“Enemies make better allies than frenemies.”

This profound book shatters that assumption, showing that the more vital skill is asking the right questions….

When you put off a task, you buy yourself time to engage in divergent thinking rather than foreclosing on one particular idea.

Dissenting opinions are useful even when they’re wrong. So instead of speaking to highly agreeable audiences, target suggestions to people with a history of originality.

Negative relationships are unpleasant but predictable.

Most people believe that great leaders are distinguished by their ability to give compelling answers.

Being a giver is not good for a 100-yard dash, but it’s valuable in a marathon.

When you’re dealing with an ambivalent relationship, you’re constantly on guard, grappling with questions of trust.

This is what I find most magnetic about successful givers: they get to the top without cutting others down, finding ways of expanding the pie that benefit themselves and the people around them.

The more I help out, the more successful I become. But I measure success in what it has done for the people around me. That is the real accolade.

Focus attention and energy on making a difference in the lives of others, and success might follow as a by-product.

Whereas success is zero-sum in a group of takers, in groups of givers, it may be true that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Berger poses many fascinating questions, including this one: What if companies had mission questions rather than mission statements? This is a book everyone ought to read – without question.

There are takers, who are always trying to serve themselves; matchers, who are always trying to get equal benefit for themselves and others; and givers, who are always trying to help people.

People tend to have one of three ‘styles’ of interaction.

Procrastinate strategically… Procrastination may be the enemy of productivity but it can be a valuable resource for creativity.

The most meaningful way to succeed is to help others succeed.

Good entrepreneurs can manage, but no one but an entrepreneur can entrepreneur, let alone help build and lead the world’s community of leading social entrepreneurs and their top business entrepreneur allies.

For art to be ‘unpolitical’ means only to ally itself with the ‘ruling’ group.

There is nothing as dull as an intellectual ally after a certain age.

These allies are the hallucinogenic plants and the mysterious teaching entities, luminous and transcendental, that reside in that nearby dimension of ecstatic beauty and understanding that we have denied until it is now nearly too late.

Inflict the least possible permanent injury, for the enemy of to-day is the customer of the morrow and the ally of the future

The passion for power over others can never cease to threaten mankind, and is always sure of finding new and unforseen allies in continuing its martyrology.

I considered her my ally, because, like me, she was imperfect.

We should be wary, particularly with our closest friends and allies, of breaking down the trust and confidence that lie at the foundation of relationships.