It takes a great deal of character strength to apologize quickly out of one's heart rather than out of pity.

Proactive people carry their own weather with them.

Most people are basically a victim of the circumstances of their life. They have things like 9/11, they have terrorism threats, they have new war threats, they have economy problems, and they think, 'What can I do? I'm basically a victim.'

How different our lives are when we really know what is deeply important to us, and keeping that picture in mind, we manage ourselves each day to be and to do what really matters most.

The ability to subordinate an impulse to a value is the essence of the proactive person. Reactive people are driven by feelings, by circumstances, by conditions, by their environment. Proactive people are driven by values - carefully thought about, selected and internalized values.

Principles are the simplicity on the far side of complexity.

Paradigms are powerful because they create the lens through which we see the world.