Sir John Templeton: "My ethical principle in the first place was: 'Where could I use my talents that God gave me to help the most people?'"

Happiness is a condition that must be prepared for, cultivated , and defended privately by each person.

For original ideas to come about, you have to let them percolate under the level of consciousness in a place where we have no way to make them obey our own desires or our own direction. Their random combinations are driven by forces we don't know about.

We can either help to make this world a more incredible place than it has ever been, or we can hasten its return to inorganic dust.

It is as if evolution has built a safety device in our nervous system that allows us to experience full happiness only when we are living at 100%-when we are fully using the physical and mental equipment we have been given.

It is how people respond to stress that determines whether they will profit from misfortune or be miserable.

Often we don't have a good notion of what our talents are, because we have never had a chance to try them out.