Inspiration
One of the things that our group stresses is WHY we do the things that we do. Often, research is understood as WHAT we do (e.g., project goals, publications) and HOW we do it (e.g., experiments, thinking, reading, writing). But, there are times when things are not going your way and WHAT and HOW might not sustain your desire to move things forward - whether that is your own personal curiosity or wanting to make the world a better place. Below are quotes that mean something to us as a team - picked by everyone in the group. We hope that you find something here that inspires you too.
If it doesn't challenge you, it won't change you
- Fred DeVito
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​If you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right
- Henry Ford
Wisdom begins in wonder
- Socrates
A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new
- Albert Einstein
If I knew where I was going, I would already be there
- William Patrick Corgan
Today is difficult, tomorrow is much more difficult, the day after tomorrow is beautiful. Most people die tomorrow evening
- Jack Ma
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Curiosity, which may or may not eventuate in something useful, is probably the outstanding characteristic of modern thinking. It is not new. It goes back to Galileo, Bacon, and to Sir Isaac Newton, and it must be absolutely unhampered
- Abraham Flexner of Princeton University in his essay
'The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge'
Treat everyone the way you wish to be treated
- The Golden Rule, which is believed to first appear in
the ancient Egyptian story "The Tale of the Eloquent
Peasant," which dates back to around 2040 BCE
If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants
- Isaac Newton
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield
- Nasir al-Din Tusi
Most men die at age 25 and aren't buried until they're 80
- Benjamin Franklin
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There are three types of people in this world: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened
- Nicholas Murray Butler
As you start to walk on the way, the way appears
- Maulana Rumi 'Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi"
Patience and Perseverance can overcome mountains
- M.K Gandhi
You become what you believe
– Oprah Winfrey
The heights that great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they while their companions slept were toiling upward in the night
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
A dream is not that which you see while sleeping, it is something that does not let you sleep
- A.P.J Abdul Kalam
I never lose. I either win or learn
-Nelson Mandela
The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong
- Gandhi
Your beliefs become your thoughts, Your thoughts become your words, Your words become your actions, Your actions become your habits, Your habits become your values, Your values become your destiny
- Gandhi
The true measure of a life well-lived is in the hearts you've uplifted and the lives you've touched along the way
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend
- Solomon
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Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And weak men create hard times
- G. Michael Hopf
CONTACT US
Professor William E. Mustain
Department of Chemical Engineering
Swearingen Engineering Center
University of South Carolina
301 Main St.
Columbia, SC 29208
803-576-6393