The near cousin of optimism is hope: knowing the steps needed to get to a goal and having the energy to pursue those steps. It is a primal motivating force, and its absence is paralyzing.

True compassion means not only feeling another's pain but also being moved to help relieve it.

Research shows that for jobs of all kinds, emotional intelligence is twice as important an ingredient of outstanding performance as cognitive ability and technical skill combined.

One way to boost our will power and focus is to manage our distractions instead of letting them manage us.

Simple inattention kills empathy, let alone compassion. So the first step in compassion is to notice the other's need. It all begins with the simple act of attention.

There is perhaps no psychological skill more fundamental than resisting impulse.

There is zero correlation between IQ and emotional empathy... They're controlled by different parts of the brain.

Empathy represents the foundation skill for all the social competencies important for work.

As much as 80% of adult "success" comes from EQ.

One aspect of a successful relationship is not just how compatible you are, but how you deal with your incompatibility.

My hope was that organizations would start including this range of skills in their training programs - in other words, offer an adult education in social and emotional intelligence.

As I create I become.

The elements of life do not segregate themselves, unless they are human.

Mechanism! Everywhere -- mechanism! Devices for getting away from life so complete that there seemed no life to get away from.

People respond when they are taught, and that primarily by example, rather than preached at. Jesus modeled just this approach in His life."~R. Alan Woods [2013]

Freedom granted only when it is known beforehand that its effects will be beneficial is not freedom.

The key to success is radical generosity.

Pain is an interesting and off-putting thing. Few if any things in life concentrate our attention so completely and terribly, and few things are more boring to listen to or read about.

There are always going to be more actors than anybody can ever use.

On the subject of dress almost no one, for one or another reason, feels truly indifferent: if their own clothes do not concern them, somebody else's do.

Quing-Jao: I am a slave to the gods, and I rejoice in it. Jane: A slave who rejoices is a slave indeed.