Autobiography of a Restless Mind: Reflections on the Human Condition Volume 1

Constructive, humane behavior cannot be achieved by external force. It arises from within. It can be educed, but cannot be compelled. It is a rare leader who understands this simple fact, let alone puts it into practice.

The one who professes the best motives is the most likely to act from the worst.

Envy is admission of inferiority.

It is a great mistake to confuse physical strength, dominance, violence, vulgarity, or brutality with masculinity. Masculinity is emotional stability, undaunted integrity, quiet courage, humility, generosity, and capacity for enduring love, or it is nothing.

The universe does not exert force in any meaningful sense. The sun does not “force” the planets into orbit or “command” them to do anything. It merely places an attraction in their path to which they respond in accordance with their nature. It would be a blessing if people who aspire to be great could understand this principle and behave in accorda

Anything wrapped in a tale slips easily into the mind and adheres tenaciously.

Rising at five thirty to write a thousand or more words before beginning the day’s labor became an entrenched habit, unbroken to this day. Each day’s writing ended with four or five short reflections on subjects then occupying my mind. By the late ’90s, my writing had grown to five thousand pages containing several thousand of the short reflections

Open your clenched fist and the universe will gladly lie down in the palm of your hand.

As partial recompense for dislike of business, I continued to read and study voraciously. It led to three questions that soon dominated my life. Time and time again I asked: • Why are individuals, everywhere, increasingly in conflict with and alienated from the organizations of which they are part? • Why are organizations, everywhere, increasingly