Threats to our standing in the eyes of others are remarkably potent biologically, almost as powerful as those to our very survival.

Societies can be sunk by the weight of buried ugliness.

IQ and technical skills are important, but emotional intelligence is the sine qua non of leadership.

Happy, calm children learn best

We should spend less time ranking children and more time helping them to identify their natural competencies and gifts, and cultivate those.

The act of compassion begins with full attention, just as rapport does. You have to really see the person. If you see the person, then naturally, empathy arises. If you tune into the other person, you feel with them. If empathy arises, and if that person is in dire need, then empathic concern can come. You want to help them, and then that begins a compassionate act. So I'd say that compassion begins with attention.

Whenever we feel stressed out, that's a signal that our brain is pumping out stress hormones. If sustained over months and years, those hormones can ruin our health and make us a nervous wreck.