I start every day making sure I'm where I need to be and thinking like I need to think.

When you put emphasis on compromise rather than on principle, you end up with 2/3 of the principles being implemented.

In Jones's experience, the decision to turn one's life around in a different direction rarely arrived with fireworks and marching bands. Often, the decision came with tears and regret. Then, almost impossibly, the power of forgiveness would fill an unseen void, allowing a new day's optimism and sense of purpose to take hold and point that life in a new direction.

Then the old man's face hardened. "What about you young man?" he asked flatly. "Would you like to get what you deserve?" Jones let that question hang in the air for a moment, then sighed, shook his head, and said "Me? I surely don't want what I deserve. I'm hoping for mercy, not justice.

To be great at whatever it is that you do, it's going to take some discipline to separate yourself from the average.

People tend to read books about a guy who goes back in time or a guy who is living under a pier.

Your big picture will never be a masterpiece if you ignore the tiny brushstrokes. You're trying so hard to be successful that true success is eluding you.