Empathy represents the foundation skill for all the social competencies important for work.

Emotional 'literacy' implies an expanded responsibility for schools in helping to socialize children. This daunting task requires two major changes: that teachers go beyond their traditional mission and that people in the community become more involved with schools as both active participants in children's learning and as individual mentors.

The near cousin of optimism is hope: knowing the steps needed to get to a goal and having the energy to pursue those steps. It is a primal motivating force, and its absence is paralyzing.

The basic premise that children must learn about emotions is that all feelings are okay to have; however, only some reactions are okay.

CEOs are hired for their intellect and business expertise - and fired for a lack of emotional intelligence.

Our passions, when well exercised, have wisdom; they guide our thinking, our values, our survival.

Cognitive skills such as big-picture thinking and long-term vision were particularly important. But when I calculated the ratio of technical skills, IQ, and emotional intelligence as ingredients of excellent performance, emotional intelligence proved to be twice as important as the others for jobs at all levels.