Bahr was a man of great intelligence and extraordinary confidence in his ability to devise formulas to overcome a diplomatic impasse. He was dedicated to improving West Germany’s relations with the East; he believed that good personal relations with Soviet and East German personalities would assist this effort. His vanity caused him to flaunt these contacts and it was no doubt occasionally exploited by his counterparts. His enemies — and they were many — accused him of pro-Soviet sympathies; many distrusted what they interpreted as his deviousness. Though Bahr was a man on the left, I considered him above all a German nationalist who wanted to exploit Germany’s central position to bargain with both sides. He was of the type that had always believed that Germany could realize its national destiny only by friendship with the East, or at least by avoiding its enmity. Bahr was obviously not as unquestioningly dedicated to Western unity as the people we had know in the previous government; he was also free of any sentimental attachment to the US. To him, America was a weight to be added to West Germany’s scale in the right way at the right time, but his priority was to restore relations between the two Germanies above all. As for his alleged deviousness, I tended to share Metternich’s view that in a negotiation the perfectly straightforward person was the most difficult to deal with. I at any rate did not lack the self-confidence to confront Bahr’s tactics.


He had performed the dramatic feats required by the crises that had brought him to power. He had consolidated new political institutions. He had achieved the decolonization of French Africa while maintaining French self-confidence at home and its prestige in the former colonies. Barely overcoming incipient civil war, he had restored French pride by giving it a central role in the policies of Europe and the Wester Alliance. His challenge to the US had to a great the purpose of inspiring French self-assurance.

But the student upheavals of 1968 had shaken de Gaulle. And the challenges facing him thereafter were not of a magnitude he considered relevant to his vision of himself. To ensure a growing economy, to arbitrate contending claims on limited resources, to organize and manage a bureaucratic state — these were tasks for what he half-contemptuously called “quartermasters,” not for heroic figures. The referenda of April 17 provided the occasion for a dramatic departure instead of the slow erosion of authority that he so feared. Afterward, all was solitude as de Gaulle retired to Colombey. He saw no political figures, made no pronouncements, worked on his memoirs, and awaited his death.


Handsome, wealthy, emotionally secure, he was free of that insistence on seeing their views prevail through which lesser men turn public service into an exercise of their egos. His bearing made clear that he served a cause that transcended the life span of an individual; he exuded the conviction that his country represented values that needed tending and that were worth defending. His dignity forswore the second-rate; his understated eloquence confirmed that in persons of quality substance and form cannot be separated. He saw man as uniquely capable of improvement through reason and tact in a world whose imperfections would yield — if only gradually — to patience and goodwill.


I don’t do the middle or a little.


When I think of all that Henry had been through in that same room with President Nixon, I still marvel at the energy and focus he brought to the service of President Ford. He’d been with Nixon from 1969 until the very last day — seeing all the highs and lows of the Vietnam peace negotiations, the great breakthrough with China, the endless exertions of Cold War diplomacy, the shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East — and still showed no sign of weariness or passivity in his service to the president or his defense of America’s interests. Even while acting as both national security advisor and secretary of state, he was remarkably clear in mind and purpose. Henry was one of America’s higher-profile secretaries of state and not exactly the kind to resist the pull of celebrity. But all that was part of a very impressive package. If ever there was a Washington heavy hitter whose actual talent and achievements justified his star billing, it’s Henry. Nothing about him is overrated.


For much of the conversation, Nixon was able to stay composed. But when he raised the prospect of facing a criminal trial after his resignation, he became overwrought. A trial would kill him, he said. That was what his enemies wanted. “If they harass you,” Kissinger pledged, “I am going to resign.” He would quit and tell the world why. As Nixon recalled the scene, Kissinger’s voice broke as he made the promise, and he began to cry.

That, Nixon later recalled, caused him to cry as well. “Henry, you’re not going to resign,” the president said. “Don’t ever talk that way,” The country would need him, there was no one who could shine his shoes, much less fill them.


My boy’s business is to put big, strong, scary men in their place.


Make all his causes a fucking lie? Whoa. Then Cus would stare at me.

“If you listen to me, you’ll reign with the gods. See the way you’re interested and talk about all these old fighters? By the time you’re champ, if you listen to me, the only reason people would know about these guys was because you’d talk about them. You’ll supersede them all. You’ll make them forget about everybody. I watched Jack Dempsey as a boy. I’ve met these guys, shook their hands. They are not what you are. You are a giant; you are a colossus among men.”


Tywin seems a hard man to you, but he’s no harder than he’s had to be. Our own father was gentle and amiable, but so weak his bannermen mocked him in their cups. Some saw fit to defy him openly. Other lords borrowed his gold and never troubled to repay it. At court they japed of toothless lions. Even his own mistress stole from him. A woman scarcely one step above a whore, and she helped herself to my mother’s jewels! It fell to Tywin to restore House Lannister to its proper place. Just as it fell to him to rule this realm, when he was no more than twenty. He bore that heavy burden for twenty years and all it earned him was a mad king’s envy. Instead of the honor he deserved, he was made to suffer slights beyond count, yet he gave the Seven Kingdoms peace, plenty and justice. He is a just man.


I have served six kings, but here before us lies the greatest man I ever knew. Lord Tywin wore no crown, yet he was all a king should be.


Người tư chất tầm thường thì đúng là như thế, nhưng thiên hạ có rất nhiều người thông minh tuyệt đỉnh, văn tài võ học, thư hoạ cầm kỳ, toán học binh thư cho tới y bốc tinh tướng, kỳ môn ngũ hành không môn nào không biết, không môn nào không giỏi, chẳng qua các ngươi không gặp đó thôi.


Trần Huyền Phong tuy là phản đồ của môn phái ta nhưng môn phái ta tự có người giết y, môn nhân đảo Đào Hoa há lại để cho người ngoài giết à?


My ego can handle that.


They’re great players, they deserve the recognition, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t piss me off. It may sound arrogant, but I’m confident that I’m really good. If I’m losing to players that I know aren’t on my level, I’ll get angry. 


Here’s why. Lee’s sole motive was never just power, never only political domination of his country. That would not have been enough; the Confucian in him would have known of his shortfall of character, for he is not an insincere human being.

His motive was to SHOW THE WORLD — and let me say it again, for emphasis: for all the world to see — that a Chinese leader and his Confucian people could in a united spirit do the governance job as well as anyone, better than most, and maybe, somehow, better than anybody!


Most people are, in the most ordinary sense, very limited. They pass their time, day after day, in idle, passive pursuits, just looking at things — at games, television, whatever. Or they fill the hours talking, mostly about nothing of significance — of comings and goings, of who is doing what, of the weather, of things forgotten almost as soon as they are mentioned. They have no aspirations for themselves beyond getting through another day doing more or less what they did yesterday. They walk across the stage of life, leaving everything about as it was when they entered, achieving nothing, aspiring to nothing, having never a profound or even original thought. This is what is common, usual, typical, indeed normal. Relatively few rise above such a plodding existence.


Anh hùng trong thiên hạ bây giờ chỉ có sứ quân và Tháo này mà thôi.


Anh hùng là người trong bụng có chí lớn, có mưu cao, có tài bao trùm được cả vũ trụ, có chí nuốt cả trời đất.


Viên Thiệu mặt béo mà gan non, háo mưu mà vô đoán, gánh việc lớn thì tiếc thân, thấy lợi nhỏ lại quên mệnh, không phải là anh hùng. Lưu Biểu chỉ có hư danh, không có thực tài.


People always tell you, ‘Be humble. Be humble.’ When was the last time someone told you to be amazing? Be great! Be great! Be awesome! Be awesome!


It’s not ‘can’; it’s ‘will.’ You have to will things into fruition.


The goal was never to beat the competition, or to make a lot of money. It was to do the greatest thing possible, or even a little greater.


We said to ourselves, ‘Hey, if we’re going to make things in our lives, we might as well make them beautiful.’


Just be damn cool.


When I think of competition it’s like I try to create against the past. I think about Michaelangelo, Picasso, the pyramids. That’s the reason why I put 5,000 hours into a song like “Power”.


I don’t believe in superstitions.

But I did feel that there was something special about the nickname “Emperor of Terran” that was given to me. Though I regularly practice over ten hours and my entire body feels like it will melt down, I hold myself up, thinking,

“I should live up to that name.”


The highest title which a man can write upon the page of history is his own name.


I don’t need a source of strength. Quitting is not in my nature. And I don’t care about optimism or pessimism. Fuck that we’re gonna get it done.


The more pride you have in a particular aspect of your identity, the more motivated you will be to maintain the habits associated with it. Once your pride gets involved, you’ll fight tooth and nail to maintain your habits.


It was at Harvard Law that Acheson realized that “excellence counted - a sloppy try wasn’t enough.” He began comparing his mind to a welder’s torch, waiting to be focused. His sense of security firmly re-established after the grueling trial of Groton, Acheson began to push himself intellectually, to take great pride in the sharpness of his mind. At Groton, intellectual ambition was considered socially suspect. But at Harvard Law School, Acheson found it prized as a path to social distinction.


The ENA, created in 1945 by de Gaulle, is an institution explicitly designed to realize political meritocracy. It aims to select the country’s intellectual political elite regardless of social background and train them for public service. Admission to ENA is based on perhaps the most rigorous and grueling set of examinations in the world. The candidates need to take 5 written exams (in public law, economy, general knowledge, a summary of documents in either European law and policies or social law and policies, and a 5th exam to be chosen by the candidate from subjects ranging from math to language); then the candidates with the highest marks take 5 oral exams (in public finance, international politics, European or social issues, foreign language, and the famously 45-minute-long Grand Oral, open to the public, during which any question can be asked, including personal questions), and one test in sports fitness. Fewer than 100 are chosen every year. Following 2 years of ultra-competitive education and training at the ENA, the graduates are numerically ranked according to academic performance. They are basically guaranteed jobs in the civil service, and the top 15 performers almost always choose to enter one of 3 administrative corps. These corps serve as platform for prestigious careers in administration, business, and politics.


The education at ENA is meant to produce generalists who can be skilled at administration, politics, and business. They are supposed to be good at problem solving without worrying about the glare of media attention. They learn values such as impartiality toward all citizens, loyalty to the democratic government, and ethical usage of public funds. They are supposed to be competent technocrats with the ability to deal with extremely complex administrative issues without ever forgetting that policies apply to real flesh-and-blood people.


There are few men in the history of the US who have been as good at politics as James Baker.


Still, she was a force of nature. Her eyes sparkled with insight and energy. Compared to my past girlfriends, intellectually and spiritually, Whitney was on a completely different plane. She’d read the books I was reading. She had a philosophical understanding of how China worked and could explain to me why people in China reacted differently than people outside its borders. She built a bridge that reconnected me to my beloved homeland. Given that this was a transformative period of my life, I was wide open to her charms.

Whitney gave the impression of having gained access to the engine of China’s growth. For me, she was the first one who lifted the hood. She knew the officials whom I’d only read about in newspapers. She knew others whom I’d never heard of. This was a new world. I wanted to learn and Whitney seemed eager to be my guide.

I began visiting Beijing again. The more I saw of Whitney, the more I was impressed. She could reel off complete paragraphs from the works of Chinese philosophers, Confucius and Mencius, and the French enlightenment thinker Montesquieu. She signed me up to help her company raise money. I began advising her on financial matters.


One day we were riding together in a car and I was looking out the window as I did sometimes, with my mind blank.

“What are you thinking?” she asked.

“Nothing,” I replied.

She sat up, turned to me, and declared, “That’s not right. Your mind should always be working.”

She was constantly planning the next step, whom to call, what to say, how to operate. She wasn’t one move ahead; she was ten. I embraced that way of thinking, too. After a while, it became second nature. Such an approach to life did have a downside, though. In the early days, we thoroughly enjoyed each other’s company. But the more we focused on the future, the more our minds lost the capacity to be in the now. We paid less attention to us, and more on the outside world.


The rest of the White House was being revealed to be little more than a bunch of shady two-bit thugs, but Kissinger was someone America could believe in. “We were half-convinced,” Ted Koppel said in a documentation in 1974, just after Kissinger’s threatened resignation, “that nothing was beyond the capacity of this remarkable man.” The secretary of state was a “legend, the most admired man in America, the magician, the miracle worker.” Kissinger, Koppel said, “may be the best things we’ve got going for us.”


Aim at something. Pick the best target you can currently conceptualize. Stumble toward it. Notice your errors and misconceptions along the way, face them, and correct them. Get your story straight. Past, present, future — they all matter.


From all this solemn ceremony you can see that a knight was by now something more than just a soldier on horseback. He was almost a member of an order, like a monk. For to be a good knight, bravery was not enough. A monk served God through prayer and good works and a knight served God through his strength. It was his duty to protect the weak and defenceless, women and the poor, widows and orphans. He was only allowed to draw his sword in a just cause, and must serve God in each and every deed. To his master - his liegelord - he owed absolute obedience. For him he must risk all. He must be neither brutal or cowardly, and in battle must only fight man to man, never two against one. A vanquished opponent must never be humiliated. We still this sort of behaviour chivalrous, because it conforms to the knights’ ideal.


He said it with sadness. LKY cares about the caliber of the elites running the top countries because he believes the priorities, conduct and decisions of the global elite are essential to securing a better future. Singapore without its governing elite would not be where it is today. Irrational democracies sometimes do little more than legitimize mob rule or policy preferences, not the surest route to quality governance; even at their best, they are hard put, in his view, to compete with truly qualified, non-corrupt and well-motivated elites.


In the 20th century any American billionaire worth of the name had to have a Manhattan tower, from Marjorie Merriweather Post in the 1920s to the Rockefellers to Donald Trump.


Có chí làm quan, có gan làm giàu.


Không ngại khó, không ngại khổ, không sợ nguy hiểm; gặp nghịch cảnh vẫn hiên ngang, gặp cường địch vẫn bình thản.


Messi is an unbelievable player, and maybe it pushes me more, harder to be better and better. But the people who know me, know I’m always like that, I try to be the best professional in my job, I try to be the best all the time. But sometimes it’s not possible because we are human beings, we are not machines. But in my mind I’m the best and I work like the best. This is the way I see myself till the end of my life, this is what I want and what I want to be.


And Connally was indeed the most formidable personality in the Cabinet. Highly intelligent, superbly endowed physically, he looked and acted as if he were born to lead. His build was matched by his ego — but those who aspire to the apex must not be criticized for that; they could never lead effectively without extraordinary self-confidence. His amiable manner never obscured the reality that he would not hesitate to overcome any obstacle to his purposes. He had a great sense of humor; but even when laughing he never gave the impression that the moment dominated him. He was not timid or lack courage. “You will be measured in this town,” he said to me once, “by the enemies you destroy. The bigger they are, the bigger you will be.” John Connally was never afraid of his opponents; he relished combat in defense of his convictions. Whatever one might think of his views, he was a leader.


But self-pity, whatever the cause, could not be more than a transient indulgence. Somehow we had to master events, not simply deplore them.


Always seek excellence: make your product better than the average person would.

If you can just whip something out and it’s done, maybe it’s time, once in a while, to think and think and think, “Can I make it better than it is, a little superior?” What it does is not necessarily make the product better in the end, but it brings you closer to the product and your own head understands it better. Your neurons have gone through the code you wrote, or the circuits you designed, have gone through it more times, and it’s just a little more solidly in your head, and once in a while you’ll wake up and say, “Oh my god, I just realized a bug that’s in there, something I hadn’t thought of.”


There’s only one thing you need to do, ‘feel damn good about yourself, the way you look, your voice, your conversation, your emotional state, enjoy every single bit of it’, by Newton’s third law, action-reaction, people will respond well to you.


Others’ failures are just that: others’ failures. It has nothing to do with you.


Sự bá chủ về khoa học của Đức trên mọi lĩnh vực không trừ một ngoại lệ nào ngày nay đã được mọi người công nhận. Sự ưu việt của Đức trong khoa học là cái tương đương của sự ưu việt của Anh trong thương mại và trên biển. Nói một cách tương đối, nó có lẽ còn lớn hơn nữa.


Dù vậy ngay từ thời điểm đó, bà Thảo đã xác định phương châm kinh doanh là “không làm chuyện cò con” mà luôn nhắm tới các phi vụ lớn. Nếu các công ty chung nhau chỉ một vài thùng hàng thì bà phải làm một lúc cả trăm container. Nếu chở hàng bằng đường sắt, người ta chỉ cần đến 1 toa thì bà phải dùng tới cả đoàn tàu.

Dám nghĩ dám làm nên chỉ sau 3 năm khởi nghiệp, bà đã có trong tay $1M — số tiền rất lớn vào thời kỳ đó nhờ kinh doanh cao su tự nhiên, máy fax, máy văn phòng và hàng điện tử. Với số vốn ban đầu này, cô gái 21 tuổi khi đó chuyển hướng sang các mặt hàng công nghiệp như phân bón, máy móc, sắt thép…


Here are the people whose circumstances make them independent of the good will of others, never waiting for anyone but always waited upon. By the sound of their voices, it is evident that they have been trained, carefully yet casually, to be somebody.


Although their views are not universally positive on every aspect of Nixon-era policy, the degree to which there is unanimity about the quality of the process and of Kissinger’s genius for keeping the big picture in mind (and for having thought that big picture through) is remarkable.


Well, somebody has got to win them, and it might as well be me.


See yourself as the best.

Continually imagine yourself as the very best in your field. See yourself as one of the highest money earners in your business. Model yourself after the highest-paid salespeople in your industry. Walk, talk, and treat others as if you were already a sales superstar. When you see someone else driving a new car or dressed in expensive clothes and wearing an expensive watch, say to yourself, “That’s for me!”


You become what you think about most of the time.

Happy people think happy thoughts. Successful people think successful thoughts. Loving people think loving thoughts. Wealthy people think wealthy thoughts. They become what they think about most of the time.


The mark of superior people is that they set high standards for themselves, and they refuse to compromise their standards. They imagine that everyone is watching them, even when no one is watching. You can tell the character of a person by what he does and how he carries himself when he is alone.


Humans are built for story. When we push ourselves toward a tough yet meaningful goal, we thrive. Our reward systems spike not when we achieve what we’re after but when we’re in pursuit of it. It’s the pursuit that makes a life and the pursuit that makes a plot. Without a goal to follow and at least some sense we’re getting closer to it, there is only disappointment, depression and despair. A living death.


I personally have never experienced them, but I know some players who have not been as fortunate. The reason I’ve avoided those little devils is twofold. First, I refuse to give in to fear, real or imagined. I’m not talking about nervousness. I’m as nervous as the next guy every time I tee it up. Every competitor has a certain degree of anxiety. It goes with the territory. No, I’m referring to being afraid — either consciously or subconsciously — of anything or anyone. I’ve heard of players being afraid to in. Imagine that. When I turned pro, I took a lot of flak because I said my only purpose for playing was winning. I was only being honest. Second place still has no appeal for me. I would argue that most champions have that mindset. In order to be truly successful in any endeavor, you have to adopt a no-fear attitude. Don’t be afraid to go for it.

Second, I refuse to yield to pressure. Some players wilt like lettuce when the heat is on. True competitors love the battle. Sure it gets intense and your nervous system is tested, but that’s the most fun part of being a competitor. Ever wonder why Michale Jordan and Jack Nicklaus were so good in the clutch? Simple. They loved the spotlight and were inspired to reach another level of greatness by the need to accomplish.


Sadat had followed the method I grew to know very well: to cut through trivia to the essential, to make major, even breathtaking, tactical concessions in return for an irreversible psychological momentum. His acceptance of our draft proposal committed us to try to bring about the disengagement he really wanted. By being forthcoming on the issues of the October 22 line and release of prisoners, he helped ease Israel’s chronic suspicions of his motives. And yet what he conceded was essentially marginal: the improvements he might have achieved by haggling would have been cosmetic or a bow to vanity. Wise statesmen know they will be measured by the historical process they set in motion, not by the debating points they score.

Sadat, of course, must not be viewed as everybody’s genial uncle. He was as tough as he was patient. He was, after all, the man who had relentlessly, patiently, and against all probability prepared the October war. He was not ready to sheath all his weapons. He turned a deaf ear to my pleas to help undo the oil embargo; he replied firmly that he could be persuasive with his brethen only after substantial progress had been made in the negotiations.


Isaiah Berlin once wrote that greatness is the ability to transform paradox into platitude.

Within a few years, Sadat overcame these riddles. When he died, the peace process was a commonplace; Egypt’s friendship with America was a cornerstone of Mideast stability. By his journey to Jerusalem in 1977 he had demonstrated to all those obsessed with the tangible the transcendence of the visionary. He understood that a heroic gesture can create a new reality.

The difference between great and ordinary leaders is less formal intellect than insight and courage. The great man understands the essence of a problem; the ordinary leader grasps only the symptoms. The great man focuses on the relationship of events to each other; the ordinary leader sees only a series of seemingly disconnected events. The great man has a vision of the future that enables him to put obstacles in perspective; the ordinary leader turns pebbles in the road into boulders.

Sadat bore with fortitude that loneliness inseparable from moving the world from familiar categories toward where it has never been.


What is the meaning of a political life? How does one assess a trend in international politics? Even in the best of times, no judgment is more tenuous than an assessment of the significance of a statesman’s actions. History is infinite compared to the human lifespan and the human perspective is even more foreshortened. Conventional wisdom often runs counter to the necessities of history, especially in times of great upheaval. The statesman has built truly only if he perceives the trend of events and puts it into the service of his purposes. For that task his scope is not unlimited. If he confines himself to riding with the trend, he will soon become irrelevant; if he goes beyond the capacity of his people, he will suffer shipwreck. If politics is the art of the possible, stature depends on going to the very limits of the possible. Great statesmen set themselves high goals yet assess unemotionally the quality of the material, human and physical, with which they have to work; ordinary leaders are satisfied with removing frictions or embarrassments. Statesmen create; ordinary leaders consume. The ordinary leader is satisfied with ameliorating the environment, not transforming it; a statesman must be a visionary and an educator. Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God.


Kissinger approached this combination of crises and dilemmas with extraordinary energy, intelligence, and guile. David Bruce, one of America’s patrician diplomats from the early Cold War and still an active ambassador, captured an essential aspect of Kissinger’s approach when he wrote in his diary that Kissinger’s “physical and intellectual vigor amaze even those they discomfit … the spectacle of a 50-year old German-born Jew, exercising the authority he does in coping with with the end of an era complications of universal import elicits my sympathy, dazzles my imagination.” Kissinger devised a strategy, sensing how the various pieces of the jigsaw puzzle of world politics could be arranged to promote his vision of America’s national interest.


You read a book from beginning to end. You run a business the opposite way. You start with the end, and then you do everything you must do to reach it.


Người Tàu có câu “Quân tử không kể lại vinh quang cũ,” ý rằng không nên vin vào vinh nhục quá khứ để bào chữa cho hiện tại.


Far better to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight than knows not victory, nor defeat.


Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.


When asked later why he had chosen these particular issues as the occasion for retiring from office, de Gaulle replied: “Because of their triviality.”


Where Churchill saw his leadership as the culmination of a historical process and a personal fulfillment, de Gaulle treated his encounter with history as a duty, one to be born as a burden separated from any personal satisfaction.


Aloofness, character, and the personification of greatness, these qualities … surround with prestige those who are prepared to carry a burden which is too heavy for lesser mortals. The price they have to pay for leadership is unceasing self-discipline, the constant taking of risks, and a perpetual inner struggle. The degree of suffering involved varies according to the temperament of the individual; but it is bound to be no less tormenting than the hair shirt of the penitent. This helps to explain those cases of withdrawal which, otherwise, are so hard to understand. It constantly happens that men with an unbroken record of success and public applause suddenly lay the burden down … Contentment and tranquility and the simple joys which go by the name of happiness are denied to those who fill positions of power. The choice must be made, and it is a hard one: whence that vague sense of melancholy which hangs about the skirts of majesty … One day somebody said to Napoleon, as they were looking at an old and noble monument: “How sad it is!” “Yes,” came the reply, “as sad as greatness.”


I still harbored the notion (inherited from my Harvard days) that the former president’s mind was as vague as the grammar he occasionally deployed in his press conferences. In quickly learned otherwise. He was familiar with national security issues in substance as well as their administrative ramifications. Eisenhower’s facial features were vivid and expressive, exuding self-assurance produced by decades of command. His manner of speaking was forceful, direct and eloquence.


Lee taught a kind of global physics in which societies must constantly strive to avoid entropy. Leaders are tempted by pessimism, but “we have to fight our way out of it. You have to show a credible, plausible way that we can keep our head above water.”

Parallel to Lee’s dire warnings about the threat of extinction lay an equally vivid imagination of his country’s potential. If every great achievement is a dream before it becomes a reality, Lee’s dream was breathtaking in its audacity: he envisioned a state that would not imply survive but flourish through an insistence on excellence: the quest for it needed to permeate the entire society.


Determine the most reasonable outcome and then get there rapidly in one or two moves.


Not in some cosmic, karma kind of way, but I believe deep down we all know who we are. You cannot hide anything from yourself. Your own failures are written within your psyche, and they’re obvious to you. If you have too many of these moral shortcomings, you will not respect yourself. The worst outcome in this world is not having self-esteem. If you don’t love yourself, who will?

I think you just have to be very careful about doing things you are fundamentally not going to be proud of, because they will damage you.


Asked later how he kept his composure following the eagles, he elected to author a bit of his own legend, a smile spread wide across his face.

“I was trying to make a third.”


Nghe nói đến phong phạm của Bá Di, người hèn lập chí.


Danh lợi không đổi lòng, Giàu sang không dâm loạn, Nghèo hèn không nhụt chí, Oai vũ không khuất phục


You win by thinking about winning all the time and refusing to consider the possibility of losing.


Not only have you made yourself into the person you are today, but you are continuing with the job of construction with every thought you think. Because this is an unavoidable fact of life, the smartest thing that you can do is to persistently think the thoughts that are consistent with the kind of person you would like to be.


But the term means more than this. To a European of the 16th century, the “universal man” was not just a scholar and artist but also a fine swordsman and horseman, a witty talker, a graceful orator, a skilled musician, and a responsible citizen.


The moment you allow yourself to be treated like anyone else, it is too late.


Everything we did - everything associated with our name - needed to be good.


Everyone says quality is important, but they must do more than say it. They must live, think, and breathe it.


But it’s probably worse than that. At a critical juncture he failed to show that he had steel in his back, he failed to follow through. He spoke on the record and very sensibly about the settlements, but when a confrontation developed between him and Netanyahu, Obama caved in. That has contributed significantly to the general mess we now have in the Middle East.


Cus was a strong believer that in your mind you had to be the entity that you wanted to be. If you wanted to be heavyweight champion of the world, you had to start living the life of a heavyweight champion.


Douglas just quit. He got hit a little and laid down. He was a whore for his $17M. He didn’t go into the fight with any dignity or pride to defend his belt. He made his payday but lost his honor. You can’t win honor, you can only lose it. Guys like him who only fight for money can never become legends.


If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.


Never lose your self-respect, nor be too familiar with yourself when you are alone.


Thoughts become words. Words become deeds. Deeds become habits. Habits become character. Character becomes destiny.


I have observed that those who have accomplished the greatest results are those who “keep under the body”; are those who never grow excited or lose self-control, but are always calm, self-possessed, patient, and polite.


Aristotle contemptuously dismissed the hedonists, saying that, “The life they decide on is a life for grazing animals.” Instead, he described the idea of “eudaemonia.” For Aristotle happiness was not a feeling but a practice. “It’s living in a way that fulfills our purpose. It’s flourishing. Stop hoping for happiness tomorrow. Happiness is being engaged in the process.”

  • Eudaemonia is a kind of striving after a noble goal.
  • So it’s heroic behavior in a sense?
  • Right. Exactly.

The article also reflected Mao’s preoccupation with the cultivation of a strong will without which, he said, nothing could be achieved.


Just that you do the right thing. The rest doesn’t matter.


The best revenge is not to be like that.


To stop talking about what a good man is like, and just be one.


Good iron never turns into nails; good men never enlist as soldiers.


Mao then had what was probably the single greatest inspiration of his career. If China didn’t have a payment system, why not create one?


Pride is a hard thing to swallow and at the root of all pettiness is a sense of pride. Pettiness finds a way to “one up” someone. By being a person that is above all that, it just proves you’re an emotionally mature person that doesn’t stoop to other people’s pettiness.

Trust me, I know how satisfying pettiness can be, especially when someone is being rude to you first. At the end of the day, holding your head up high and not lowering yourself to other petty peoples’ level will give you a sense of self confidence, assurance and petty-free pride.


His opponents have never been people. His opponents have always been history. He always wanted to break every record.


She steered me, in a way no one else had in the past, to look clinically at my personal life. “You need a better approach.” She and I actually did a SWOT analysis, a checklist used to assess a business. Separately, we broke down the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats to our emotional ties. Then we compared notes.


We’d come from nothing, and if we ended up making nothing out of our lives, it wouldn’t matter. So why not go for it all? That was her life’s motto, and without that kind of attitude she’d never have been able to pull herself from the bottom of the pile to the top. Her hometown wasn’t even a third-tier city. Her family was broken. In my opinion, her half brother were good-for-nothing. But, by God, she wasn’t going to be as trifling as a feather; she and I were going to be as weighty as Mount Tai.


Intellectuals analyze the operations of international systems; statesmen build them.


In some 60 years of public life, I have encountered no more compelling figure than Zhou Enlai. Short, elegant, with an expressive face framing luminous eyes, he dominated by exceptional intelligence and capacity to intuit the intangibles of the psychology of his opposite number. When I met him, he had been Premier for nearly 22 years and an associate of Mao for 40. He had made himself indispensable as the crucial mediator between Mao and the people who formed the raw material for the Chairman’s vast agenda, translating Mao’s sweeping visions into concrete programs. At the same time, he had earned the gratitude of many Chinese for moderating the excesses of these visions, at least wherever Mao’s fervor gave scope for moderation.

The differences between the leaders was reflected in their personalities. Mao dominated any gathering; Zhou suffused it. Mao’s passion strove to overwhelm opposition; Zhou’s intellect would seek to persuade or outmaneuver it. Mao was sardonic, Zhou penetrating. Mao thought of himself as a philosopher; Zhou saw his role as an administrator or a negotiator. Mao was eager to accelerate history; Zhou was content to exploit its currents. A saying he often repeated was “The helmsman must ride with the waves.” When they were together, there was no question of the hierarchy, not simply in the formal sense but in the deeper aspect of Zhou’s extraordinarily deferential conduct.


Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action comes, stop thinking and go in.


Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.


I am the successor, not of Louis XVI, but of Charlemagne.


Circumstances-what are circumstances? I make circumstances.


In our time no one has the conception of what is great. It is up to me to show them.


Đã mấy đời làm nghề canh nông, nhà vẫn giàu có, lại hay giúp đỡ cho kẻ nghèo khó, cho nên mọi người đều phục, và những tôi tớ ước có hàng nghìn người. Ông Lê Lợi khảng khái, có chí lớn, quan nhà Minh nghe tiếng, đã đỗ cho làm quan, nhưng ông không chịu khuất, thường nói rằng: “Làm trai sinh ở trên đời, nên giúp nạn lớn, lập công to, để tiếng thơm cho muôn đời, chứ sao lại chịu bo bo làm đầy tớ người!” Bèn giấu tiếng ở chỗ sơn lâm, đón mời những kẻ hào kiệt, chiêu tập những kẻ lưu vong.


For what is a man, what has he got
If not himself, then he has naught
To say the things he truly feels
And not the words of one who kneels


Many were opposed, saying that there was no reason to enter such a complex business, there is no reason to take such pains, if I think just of Samsung and myself. But considering our economy, in which exports are so essential, I thought that someone had to enter and upgrade the entire industry.


This is the place where I slip in my golden rules. Number One is: “Do unto others as you would want them do unto you.” If you follow that rule, you’ll always know how to behave in any situation. Number Two is: “Be proud of what you do.” Number Three: “And have fun doing it.”


The auditorium was packed. The moment I walked out onto the stage, everybody rose to their feet and started cheering. The first words out of my mouth were the first thing that came to mind:

“I am your God.”


McKinsey insisted that it would wok only for the CEOs and not be shunted off to their underlings. Anything that wasn’t important enough to involve the CEO wasn’t important enough for the consultants. This had the added advantage of freeing McKinsey from having to offer specialized, technical advice. CEOs didn’t have time for such intricate details, so McKinsey didn’t bother with them either. This became a major piece of the firm’s identity: Narrow expertise is for chumps; we do vision.


I am quite content with mortality; I should be appalled at the thought of living forever, in whatever paradise. As I move on into my nineties my ambitions moderate, my zest in life wanes; soon I shall echo Caesar’s Jam satis vixi — “I have already lived enough.” When death comes in due time, after a life fully lived, it is forgivable and good.


The true test of a man’s character is what he does when no one’s watching.


I guess it comes down to this: When Greg hits a bad shot, he takes it very hard. He will say, “Why didn’t I get a kick left?” or “Oh, that’s the worst place I could have hit it,” or “Ok, there goes the tournament.” He’s very hard on himself. And when Tom hits a bad shot, he will look at me, wink, and say: “Just watch how I get out of this one.”


He was always good at handling difficult conditions. He had a toughness that other golfers lacked. Watson — and Nicklaus and Tiger Woods and pretty much every great golfer through the years — wants to face difficult conditions because he believes in his ability to overcome them.


The best part of playing golf is hitting great shots. And what gives you the opportunity to hit your greatest shots? Getting in some trouble.


He was after something bigger than being adored.


Tiger slows down and looks at his wife. Gently but firmly, he says, “E, that’s not what we do. I’m not Jesper. We’re supposed to win.”


That answer told Tiger that James wasn’t in his league as a serious athlete, and he quickly ended the conversation and went back to hitting balls.


People by and large became what they think about themselves.

The idea is so simple that it is easy to dismiss. People become what they think about themselves. It’s almost all a person needs to know about how to be happy.

If someone came to me and asked me how to be happy, I would reply that it’s simple. Just wake up every morning thinking about the wonderful things you are going to do that day. Go to sleep every night thinking about the wonderful events of the past day and the wonderful things you will do tomorrow. Anyone who does that will be happy.


Winners and losers, Wooden said, are self-determined. But only the winners are willing to admit it.


As I worked with athletes and other people striving to be exceptional, I found that no matter what happened to them, no matter what setbacks occurred in their lives, they found causes to keep trying. They always sought and discovered a reason to believe in themselves.


Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.


You can’t let praise or criticism get to you. It’s a weakness to get caught up in either one.


If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?


Derrick, like LeBron and Pat Bradley, has the champion’s first requirement — the attitude he’s chosen, the way he’s decided to see himself.


People tend to become what they think about themselves. We are each the biggest influence on our destiny. More importantly, we each have the power to construct our own self-image and that the self-image we construct will very likely determine what we become in life.


You have to be a legend in your own mind before you can be a legend in your own time.


Most of the drivers wanted to win. Or I should say they would have liked to win. But they also didn’t want to finish last, didn’t want to blow a tire and wreck the car, didn’t want to look really bad. I didn’t care about any of that stuff. I just wanted to get to that finish line first. And I dominated. One of the reasons I found it easy to win out there is that very few people have that laser beam, that single-minded purpose.


Mộ Ứng Hùng thì không tỏ ra lo lắng với cái án tử vẫn đang treo trên đầu. Vì anh ta cho rằng làm người thì phải trông cậy vào mình, quyết không tin vào vận mệnh. Mộ Ứng Hùng tin rằng nhân tất thắng thiên, sinh mạng của mình là tự do mình làm chủ, không phải phụ thuộc vào bất kỳ ai hết.


Well, let’s get ahead of the game. Let’s try to figure out what all the questions are going to be and map out where we are.


But it turns out that when they work with each other, they’re not prima donnas. They really like it.


Interestingly enough, when you make the decision that no matter what happens, you will never give up, your self-esteem increases immediately. You respect yourself more. Your self-confidence skyrockets. Even though you have not yet stepped out of your office, the very act of making the decision that you are going to succeed, that you can do it, that you will never quit, no matter what, improves your “reputation” with yourself. You see yourself in a more positive light. You feel more like a winner. You are more composed and self-assured. You become more capable of dealing with the ups and downs of daily selling life. The very act of resolving to persist until you succeed changes your personality and makes you a stronger and more powerful person.


There is a direct and inverse relationship between the fears of rejection and failure, and high self-esteem. The more you like yourself, the less you feel rejection and the less you fear failure.


I am a star, how could I not shine?


Có minh quân tất có hiền thần.


Thiết Mộc Chân biết bản lĩnh cận chiến ấy chỉ có thể phòng thân chứ không đủ để xưng vương chiếm đất, vì vậy bắt Đà Lôi và Quách Tĩnh chỉ học quyền cước qua loa, còn phần lớn thời gian thì học các công phu cưỡi ngựa bắn tên, xung thành hãm trận trên chiến trường.


A competitor who exhibits poor sportsmanship after losing a game or contest is often called a “sore loser”, while a competitor who exhibits poor sportsmanship after winning is typically called a “bad winner”. Sore loser behavior includes blaming others for the loss, not accepting responsibility for personal actions that contributed to the defeat, reacting to the loss in an immature or improper fashion, making excuses for the defeat, and citing unfavorable conditions or other petty issues as reasons for the defeat. A bad winner acts in a shallow fashion after his or her victory, such as by gloating about his or her win, rubbing the win in the face of the opponent, and lowering the opponent’s self-esteem by constantly reminding the opponent of their poor performance in comparison (even if the opponent competed well).


Misfortune happens to everyone. Champions just refuse to let it push them into doubtful, fearful thinking. If they miss a fairway, they think about how good they will feel if they make birdie from the woods. If they miss a green, they think about how much they enjoy showing off their chipping, pitching, and bunker play. If they have a bad round, they decide the odds will be in their favor the next time.


Greatness is a quality of character and is not the result of circumstances. It had to do with grandeur and with completeness of character. Other men have had very great qualities, but there has been some crevice where weakness lurked.


Conrad in talking about people has 2 classifications — those that have honor and those who have not. General Marshall stands at the head of men of honor. The word “integrity” to him means oneness of character which is a virtuous character. So far as I ever knew he had no smallness; no ego that I was able to discover that got in his way. He was looking at the thing to do, not looking at himself in the reflection of public opinion or in the reflection of whatever others would accord him.


Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not.


I have 2 kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.


If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?


This kid ain’t afraid of excelling.