Some sentences accompany a whole working life. They capture in five words what others need a book for. This collection has grown over years — every line has proven itself in practice: in corporations, in clubs, in one’s own team.
To think about. To pin up. To pass on.
„It is better to light a single small candle than to curse the darkness.“
Confucius · Chinese philosopher (551–479 BC)
„That I live is not necessary — but that I am active is.“
Frederick the Great · King of Prussia (1712–1786)
„He who has made a mistake and does not correct it commits a second one.“
Confucius · Chinese philosopher (551–479 BC)
„Courage is good, but endurance is better.“
Theodor Fontane · German writer (1819–1898)
„More people capitulate than fail.“
Henry Ford · American industrialist (1863–1947)
„Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.“
Henry Ford · American industrialist (1863–1947)
„Carpe Diem — seize the day!“
Horace · Roman poet (65–8 BC)
„Have the courage to use your own understanding.“
Immanuel Kant · German philosopher (1724–1804)
„The duty to oneself consists in preserving the dignity of humanity in one’s own person.“
Immanuel Kant · German philosopher (1724–1804)
„It is not death a man should fear, but that he should never begin to live.“
Marcus Aurelius · Roman emperor (121–180)
„He too does wrong who does nothing when he can. Whoever does not forbid injustice when he can, commands it.“
Marcus Aurelius · Roman emperor (121–180)
„Only those pieces of advice and principles impress me which the adviser himself follows.“
Rosa Luxemburg · German politician (1871–1919)
„No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.“
Adam Smith · British economist (1723–1790)
„It is not the employer who pays the wages — he only handles the money. It is the product that pays the wages.“
Henry Ford · American industrialist (1863–1947)
„Take out of the world the experience and judgement of men over fifty, and not enough would be left to keep it going.“
Henry Ford · American industrialist (1863–1947)
„A little friendship is worth more to me than the admiration of the whole world.“
Otto von Bismarck · German statesman (1815–1898)
„A liberal can be a minister; but that does not make him a liberal minister.“
Wilhelm von Humboldt · German philosopher and statesman (1767–1835)
„Revolutions are the locomotives of history.“
Karl Marx · German philosopher and politician (1818–1883)
„To judge a state, you must see its prisons from the inside.“
Leo Tolstoy · Russian writer (1828–1910)
„The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.“
Plutarch · Greek writer and philosopher (46–125)
„Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses.“
Confucius · Chinese philosopher (551–479 BC)
„To doubt is to search, not to be lost.“
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi · Swiss educator and social reformer (1746–1827)
„Resolve in misfortune is always half the way to rescue.“
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi · Swiss educator and social reformer (1746–1827)
„Most oppressive of all are the people who enact and constantly renew laws, always believing they can set limits to fraud in business — without realising that in truth they are cutting off the heads of a hydra.“
Plato · Greek philosopher (427–347 BC)
„A good aphorism is the truth of a whole book in a single sentence.“
Theodor Fontane · German writer (1819–1898)
Note: All quoted persons died more than 75 years before publication — their works are in the public domain. The collection deliberately contains only quotes whose use is legally unproblematic.
The best of these sentences are about the same thing: doing that gets seen. Lighting a candle instead of cursing. Endurance instead of resolutions. Honouring experience instead of overlooking it.
That is exactly what GoodPoints is for: points make doing visible — for yourself and (anonymised) in comparison. A good life in sentences, good work in points.
© 2026 · Dr.-Ing. Walter Tritt