For Clear Thinking
“In one case out of a hundred a point is excessively discussed because it is obscure; in the ninety-nine remaining it is obscure because it is excessively discussed.”
— Edgar Allan Poe
“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
— Antoine de Saint-Exupery
“A problem well put is half solved.”
— John Dewey
“Be a much more ruthless editor and be a much more careless artist.”
— Christopher Niemann
“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.”
— Thomas Huxley
Focusing on Execution
“There is one very powerful business rule. It is concentrated in the word courtesy.”
— Henry Wells
“Never mistake motion for action.”
— Ernest Hemingway
“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”
— Peter Drucker
“Be simple and be meaningful.”
— Paul Rand
“Every man has two lives, and the second begins when they realize they only have one.”
— Confucius
Character and Discipline
“It’s easier to hold your principles 100 percent of the time than it is to hold them 98 percent of the time.”
— Clayton Christensen
“Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.”
— Warren Buffett
“I would rather have questions that cannot be answered than answers that cannot be questioned.”
— Richard Feynman
“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.”
— Ayn Rand
“The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.”
— Friedrich Nietzsche
From the Bible
Luke 18:9-14 (The Pharisee and the Tax Collector)
9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Micah 6 (The Lord’s Case Against Israel)
6 Listen to what the Lord says:
“Stand up, plead my case before the mountains; let the hills hear what you have to say.
2 “Hear, you mountains, the Lord’s accusation; listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth. For the Lord has a case against his people; he is lodging a charge against Israel.
3 “My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me. 4 I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam. 5 My people, remember what Balak king of Moab plotted and what Balaam son of Beor answered. Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.”
6 With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.