Wisdom by EM

If you do something like read a lot of books and talk to a lot of people, you can learn almost anything.
When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.
Pay attention to negative feedback, and solicit it, particularly from friends. The friends who tell you what you want to hear might make you feel good, but it's the friends who tell you what you need to hear who help you grow as a person.
You should take the approach that you're wrong. Your goal is to be less wrong.
Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy.
Physics is the law, everything else is a recommendation. Anyone can break laws created by people, but I have yet to see anyone break the laws of physics.
People do not think critically enough. Critical thinking is a skill in short supply.
People assume too many things to be true without sufficient basis in that belief.
The duty of a leader is to serve their people, not for the people to serve them.
Persistence is very important. You should not give up unless you are forced to give up.
I think it's very important to have a feedback loop, where you're constantly thinking about what you've done and how you could be doing it better.
l'd rather be optimistic and wrong than pessimistic and right.
Some people don't like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster.
Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.
Think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary.
If you get up in the morning and think the future is going to be better, it is a bright day. Otherwise, it's not.

John W. Gardner's Address at Stanford's 100th Commencement Ceremony

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