I have always believed you cannot run a successful enterprise from behind a desk.

If life was so easy that you could just go buy success, there would be a lot more successful companies in the world. Successful enterprises are built from the ground up.

The last thing IBM needs right now is a vision.

In the end an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value.

People don't do what you expect but what you inspect.

You don't get points for predicting rain. You get points for building arks.

Watch the turtle. He only moves forward by sticking his neck out.

The rewards system is a powerful driver of behavior and therefore culture.

When I arrived at IBM, there were 'Team' signs all around. I asked, 'How do people get paid?' They told me, 'We pay people based on individual performance.

It is not about bits, bytes and protocols, but profits, losses and margins.

We built this company from the customer back, not from the company out.

Don't be a hater and call it love.

Set your sights so high that even failure has in it an echo of glory.

I try to be open with everybody, try to make everybody feel welcome and make them feel like, hey, I'm an easy person to talk to, get along with.

Paint faster than you can think.

The 2000s were marked by terrorism and a bipartisan desire to fight it.

Between our birth and death we may touch understanding, As a moth brushes a window with its wing

Some people think I'm mean, until they get to know me.

The success of The Simpsons really opened doors. It showed that if you were working in animation you didn't necessarily have to be working in kids' television.

If you don't make mistakes you can't make decisions.

People want just taxes more than they want lower taxes. They want to know that every man is paying his proportionate share according to his wealth.