Schmidt Best Quotes & Sayings

If you are working on a short story for a small online press, don't try to write a serious, world-changing, add-this-to-the-literary-canon masterpiece. Do your best work, but keep it all in perspective. Save the stress for when it is really called for, like facing a two-week deadline to rewrite a novel for a major house. — Victoria Lynn Schmidt

I think I could argue that the press has more impact on politics than corporations. — Eric Schmidt

Google is more than a business. Google is a belief system. And we believe passionately in the open Internet model. — Eric Schmidt

Thanks for what?" he said. "Everything," I said. — Gary D. Schmidt

I actually think the band doesn't need the television show. And I actually think the television show holds it back. No one at radio wants to play a band that's on a television show. — Kendall Schmidt

Say yes to more things. — Eric Schmidt

Just remember when you post something, the computers remember forever — Eric Schmidt

You can attract the best smart creatives with factors beyond money: the great things they can do, the people they'll work with, the responsibility and opportunities they'll be given, the inspiring company culture and values, and yes, maybe even free food and happy dogs sitting desk-side. — Eric Schmidt

To me Amazon is a story of a brilliant founder who personally drove the vision," says Eric Schmidt, the chairman of Google and an avowed Amazon competitor who is personally a member of Amazon Prime, its two-day shipping service. "There are almost no better examples. Perhaps Apple, but people forget that most people believed Amazon was doomed because it would not scale at a cost structure that would work. — Brad Stone

I still believe that sitting down and reading a book is the best way to really learn something. — Eric Schmidt

The catch word is equilibrium again, informed the field what are conventional weapons or nuclear weapons of different qualities. You cannot make up for a actual or perceived disequilibrium in the conventional field by having more nuclear weapons. — Helmut Schmidt

Ninety percent of all the data in the world has been produced in the last two years. Six thousand YouTube videos are posted a minute - and that figure was computed in 2011; by now there's probably not a number high enough to convey how overwhelming it all is. Here's another cocktail party statistic: The amount of information we generate every two days is equal to the amount produced from the beginning of civilization until 2003. That factoid comes from Eric Schmidt, formerly of Google, so you can partly blame him for all your mental clutter. — Patty Marx

I wonder why Holling had the fastest time," said Danny after the announcements - a whole lot louder than he had to. "Could it be because he was running away from two rats who were trying to eat him?"
"That might have a little to do with it," I said. — Gary D. Schmidt

Opportunities like this come once in a lifetime! — Kendall Schmidt

I know. That sounds like a lie. But Presbyterians know that every so often a lie isn't all that bad, and I figured that this was about the best place it could happen. — Gary D. Schmidt

Learn everything you can - everything. And then use all that you have learned to grow up too be a wise and good man. — Gary D. Schmidt

You should hire the best engineer you can find, regardless of her coding preference, because if she's the best she can down enough Java to C how to make the Python Go. — Eric Schmidt

Let the Art be brought back only for the good of the world. If it isn the hand of one who would use it for ill, in that world or this, then it will be upon you to destroy it - though its end means your own life-long exile. - Young Waeglim — Gary D. Schmidt

Search companies, which I won't mention by name, tried to do so many things at the same time, they forgot all about search. They either missed the next revolution of search or they created an opening for a Google to enter. — Eric Schmidt

The career 500th home run for Michael Jack Schmidt! — Harry Kalas

Smart creatives thrive on interacting with each other. The mixture you get when you cram them together is combustible, so a top priority must be to keep them crowded. — Eric Schmidt

I think a scientist's job is to explore the Universe, to explore the cosmos around us. People always want to know - why is that useful? Well, on just pure fundamental grounds, on some level it's like art, it's like umm, music, it's aesthetics, it's like philosophy. You want to know where you are in the Universe. — Brian Schmidt

I think that the solution of the question of numerical superiority of Russian conventional forces has to be solved. — Helmut Schmidt

There's nothing that cannot be found through some search engine or on the Internet somewhere. — Eric Schmidt

In whatever number of years I have on Earth, I think that promoting the values of free expression, the openness of the Internet, that's the best use of my time. — Eric Schmidt

We are certain that for every one of these rock stars we meet in our daily work, there are dozens or even hundreds more who are doing their best to unseat us from our perch. Maybe all of them will fail, but probably not. Probably, somewhere in a garage, dorm room, lab, or conference room, a brave business leader has gathered a small, dedicated team of smart creatives. Maybe she has a copy of our book, and is using our ideas to help her create a company that will eventually render Google irrelevant. Preposterous, right? Except that, given that no business wins forever, it is inevitable. Some would find this chilling. We find it inspiring. — Eric Schmidt

One of Eric's most basic rules is sort of a golden rule for management: Make sure you would work for yourself. If you are so bad as a manager that you as a worker would hate working for you, then you have some work to do. The best tool we have found for this is the self-review: At least once per year, write a review of your own performance, then read it and see if you would work for you. And then, share it with the people who do in fact work for you. This will elicit greater insights than the standard 360-degree review process, because when you are initiating criticism of yourself it gives others the freedom to be more honest. — Eric Schmidt

I have talked about the deterioration of the atmosphere between Washington and Moscow. It was quite clear that in the year 1980, which at the same time was an election year in America, these negotiations would not go very far, but immediately after the start of the Reagan administration we in Bonn started to try influencing them on the medium-range nuclear weapons negotiations, and we told them that in our view the best outcome would be zero-zero, zero on either side. — Helmut Schmidt

consensus is not about getting everyone to agree. Instead, it's about coming to the best idea for the company and rallying around it. — Eric Schmidt

Nice is for people we forget. — Tiffany Schmidt

We have the opportunity to change Denmark - that opportunity must be seized. — Helle Thorning-Schmidt

Because I helped discover the expansion rate of the universe was accelerating. — Brian Schmidt

Google's architectural model around broadband and services and so forth plays very well to the powerful devices and services Apple is doing. We're a perfect back end to the problems that they're trying to solve. — Eric Schmidt

It should go without saying - but it usually doesn't, so we'll say it - that data is best understood by those closest to the issue, which is often not management. As a leader, it is best not to get lost in details you don't understand, but rather trust the smart people who work for you to understand them. — Eric Schmidt

I'm not lying, I was a killer Helen Burns. I stepped out on to that stage like I was the Great Esquimaux Curlew. When Jane Eyre came to look at my book
which happened to be Our Town
I handed it to her just right. When Miss Scatchard told me I never cleaned my nails, I was about as quiet and innocent as a Large-Billed Puffin. When she hit me a dozen times with a bunch of twigs, I was the Brown Pelican: I didn't bat an eye
and you try getting hit a dozen times with a bunch of twigs. And when I had to die, people were crying. Really. And you know why? Because I was the Black-Backed Gull, and so people cried like Helen Burns was their best friend. — Gary D. Schmidt

If you want better performance from the best, celebrate and reward it — Eric Schmidt

Favoring specialization over intelligence is exactly wrong, especially in high tech. The world is changing so fast across every industry and endeavor that it's a given the role for which you're hiring is going to change. Yesterday's widget will be obsolete tomorrow, and hiring a specialist in such a dynamic environment can backfire. A specialist brings an inherent bias to solving problems that spawns from the very expertise that is his putative advantage, and may be threatened by a new type of solution that requires new expertise. A smart generalist doesn't have bias, so is free to survey the wide range of solutions and gravitate to the best one. — Eric Schmidt

After decades of research about how children learn best, here's what we've discovered:
Children learn through play. It's the work of childhood.
Children learn through hands-on experiences. Seeing, touching, tasting, smelling are the strongest modes for early learning.
Children master communication by having conversations.
Children learn by trying to solve real problems.
Children find exploration and investigation intrinsically rewarding. The driving force is "What if . . .?" and "I wonder. . . . — Laurel Schmidt

Work-life balance. This is another touchstone of supposedly "enlightened" management practices that can be insulting to smart, dedicated employees. The phrase itself is part of the problem: For many people, work is an important part of life, not something to be separated. The best cultures invite and enable people to be overworked in a good way, with too many interesting things to do both at work and at home. — Eric Schmidt

The coach doesn't have to play the sport as well as you do. They have to watch you and get you to be your best. — Eric Schmidt

Meetings should have a single decision-maker/owner. There must be a clear decision-maker at every point in the process, someone whose butt is on the line. A meeting between two groups of equals often doesn't result in a good outcome, because you end up compromising rather than making the best tough decisions. Include someone more senior as the decision-maker. The decision-maker should be hands on. He or she should call the meeting, ensure that the content is good, set the objectives, determine the participants, and share the agenda (if possible) at least twenty-four hours in advance. After the meeting, the decision-maker (and no one else) should summarize decisions taken and action items by email to at least every participant - as well as any others who need to know - within forty-eight hours. — Eric Schmidt

Keep in mind, from the outset, that the best way to avoid having to fire underperformers is not to hire them. — Eric Schmidt

Google's a strange place. When I met Eric Schmidt, he said, "If you are kind to everybody, then you will make good decisions because people will give you good information, and if you are truthful to everybody, they will be truthful to you." That's what's different about Google. They screw up and make mistakes, but they genuinely mean the good stuff about "don't be evil." — Larry Brilliant

In many countries adult pornography legislation is an attempt to legislate something else. — Eric Schmidt

Self-esteem means you can say to yourself, "I matter, and so do my goals. — Victoria Lynn Schmidt

Major League Baseball has created a Pete Rose purgatory, and that's where he is. And that's where he's always going to be. It's unfortunate that the commissioner's office has decided to allow that to be the reality. I don't think Pete would mind if they said 'No' to Pete. Pete wants them to go one way or the other and get him out of the void he's in. — Mike Schmidt

Gold Gloves are nice to have people mention. They're basically saying you're a pretty good defensive player along with everything else. But I was about the offensive side. — Mike Schmidt

I think of Google as a set of overlapping things. It's a consumer platform, consumer phenomenon of which search is its fundamental activity, but there are many other things you can do than search ... I think of Google as an advertising company who services the broader advertising industry in the ways that you know. — Eric Schmidt

combining passion and contribution is a luxury: not that it's expensive, but just rare. It's something that many people either can't figure out — Eric Schmidt

It's a shame that cancer has been something that's been accepted in society as something that's always gonna be there. — Kendall Schmidt

If you thought when you got your job at 20 that it would never change you were misinformed. Retrain yourself to be curious. — Eric Schmidt

Even Doug Swieteck's brother couldn't cuss like that
and he could cuss the yellow off a school bus. — Gary D. Schmidt

The best thing that would happen is for Facebook to open up its data. Failing that, there are other ways to get that information, — Eric Schmidt

There are times when she makes me feel as stupid as asphalt. — Gary D. Schmidt

YouTube's traffic continues to grow very quickly. Video is something that we think is going to be embedded everywhere. And it makes sense, from Google's perspective, to be the operator of the largest site that contains all that video. — Eric Schmidt

It is expected that there will be discrepancies between models and observations. However, why these arise and what one should conclude from them are interesting and more subtle than most people realize. Indeed, such discrepancies are the classic way we learn something new. — Gavin Schmidt

Talk is only silence that ain't workin' well. — Gary D. Schmidt

Christmas is the season for miracles, you know. Sometimes they come big and loud, I guess - but I've never seen one of those. I think probably most miracles are a lot smaller, and sort of still, and so quiet, you could miss them. — Gary D. Schmidt

I lit a candle in a Catholic church for the first time that afternoon. Me, a Presbyterian. I lit a candle in the warm, dark, waxy-smelling air of Saint Adelbert's. I put it beside the one that Mrs. Baker lit. I don't know what she prayed for, but I prayed that no atomic bomb would ever drop on Camillo Junior High or the Quaker meetinghouse or the old jail or Temple Emmanuel or Hicks Park or Saint Paul's Episcopal School or Saint Adelbert's. I prayed for Lieutenant Baker, missing in action somewhere in the jungles of Vietnam near Khesanh. I prayed for Danny Hupfer, sweating it out in Hebrew school right then. I prayed for my sister, driving in a yellow bug toward California - or maybe she was there already, trying to find herself. And I hoped that it was okay to pray for a bunch of things with one candle. — Gary D. Schmidt

There are a significant number of people who appreciate what we do, and most of them gravitate to Analog because this is where they can find it. The other magazines tend to share their audiences, which may result in each of them having a smaller market share. — Stanley Schmidt

I do want to emphasize that we've seen an explosion in the use of Google Maps and Google Earth for education. The earth is a special place. It is our home and it's why we're all here. And the ability to see what's really going on the earth, the good stuff and the bad stuff, at the level that you can, is phenomenal. — Eric Schmidt

No storm is forever. — Gary D. Schmidt

Of course smart people know a lot and can therefore accomplish more than others less gifted. But hire them not for the knowledge they possess, but for the things they don't yet know. — Eric Schmidt

Look, this CPAC convention is increasingly the Star Wars bar scene of the conservative movement. All that's missing from that convention is a couple of Wookies. — Steve Schmidt

How come when you're feeling good like this, something always happens to wreck it all? How come? — Gary D. Schmidt

Mobile use is growing faster than all of Google's internal predictions. — Eric Schmidt

People who have visions should go see a doctor. — Helmut Schmidt

Politicians and journalists share the same fate in that they often understand tomorrow the things they talk about today. — Helmut Schmidt

Milt was one of the men who discovered Bobby Orr. He once said that if a player comes along who is better then Bobby Orr, may the Good Lord let me be alive to see him because he is going to be one hell of a player to watch. Enough said. — Milt Schmidt

More than a pleasant surprise, Danny Schmidt was no less than a revelation to me. And that's not a word I use lightly. — Keith Morris