Mastery is not a function of genius or talent. It is a function of time and intense focus applied to a particular field of knowledge.

Nothing is stable in the realm of power, and even closest of friends can be transformed into the worst of enemies.

If you're meant to do something like writing and you end up going into banking or finance, your going to be miserable. You're trying to fit something into a square peg and a round hole. It's just never going to work.

The time that leads to mastery is dependent on the intensity of our focus.

Most people have no sense of self-awareness. They're not aware of what they really want. They knew it when they were younger but then as they get older they listened to parents, they listened to peers and they think that, for instance, money is the most important thing when it really isn't.

You can die from someone else's misery — emotional states are as infectious as diseases. You may feel you are helping the drowning man but you are precipitating your own disaster. The unfortunate sometimes draw misfortune on themselves; they will also draw it on you. Associate with the happy and fortunate instead.

Many a serious thinker has been produced in prisons, where we have nothing to do but think.