Librarian note: Alternate cover for ISBN - 9780761117308
8,789 Words Of Wisdom is brimming with great advice, maxims, sayings and saws, proverbs, precepts and truths-8,789 of them, to be exact. Turn to any spot in the book and there is the secret to living a happier, healthier, saner, more productive life. Learn to unlearn. Appreciate the questions as much as the answers. Stretch beyond what is comfortable. There are folksy expressions polished smooth over time: If you think you can, you can. Experience is the best teacher. Quotes: Those who know don't speak, those who speak don't know (Lao-tzu). Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there (Will Rogers). Unexpected turns: Listen with your eyes. Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment. Taken together it's the ultimate source of self-improvement.
Dr. Barbara Ann Kipfer (born in 1954) is a lexicographer,as well as an archaeologist. She has written more than 60 books, including 14,000 Things to be Happy About (Workman), which has more than a million copies in print and has given rise to many Page-a-Day calendars. The 25th anniversary edition of the book was published in October 2014. She is the editor of Roget's International Thesaurus.
Kipfer is Chief Lexicographer of the company Temnos. She has worked for such companies as Google, Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com, Answers.com, Ask Jeeves, Bellcore/Telcordia, Federated Media Publishing, General Electric Research, IBM Research, idealab, Knowledge Adventure, Textdigger, The Chicago Tribune, and WolframAlpha. Barbara holds a PhD and MPhil in Linguistics (University of Exeter), a PhD in Archaeology (Greenwich University), an MA and a PhD in Buddhist Studies (Akamai University), and a BS in Physical Education (Valparaiso University).
A great book full of advices. If you don't know what to do, open up a random page and read the first saying that catches your eye. Maybe it will help. I found a lot of comfort and new favorite sayings in this book.
There were a lot of repeat quotes and a good chunk of them weren't even really 'words of wisdom'. They felt like my mother was nagging me. "Brush your teeth twice a day!" Thanks.
Inspiring, somewhat motivational, but too repetitive. You can see a quote appearing for 3-5x times or more, not even paraphrased.
Why not focus on quality of the quotes, rather than quantity? Some quotes i just don't get it:
“Eventually everything gets done” -> rather pessimistic. If you really think that and you don't do something about it, than it won't get done. Nobody will do you work.
“Kiss someone good night even if he is already asleep” Probably is too late if you start thinking of kissing someone at night, what about in the morning?
“Talk to your plants and animals” Have you ever had a nice conversation with plants?
I would rather have a book of amazing 1,000 quotes or even only 100 quotes, but really profound, good and unique ones. Nevertheless I read 1/3 of the book, I find some enjoyment in reading, but I quit reading because of repetitiveness.
This one was so-so - There were tons of repeats and near-repeats of the quotes - I think the amount of original quotes was less than 100. This one differed from previous texts in adding proverbs, precepts, maxims, adages, and axioms. Not even sure what most of those words mean, but it was written on the back cover so it must be true. Luckily I could still understand what I read.
I read about 2-3 pages a day just for morning inspiration. There were a lot of repeated quotes that were just worded differently and some of the quotes I didn’t fully agree with. However, this book came handy when drinking coffee and when you want to start your day off on the right foot.
Other quotes I agree and then highlighted it. Some I seem to not get. Overall, was happy I took the time and chance to read this. I didn’t expect it to be that long to finish. Oh well!
Finally finished this book after almost 5 months! Whenever I don't know where to start reading again, I find myself getting this book and skim a few pages and get inspired. I even wrote some pieces in my personal journal.
This is a book of quotes. I put it on the coffee table to pick up here and there to read. Unfortunately, I lost interest in it. There were a lot of good quotes, but it took a while to get through them.
if I need my spirit to be lightened this is one of the books..I love just reading great quotes.funny n a lot of the time I feel better when I open up n read this book..