Research suggests that investment bankers are more prone to commit fraud when they feel the competitor at their heels.

At some point, if you're changing a really deep-seated behavior, you're going to have a moment of weakness.

If you want to do something that requires willpower - like going for a run after work - you have to conserve your willpower muscle during the day.

Habits are powerful, but delicate. They can emerge outside our consciousness, or can be deliberately designed. They often occur without our permission, but can be reshaped by fiddling with their parts. They shape our lives far more than we realize—they are so strong, in fact, that they cause our brains to cling to them at the exclusion of all else, including common sense.

The Golden Rule of Habit Change: You can't extinguish a bad habit, you can only change it.

There's a natural instinct embedded in friendship, a sympathy that makes us willing to fight for someone we like when they are treated unjustly.

The best agencies understood the importance of routines. The worst agencies were headed by people who never thought about it, and then wondered why no one followed their orders.