If you are an effective manager of your self, your discipline comes from within; it is a function of your independent will. You are a disciple, a follower, of your own deep values and their source. And you have the will, the integrity, to subordinate your feelings, your impulses, your moods to those values.

Our ultimate freedom is the right and power to decide how anybody or anything outside ourselves will affect us.

Happiness, like unhappiness, is a proactive choice.

The only person over whom you have direct and immediate control is yourself. The most important assets to develop, preserve and enhance, therefore, are your own capabilities. And no one can do it for you. You must cultivate the habit of leadership effectiveness for yourself - and doing so will be the single best investment you will ever make.

Compliance does not foster innovation, trust does. You can't sustain long-term innovation, for example, in a climate of distrust.

As human beings, we are responsible for our own lives. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions. We can subordinate feelings to values.

If you don't let a teacher know what level you are -- by asking a question, or revealing your ignorance -- you will not learn or grow