To have a Welch-caliber C.E.O. is impressive.To have a century of Welch-Caliber C.E.O.'s all grown from the inside - well, that is one key reason why G.E. is a visionary company.

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.

Be Brave and Take Risks: You need to have faith in yourself. Be brave and take risks. You don't have to have it all figured out to move forward.

It is only through my daughter that I have come to realise that a life without femininity – devoid of mystery, emotion, gentleness and the unerring power of a woman’s love – is no life at all.

James Parkinson. George Huntington. Robert Graves. John Down. Now this Lou Gehrig fellow of mine. How did men come to monopolize disease names too?

Maybe this is what alone really is — finding out how tiny your world is, and not knowing how to get anywhere else.

I've never read a book on shape. I've read books on gesture; I've read tons of books on color, surface, field, ground, representation, abstraction. But I've never read a book on what a shape is.

The world today is the same as it always was but people know more about what's going on in the world than they used to.

Nothing is so ignorant as a man's left hand, except a lady's watch.

When I photograph someone, I want to shoot the subject and get them out of my studio so I can play with the photos and do all the stuff I want.

The music that I made in my band wasn't the expression of everything I was into. Bands are based on compromise.

All human activities, professions, programs, and institutions must henceforth be judged primarily by the extent to which they inhibit, ignore, or foster a mutually enhancing human/Earth relationship.