Josh Billings said, It is not only the most difficult thing to know oneself, but the most inconvenient one, too. Human beings have always employed an enormous variety of clever devices for running away from themselves, and the modern world is particularly rich in such stratagems.

The individual who has become a stranger to himself has lost the capacity for genuine self-renewal.

There is no learning without some difficulty and fumbling. If you want to keep on learning, you must keep on risking failure-all your life.

All excellence involves discipline and tenacity of purpose.

We cannot have islands of excellence in a sea of slovenly indifference to standards.

Creativity requires the freedom to consider unthinkable alternatives, to doubt the worth of cherished practices.

Mastery is not something that strikes in an instant, like a thunderbolt, but a gathering power that moves steadily through time, like weather.