“Throw yourself into life as someone who makes a difference, accepting that you may not understand how or why.”

Imagine Martin Luther King saying, ‘I have a dream … But I don’t know if the others will buy it.’

The major difference between the ‘best’ and the ‘average’ is that the ‘best’ get as much pleasure from practice as performance.

It’s not a question of how much power you can hoard for yourself, but how much you can give away.

When you make a mistake, throw your hands in the air and say “How fascinating!”

My job [is] to awaken possibility in other people. If their eyes are shining, you know you’re doing it. If they’re not shining you get to ask this question: “Who am I being that my children’s eyes are not shining?”

It is the tuning of the universe… It’s as if at the beginning of the symphony God turns up the volume just a tiny bit.

I have a definition of success.

If you make a mistake, celebrate.

The conductor of an orchestra doesn’t make a sound. He depends, for his power, on his ability to make other people powerful.

This is the moment — this is the most important moment right now. Which is: We are about contribution. That’s what our job is. It’s not about impressing people. It’s not about getting the next job. It’s about contributing something.

Who am I being that my players’ eyes are not shining?

The job of the leader is to speak to the possibility.

I make myself a relentless architect of the possibilities of human beings.

We can replace the narratives that hold us back by inventing wiser stories, free from childish fears, and, in doing so, disperse long-held psychological stumbling blocks.

how absurd human beings are and how magnificent.

Look at their eyes. If their eyes are shining, you know you’re doing it.

It is better to decide a difference between enemies than friends, for one of our friends will certainly become an enemy and one of our enemies a friend.

A painting is merely the image of a tree, a man, or any other object reflected in a fountain.

The difference between the extras here and in France is the French extras read books. Actually, they hide the book and pretend that they’re acting. Here (in Hollywood), you can see everybody wants his break.

The difference is no less real because it is of degree.

If you see what you do each day as your way of loving the world and helping it heal, then life gets to be a lot different. The difference between burning up and burning out is the difference between loving what you are doing and not loving it.

The judgment may be compared to a clock or watch, where the most ordinary machine is sufficient to tell the hours; but the most elaborate alone can point out the minutes and seconds, and distinguish the smallest differences of time.

The fundamental difference between the mystery story and the ghost story is the fact that a mystery demands a solution for its effectiveness; a ghost story is necessarily unsolvable; the reader must be willing to accept the fact that nothing is proved.

Let us show the world that a difference of opinion upon medical subjects is not incompatible with medical friendships; and in so doing, let us throw the whole odium of the hostility of physicians to each other upon their competition for business and money.