We weren't idealistic about much, we children of the 1950s, but we were certainly idealistic about art. We went into it with the highest kind of ambition — not to get rich or to impress women, but to make our mark as Proust and Joyce had made their mark.

Did I win? Did I lose? Those are the wrong questions. The correct question is: Did I make my best effort? That's what matters. The rest of it just gets in the way.

Perfection is what you are striving for, but perfection is an impossibility. However, striving for perfection is not an impossibility. Do the best you can under the conditions that exist. That is what counts.

Don't mistake activity for achievement. To produce results, tasks must be well organized and properly executed; otherwise, it's no different from children running around the playground—everybody is doing something, but nothing is being done; lots of activity, no achievement.

Be quick - but don't hurry.

Personal greatness is not determined by the size of the job, but by the size of the effort one puts into the job. This applies to everyone on the team.

Drawing up plans such as these diagrams is the easy part. I did it thousands of times. Creating a successful organization with people who execute the plans at a level of Competitive Greatness—now, that's the challenge of leadership.

If you don't have the time to do it right, how can you have the time to do it over?

It is the little things that are vital. Little things make the big things happen.

As long as I have people's attention, I can't stop. You can't put the public on hold, because they might not be there when you get back. I have a pathological fear of stopping.

The exercise of an extraordinary gift is the supremest pleasure in life.

Good for the body is the work of the body, and good for the soul is the work of the soul, and good for either is the work of the other.