There are managers so preoccupied with their e-mail messages that they never look up from their screens to see what's happening in the nondigital world

Each of us is born with two contradictory sets of instructions: a conservative tendency, made up of instincts for self-preservation, self-aggrandizement, and saving energy, and an expansive tendency made up of instincts for exploring, for enjoying novelty and risk-the curiosity that leads to creativity belongs to this set. But whereas the first tendency requires little encouragement or support from outside to motivate behaviour, the second can wilt if not cultivated.

People who learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any of us can come to being happy.

To gain control over the quality of experience, one needs to learn how to build enjoyment into what happens day in, day out.

Repression is not the way to virtue. When people restrain themselves out of fear, their lives are by necessity diminished. Only through freely chosen discipline can life be enjoyed and still kept within the bounds of reason.

Competition is an easy way to get into flow.

Creative individuals tend to be smart, yet also naive at the same time... Creative individuals have a combination of playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility.