Lieber ein Ende mit Schrecken als ein Schrecken ohne Ende — better an end with horror than horror without end. Germans use it to argue for stopping a failing project now, instead of letting it continue. German Wikipedia, citing the Duden Allgemeinbildung, traces the phrase to the Prussian officer Ferdinand von Schill. It gives no primary source, so the attribution is uncertain.
aphorisms
Sayings About Mistakes
Irren ist menschlich — to err is human.
Aus Fehlern wird man klug — mistakes make you wise.
Wer nichts macht, macht nichts falsch — whoever does nothing does nothing wrong.
Sich blamieren — to embarrass yourself in front of others.
Der Versager — the failure, said of a person.
Words for not hurrying
Gut Ding will Weile haben — a good thing wants time.
Eile mit Weile — hurry with leisure, a German rendering of festina lente.
Übers Knie brechen — to break something over the knee. The German phrase for forcing a hasty resolution, and it names what happens to the thing.
Erst mal eine Nacht drüber schlafen — sleep a night over it first. Said in German meetings, and acted on.
Just do it
Nike, 1988. Three words, an imperative, and no object — it does not say what to do. The sentence assumes the deliberation has gone on too long and supplies the only missing ingredient.
What gets measured gets managed
The sentence is quoted constantly in American management and commonly attributed to Peter Drucker, though the attribution is disputed. Whatever its origin, the assumption inside it is that a thing without a number attached to it will drift.
Who writes, remains
Wer schreibt, der bleibt — who writes, remains. A German saying about the authority of the written record, used in meetings about who is taking the minutes.
Papier ist geduldig — paper is patient, the counter-saying, warning that writing something down does not make it true.
Das steht so im Prozess — that is how it stands in the process. Offered in German discussion as a reason, and usually accepted as one.
Win-win
Stephen Covey made it one of the seven habits in 1989 and the phrase became ordinary American business speech. The claim inside it is that a negotiation is a joint problem, and the vocabulary carried the claim into general use.
What costs nothing is worth nothing
What costs nothing is worth nothing. Said in German about free advice, free offers and heavy discounts. It reverses the usual direction of suspicion. The doubt attaches not to the expensive thing but to the cheap one.
Honesty lasts longest
Honesty lasts longest. A German proverb, and the argument in it is about duration rather than virtue. It does not say honesty is right. It says honesty is what survives — which is the same argument the culture makes about agreements, prices and partnerships.
The jug and the well
The jug goes to the well until it breaks. A German proverb about repeated advantage-taking. The jug does not break because of any single trip. It breaks because the trips continued past the point where they should have stopped, and nobody was counting.