It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.

You cannot create against a yielding medium. Let me have something finite, definite. My freedom will be so much the greater and more meaningful the more narrowly I limit my field of action and the more I surround myself with obstacles. Whatever diminishes constraint, diminishes strength.

The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible -- and achieve it, generation after generation.

The seductive pull of equilibrium poses a constant danger to successful established companies.

...While equilibrium endangers living systems, it often wears the disguise of an attribute. Equilibrium is concealed inside strong values or a coherent, close-knit social system, or within a company's well-synchronized operating system (often referred to as "organizational fit"). Vision, values, and organizational fit are double-edged swords.

There is nothing more difficult than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.

It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out - it's the grain of sand in your shoe.

There aren't any great men. There are just great challenges that ordinary men like you and me are forced by circumstances to meet.

One of the great discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do. Most of the bars we beat against are in ourselves -- we put them there, and we can take them down.

Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.

Men are not prisoners of fate, only prisoners of their own minds.

People rise to the challenge when it is their challenge.