Leadership

"A real leader faces the music, even when he doesn't like the tune."

Good leaders make people feel that they're at the very heart of things, not at the periphery. Everyone feels that he or she makes a difference to the success of the organization. When that happens people feel centered and that gives their work meaning." – Warren Bennis

"In simplest terms, a leader is one who knows where he wants to go, and gets up, and goes." – John Erskine

“The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet.” – Theodore Hesburgh

"The wicked leader is he who the people despise. The good leader is he who the people revere. The great leader is he who the people say, 'We did it ourselves.'" – Lao Zi

"To command is to serve, nothing more and nothing less." -André Malraux, Man's Hope

"The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on." -Walter Lippmann

"The ultimate leader is one who is willing to develop people to the point that they eventually surpass him or her in knowledge and ability." -Fred A. Manske, Jr.

"In motivating people, you've got to engage their minds and their hearts. I motivate people, I hope, by example - and perhaps by excitement, by having productive ideas to make others feel involved." - Rupert Murdoch

He who leads
Must then be strong and hopeful as the dawn
That rises unafraid and full of joy
Above the blackness of the darkest night.
He must be kind to every living thing;
Kind as the Krishna, Buddha and the Christ,
And full of love for all created life.
Oh, not in war shall his great prowess lie,
Nor shall he find his pleasure in the chase.
Too great for slaughter, friend of man and beast,
Touching the borders of the Unseen Realms
And bringing down to earth their mystic fires
To light our troubled pathways, wise and kind
And human to the core, so shall he be,
The coming leader of the coming time.
-Ella Wheeler Wilcox, from "The Leader to Be"

Life

"All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward enobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom." - Albert Einstein

"You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else." - Albert Einstein

"Some of their rules can be bent, others can be broken." - Morpheus

"Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly." - Dalai Lama

We see societies establishing themselves, nations forming themselves, which in turn dominate over other nations or become subject to them. Empires rise and fall; laws, forms of government, one succeeding another; the arts, the sciences, are discovered and are cultivated; sometimes retarded and sometimes accelerated in their progress, they pass from one region to another. Self-interest, ambition, vainglory, perpetually change the scene of the world, inundate the earth with blood. Yet in the midst of their ravages manners are gradually softened, the human mind takes enlightenment, separate nations draw nearer to each other, commerce and policy connect at last all parts of the globe, and the total mass of the human race, by the alternations of calm and agitation, of good conditions and of bad, marches always, although slowly, towards still higher perfection... – Jacques Turgot

"However mean your life is, meet it and live it: do not shun it and call it hard names. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Things do not change, we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see that you do want society." - Henry David Thoreau

Success

"A man will make many mistakes, but he is not considered a failure until he begins to blame someone else." - John Wooden

"Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value." - Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

"A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind." - Albert von Szent-Gyorgyi (1893 - 1986)

"If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all." - Anna Quindlen (1953 - )

"There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way." - Christopher Morley (1890 - 1957)

"Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work. But if you're not frightened by these things, the opportunities are just as great today as they ever were." - David Rockefeller

"Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life." - Dr. David M. Burns

"To freely bloom - that is my definition of success." - Gerry Spence, How to Argue and Win Every Time

"My mother drew a distinction between achievement and success. She said that 'achievement is the knowledge that you have studied and worked hard and done the best that is in you. Success is being praised by others, and that's nice, too, but not as important or satisfying. Always aim for achievement and forget about success.'" - Helen Hayes (1900 - 1993)

"Underpromise; overdeliver." - Tom Peters, in The Chicago Tribune

"Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out." – Stephen Covey

"Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it." Henry David Thoreau

"What people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can." - Henry David Thoreau

Knowledge

"I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance." - Socrates

"Ignorance speaks as if it knows."

“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” – Confucius

“Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.” - Confucius, The Confucian Analects

Growth

"You can become involved now in a new exploration, one in which man's civilizations and organizations change their course, reflecting his good intents and his ideals. You can do this by seeing to it that each step you personally take is 'ideally suited' to the ends you hope to achieve. You will see to it that your methods are ideal. If you do this, your life will automatically be provided with excitement, natural zest and creativity, and those characteristics will be reflected outward into the social, political, economic, and scientific worlds. This is a challenge more than worth the effort...I bid each of you success in that endeavor." – Seth

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has..." - Margaret Mead

Mind

"We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality." - Albert Einstein

The Now

"The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once." - Albert Einstein

"One instant is eternity;
eternity is in the now.
When you see through this one instant,
you see through the one who sees."
- Zen Master Wumen