The signature of mediocrity is chronic inconstancy. The signature of greatness is a disciplined and consistent focus on the right things.

Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.

Great vision without great people is irrelevant.

Managing your problems can only make you good, whereas building your opportunities is the only way to become great.

The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you've made a hiring mistake. The best people don't need to be managed. Guided, taught, led-yes. But not tightly managed.

Building a visionary company requires one percent vision and 99 percent alignment.

Good is the enemy of great. That's why so few things become great.

True leadership has people who follow when they have the freedom not to.

The difference between a good leader and a great leader is humility.

If you have more than three priorities then you don't have any.

The purpose of bureaucracy is to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline.

Faeries are real. Magic is real. My tendency to greet dangerous situations by plunging in headfirst and seeing how long it takes to get myself covered head to toe in blood is also real.

I think the most important thing people can do is to learn about their watershed. And it's something no one knows.

I wasn't tempted to go into academia for a second.

If there's a reason for the way that life is I'd like to find it. After all, who's life is it?

Assuming the worst was always safer. And usually truer.

I don't sit around thinking that I'd like to have another husband; only another man would make me think that way.

Can a general fight on the strength of soldiers, who, he knows, have no faith in him?

He always loved her because of, not in sprite of, her flaws.

I'm worried about everything at all times.

The most important resources you will ever have are your mind and your mind-set. You must protect them at all costs.