to identify the most common breeds of dogs and cats on sight.

Topics: Dog, Cat, Sight

Be in the habit of experimenting with your clothing so that you don't get stuck for life with a self-image developed over the course of high school.

Topics: School, Self, Boots

No one would choose to be jerked randomly off task again and again until you have half a dozen things you're trying to get done, all at the same time.

Topics: Trying, Tasks, Done

Everybody loves an accent. It you've been unlucky in love, consider pulling up stakes and moving to another country. Then you'll be the one with a neat foreign accent.

Topics: Country, Moving, Love You

The difference between talking on your cell phone while driving and speaking with a passenger is huge. The person on the other end of the cell phone is chattering away, oblivious.

Topics: Differences, Phones, Cells, Oblivious

If you're wondering if you're dreaming, you're dreaming.

Topics: Dream, Wonder, Ifs

Know what happens when an individual declares bankruptcy and how it affects his or her life.

Topics: Literature, Individual, Bankruptcy

I would not encourage children or teens to multitask because we don't know where those efforts may lead.

Topics: Children, Effort, Teens

Be able to back up a car for a considerable distance in a straight line and back out of a driveway.

Topics: Distance, Car, Literature, Driveway

Know what to do if you feel faint or dizzy, especially if you might fall and hit your head.

Topics: Fall, Literature, Might

Be able to hiccup silently, or at least without alerting neighbors to your situation. The first hiccup is an exception.

Topics: Hiccups, Able, Firsts

Know how and how much to tip people who expect gratuities, even in the case of poor service.

Topics: People, Literature, Poor, Poor Service, Gratuity

Be able to recognize when you're reading or hearing material biased to your own side.

Topics: Reading, Prejudice, Literature, Biased

Be able to sneeze without sounding ridiculous. That means neither stifling yourself or spraying your immediate vicinity.

Topics: Mean, Sneezing, Literature, Vicinity, Stifling

Know the official post office abbreviations for all 50 states without having to consult a list.

Topics: Sea, Office, Abbreviations, Post Office

Be able to recognize the dangerous snakes, spiders, insects, and plants that live in your area of the country.

Topics: Country, Snakes, Spiders

Scientists and creationists are always at odds, of course.

Topics: Odds, Literature, Scientist

Spending waiting moments doing crossword puzzles or reading a book you brought yourself.

Topics: Book, Reading, Waiting, Crosswords

Learn at least two classic ballroom dances, at least one of them Latin.

Topics: Latin, Two, Classic, Ballroom Dance

Know the names of past and current artists who are most famous for playing their instruments.

Topics: Artist, Past, Names

A 45-year old looks a lot like a 25-year old who's been out all night. And feels just as good about having survived the experience.

Topics: Night, Years, Feels Just

Be able to tell whether garments that look good on the hanger actually look good on you

Topics: Looks, Able, Garments, Hangers

Be able to read blueprints, diagrams, floorplans, and other diagrams used in the construction process.

Topics: Able, Construction, Used, Diagrams

Know how to behave at a fine restaurant, which is a telltale measure of social maturity.

Topics: Maturity, Literature, Social