Brilliant men are often strikingly ineffectual. They fail to realize that the brilliant insight is not by itself achievement. They never have learned that insights become effectiveness only through hard systematic work.

It is willingness of people to give of themselves over and above the demands of the job that distinguishes the great from the merely adequate.

No single piece of macroeconomic advice given by the experts to their government has ever had the results predicted.

The only things that evolve by themselves in an organization are disorder, friction and malperformance.

Leadership is defined by results not attributes.

I would hope that American managers-indeed, managers worldwide-continue to appreciate what I have been saying almost from day one: that management is so much more than exercising rank and privilege, that it is much more than "making deals." Management affects people and their lives.

Any time I have seen someone accomplishing something magnificent, they have been a monomaniac with a mission. A single-minded individual with a passion.