Narrow life down to what's precious and necessary. In a world of complexity the best weapon is simplicity.

Most people confuse wishing and wanting with pursuing. You must place your trust in action.

The ethics of excellence are grounded in action - what you actually do, rather than what you say you believe. Talk, as the saying goes, is cheap.

High personal standards aren't enough for organizational excellence. You've got to be intolerant of low standards in others. . . . If you accommodate questionable practices in others who touch your organization, you risk soiling its reputation. Anybody whose hands aren't clean can get the place dirty.

We all faced painful ethical challenges before we even knew how to spell our names. There were tough choices. Tradeoffs. Confusing signals regarding how to live one's life. And here we are now, today, still struggling. Still trying to sort things out. Still trying to work our way through life effectively. About the only thing that has changed is the scope of the problem. There's more at stake now. And we're in a position, as grownups, to do a lot more-good or bad-for ourselves, our organization, our world. But we still must wrestle with our imperfect ethics.

Everybody makes honest mistakes, but there's no such thing as an honest cover-up.

Optimism inspires, energizes, and brings out our best. It points the mind toward possibilities and helps us think creatively past problems.