“In practical terms, a limit embracing attitude toward time means organizing your days with the understanding that you definitely won’t have time for everything you want to do – and so, at the very least, you can stop bearing yourself up for failing.”

“When you enter a mindset, you enter a new world.  In one world – the world of fixed traits – success is about proving you’re smart or talented.  Validating yourself.  The other – the world of changing qualities – it’s about stretching yourself to learn something new.  Developing yourself.”

“If parents want to give their children a gift, the best thing they can do is teach their children to love challenges, to be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, seek new strategies and keep learning.”

“If he was capable any longer of rethinking his policies, he gave no evidence of it.  And because of his power, of course, there was nothing that could force him to rethink.”

“Changing realities could have changed his thinking but he was utterly insulated from reality by the sycophancy of his yes men.”

“Comforts and conveniences are great but the haven’t always moved the ball downfield in our most important metric, happy, healthy years.”

“Modern humans may have an unmet need to do what’s truly difficult for us.”

“Project Apollo remains the last great act this country has undertaken out of a sense of optimism, of looking forward to the future…It is the sense of purpose we felt then that seems as distant as the moon itself.”

“Instead of letting the moon be the gateway to the future, we have let it become a brief chapter in our history.  The irony is that in turning away from space exploration – whose progress is intimately linked to the future of mankind – we were rob ourselves of the long term vision we desperately need.  Any society, if it is to flourish instead of merely survive, must transcend its own limits.”

Franklin’s life is worth examining because he didn’t go quietly into the night and found new ways to use his talents and intellect.  He reinvented himself constantly and in each of life’s chapters, found purpose.  And that is undoubtedly one of the things Franklin would be most proud of, that he stayed useful and was effective until the end. 

 “Here is the reality: in practically every high skill profession, decline sets in somewhere between one’s late thirties and early fifties.”

“Devote the back half of your life serving others with your wisdom.  Get old sharing the things you believe are most important.”

 “As the water flashed with twisting tails and dorsal fins, the boys resolved to stay calm, clamping their hands over their ears against the erupting screams, but this resolve vanished when one of the boys was dragged through the water like a fisherman’s bobber tugged by a big catfish.  The victim, clenched in the uplifted jaws of a shark, was pushed at waist level through the surf, screaming.  Others disappeared quietly without a trace, their life vests shooting back to the surface empty, the straps in shreds.  As the excited sharks grew more agitated, the attacks intensified in ferocity.”

“We must take sides.  Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.  Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

“The river of life flows independently of one’s preferences.  Whether you flow, float, swim or sink, it’s your personal choice.”

“The wheel of time churns relentlessly.  Moments gone will never come back.  So act wisely and mindfully in the present.”

“The fist step: Don’t be anxious. Nature controls it all. And before long you’ll be no one, nowhere - like Hadrian, like Augustus.

The second step: Concentrate on what you have to do. Fix your eyes on it. Remind yourself that your task is to be a good human being; remind yourself what nature demands of people. Then do it without hesitation, and speak the truth as you see it. But with kindness. With humility. Without hypocrisy.”        

“It was not in his nature to pass up any opportunity, especially if it might give him and edge, and put his life in danger.”

But how often do you let opportunities pass by?  When an opportunity is presented, do you notice?  Do you know what an opportunity looks like?  Opportunities beget action.  Action begets results.  That is how goals are achieved.              

When people cling to outdated plans and remain inflexible to changing circumstances, the results might just be 30 million casualties, the violent end of 3 empires and tragic impacts to a world order we’re still living with to this day.  

Highly trained, motivated teams with a total trust in one another and shared purpose can literally save the world.

Consistency. Consistency. Consistency. Just be consistent about the right thing. Are you working to become a better person each day or eating a bag of potato chips on the couch each day?

“Our conception of diversity is not just incomplete but radically defective.”

There are two types of games: finite games and infinite games. Make sure you are playing the right one.

“…we laugh at people who still use Windows 95, yet we cling to opinions that we formed in 1995.”