A company's ability to respond to an unplanned event, good or bad, is a prime indicator of its ability to compete.

Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.

It's fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.

This is a fantastic time to be entering the business world, because business is going to change more in the next 10 years than it has in the last 50.

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.

Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana.

The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.

Everyone needs a coach. It doesn't matter whether you're a basketball player, a tennis player, a gymnast, or a bridge player.

In business, the idea of measuring what you are doing, picking the measurements that count, like customer satisfaction and performance ... you thrive on that.

Of my mental cycles, I devote maybe 10 percent to business thinking. Business isn't that complicated. I wouldn't want to put it on my business card.

Don't compare yourself with anyone in this world ... if you do so, you are insulting yourself.

We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next 10. Don't let yourself be lulled into inaction.

Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don't think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without talking about the other.

If you show people the problems and you show people the solutions, they will be moved to act.

Whether it's Google or Apple or free software, we've got some fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes.

To win big, you sometimes have to take big risks.

Our success has really been based on partnerships from the very beginning.

A bad strategy will fail no matter how good your information is, and lame execution will stymie a good strategy. If you do enough things poorly, you will go out of business.

Business people need to shake off the notion that information is hard to get.

Only a few businesses will succeed by having the lowest price, so most will need a strategy that includes customer services.

Customers want high quality at low prices and they want it now.

Reward worthy failure - experimentation.

String theory has the potential to show that all of the wondrous happenings in the universe - from the frantic dance of subatomic quarks to the stately waltz of orbiting binary stars; from the primordial fireball of the big bang to the majestic swirl of heavenly galaxies - are reflections of one, grand physical principle, one master equation.

My poor mother. Every time I get a job, she asks, 'Am I gonna have to watch you kiss someone again in this one?' and I say, 'You're probably gonna have to watch me kiss someone in most of them, Mom.'

Sometimes I know a joke I'm going to yell out ahead of time, but most of the time it's stream of conscious. You never really know it until you've got everyone dressed up, the set is built, all the extras are here.

Is it true that the American people are war-weary? Absolutely. We are tired of sending our sons and daughters to distant lands year after year after year, to give their lives trying to transform foreign nations.

You dont know pain until youre staring at yourself in the mirror with tears streaming down your face and youre begging yourself to just hold on and be strong.

I grew up in Kolkata in a traditional family. We had friends who lived in mansions just like the one in 'Oleander Girl.' Growing up, I was fascinated by the old house and the old Bengal lifestyle.

W. P. Kinsella, who was born on a farm near Edmunton, Alberta, has earned wide recognition for his wild imagination and rash humor as a writer.

Writing, film, sculpture, music: it's all make-believe, really.

Men and women motivated by faith have every right and obligation to bring their belief and commitment to the public debate. However, that is very different from the governmental establishment of religion that our founders warned against and our constitution prohibits.

Some kid gets his first iPhone, signs up to Twitter, and then tweets, 'Nikki Sixx sucks.' And I'm supposed to take that personally.

For a true writer, each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment. He should always try for something that has never been done or that others have tried and failed. Then sometimes, with great luck, he will succeed.

I've finally recognized my body for what it is: a personality-delivery system, designed expressly to carry my character from place to place, now and in the years to come.

Always make sure you have your rent. At the end of the month, if you have to eat Ramen for a week because you won't have your rent money, just do it but make sure your rent is all there so you're not stressing about that. As long as you have your rent at least you have somewhere to live.

If I had no family, my wife and I would lead a much more romantic and nomadic existence.

Once you accept that perfection is just a goal, screwing up isn't so hard to handle. Each misstep is still a step, another lesson learned, another opportunity to get it right the next time.

Hope is a great falsifier. Let good judgment keep her in check.

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch a smile a kind word a listening ear an honest compliment or the smallest act of caring all of which have the potential to turn a life around.

We do not say: Being is, time is, but rather: there is Being and there is time.

We used to tie-dye T-shirts and sell them to classmates. We used to make egg rolls and sell them at street fairs. I worked at the mall. My parents probably spent more money on the gas driving me to different jobs than I made.

One must always maintain ones connection to the past and yet ceaselessly pull away from it.

Its so tempting to resist a little gift when youre expecting the otherwise.

Wrestlers are a little more dedicated than, and are different from, the other people, which may be strange.

For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.

I didn't originally intend on writing a book. I started writing during the day to feel like I was accomplishing something creative.