Some of my favorite quotes from a wide range of sources. I especially like Stieglitz’s prediction from 1897. It just goes to show that even experts in a field often fall far short when trying to predict the future. I also like Lincoln’s quote that reminds us that we can all be replaced, often far easier than the tools we use.
- Richard Avedon — And if a day goes by without doing something related to photography, it’s as though I’ve neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up. I know the accident of my being a photographer has made my life possible.
- From “The Bourne Ultimatum” — My first rule is hope for the best; plan for the worst.
- Dorothea Lange — “The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.”
- Alfred Stieglitz, 1897 — “Photography is a fad well-nigh on its last legs, thanks principally to the bicycle craze.”
- Ansel Adams — “We don’t make a photograph just with a camera, we bring to the act of photography all the books we have read, the movies we have seen, the music we have heard, the people we have loved.”
- Ansel Adams — “There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.”
- Jim Brandenburg — “Nature cannot be twisted to our whims, not even for the purpose of capturing her beauty on film. She must be approached on a level at once aware of both her charms and her harshness. Hers is not a world solely of “calendar” scenes,,, but one also of mystery and hardness, built of the timeless recycling of energy as creatures and plants die and are reborn.”
- Rick Sammon — Sammonisms:
- The name of the game is to fill the frame.
- Dead center is deadly.
- When you think you are close, get closer.
- The camera looks both ways.
- Expose for the highlights.
- Use your camera like a spaceship.
- Light illuminates, shadows define.
- Backlight = shoot tight.
- Make pictures, just don’t take pictures.
- See eye to eye – shoot eye to eye.
- Take the darn flash off the camera.
- Explore the light
- Omar N. Bradley — “If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner.”
- Will Rogers — “Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.”
- Colin Powell — “It ain’t as bad as you think. It will be better in the morning.”
- Abraham Lincoln — “I can make a brigadier general in five minutes. But it’s not so easy to replace one hundred and ten horses.”
- Creighton Abrams — “There must be, within our Army, a sense of purpose. There must be a willingness to march a little farther, to carry a heavier load, to step out into the dark and the unknown for the safety and well being of others.”
- Jeff Huestis
- Honesty: not saying something that is untrue.
- Frankness: answering the question that was asked, fully.
- Transparency: answering the question(s) that the other person didn’t know to ask.
- George S. Patton(from U.S. Army facebook page) — Gen. George S. Patton’s 10 Commandments:
- Do everything that you ask of those you command.
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Say what you mean, and mean what you say.
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Do not fear failure.
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Do more than is required of you.
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Do not take counsel of your fears.
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Always go forward.
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Take calculated risks.
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Give credit where it is due.
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Accept full responsibility for the actions of yourself and your men.
