How to be "Culture Smart": (by Sondra Thiederman, "Getting Culture Smart")
- Learn about differences
- Look for commonalties
- Avoid stereotypical thinking
- Know your own culture
- Communicate respect
- Empathize, don't patronize
- Be your best self
- Trust your instincts
- Practice "personal correctness"
- Expect the best

Values are the gold that's in each of us. They're the real fortune of our organization.

Hold yourself responsible to a higher standard than anyone expects of you. Never excuse yourself.
- Henry Ward Beecher

The true purpose of our value statements is to guide both our behaviors and our decisions.

I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character!
- Theodore Roosevelt

Our efforts to do a better job of living our values will undoubtedly come with flaws. But if we meet those flaws and occasional failures with both persistence and patience, we can unlock the fortunes that exist within our organizations.
- Eric Harvey & Alexander Lucia

It is wrong to waste the precious gift of time on acrimony and division.

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being.
- Van Goethe

Values tend to whisper, whereas feelings and emotions tend to shout.

It's not what you carry "on" you (techniques, gimmicks, etc.) It's what you carry "within" you (principles, beliefs, values, etc.)

The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.
- William Safire

Never place loyalty to an institution above loyalty to yourself.

The life of a small group of people who live true to their convictions, does more and more certain good than all writings. Let us, therefore, young and old, direct all our actions as much as possible towards the realization of our convictions.
- Tolstoi

The more investment you have in your beliefs, the harder it is to change them.

The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that outlasts it.
- William James

It is easier to SAY what we believe than BE what we believe.

Strong beliefs win strong men and then make them stronger.
-Walter Bagehot
And as men become stronger, so do the organizations to which they belong.
- Thomas J. Watson, Jr.

If you want to live a long life, focus on making contributions.
- Selye

So never be afraid, never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion; against injustice, lying, and greed. If you will do this, not as a class or classes, but as individuals, men and women, you will change the earth.
- William Faulkner

What do we live for it if is not to make life less difficult for each other?
- George Eliot

John Steinbeck in his book "Of Mice and Men" pointed out the decline in moral values when one of his characters commented, "There's nothing wrong anymore."

Tell the TRUTH: A man came across a rare antique desk. He "bargained" to get the best price, telling them he only really wanted the legs, not disclosing the true value of the object. After striking an agreement, he arranged to pick up the desk the next day. When he arrived, he found that they had cut the table in pieces! "Why?" he asks. "Well," they reply, "We noticed you had a very small car and thought that it would be difficult for you to put the whole desk in, so, since you really only wanted the legs anyway...."
- taken from an old Alfred Hitchcock show

The soil in return for her services keeps the tree tied to her, the sky asks nothing and leaves it free.