You generally hear that what a man doesn't know doesn't hurt him, but in business what a man doesn't know does hurt.

Middle age snuffs out more talent than even wars or sudden death.

Everyone is a bore to someone. That is unimportant. The thing to avoid is being a bore to oneself.

Those who have money think that the most important thing in the world is love. The poor know it is money.

Wisdom is keeping a sense of fallibility of all our views and opinions.

We are closer to the ants than to the butterflies. Very few people can endure much leisure.

In a happy marriage it is the wife who provides the climate, the husband the landscape.

We confess our bad qualities to others out of fear of appearing naive or ridiculous by not being aware of them.

Old age takes away from us what we have inherited and gives us what we have earned.

The only test of work of literature is that it shall please other ages than its own.

Words are as recalcitrant as circus animals, and the unskilled trainer can crack his whip at them in vain.

A true leader inspires and empowers others to hope more, dream more, do more, and live more.

Knowledge is a sage’s best friend

Like mother like daughter.

It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.

The strength of collective decision making and political responsibility is not only a question of recognizing other people's ability. It is also recognizing one's own limitations.

If I still lived in Russia, I'd be dead... or a really effective oligarch.

This world is going in all sorts of directions, but I think all you can do is get people to think about things in a different way, because sometimes people aren't even thinking.

You can as easily love without trusting as you can hug without embracing.

I'm a casual watcher. I like to stream everything.

'Pastoralia' by George Saunders is one of my favorite novels.