“Belief is easier when it occurs within a community.”

Willpower isn’t just a skill. It’s a muscle, like the muscles in your arms or legs, and it gets tired as it works harder, so there’s less power left over for other things.

The cooperation of NASCAR – or any other system, it turns out – persists only when everyone believes he has the opportunity to win.

The biggest moment of flexibility in our shopping habits is when we have a child, because when you think about it, all of your old routines sort of go out the window, and suddenly a marketer can come in and sell you new kinds of things.

The waste from power plants is essentially what is left over when you burn coal. And as we all know, coal is a relatively dirty mineral.

I think I’m smart, and I know I was a good mom. But there wasn’t a lot I could point to and say, that’s why I’m special.

There’s something about it that makes other good habits easier.

Hiding what you know is sometimes as important as knowing it.

If you want to do something that requires willpower – like going for a run after work – you have to conserve your willpower muscle during the day.

Habits are malleable throughout your entire life.

The best agencies understood the importance of routines. The worst agencies were headed by people who never thought about it, and then wondered why no one followed their orders.

Companies aren’t families. They’re battlefields in a civil war.

Small wins are a steady application of a small advantage.

If you believe you can change – if you make it a habit – the change becomes real.

The problem is that your brain can’t tell the difference between bad and good habits, and so if you have a bad one, it’s always lurking there, waiting for the right cues and rewards.

Since the 17th century, insurance agents have been the foremost experts on risk.

Once you understand that habits can change, you have the freedom and the responsibility to remake them. Once you understand that habits can be rebuilt, the power of habit becomes easier to grasp and the only option left is to get to work.

Would America have been America without her Negro people?

A member of the committee slapped a name tag over my left bosom. “What shall we name the other one?” I smiled. She was not amused.

We should not have drug laws or a court system that disproportionately punishes the black community.

Seven out of 10 black faces you see on television are athletes. The black athlete carries the image of the black community. He carries the cross, in a way, until blacks make inroads in other dimensions.

I was ostracized by my community.

Seven out of 10 black faces you see on television are athletes. The black athlete carries the image of the black community. He carries the cross, in a way, until blacks make inroads in other dimensions.

When the man who feeds the world by toiling in the fields is himself deprived of the basic rights of feeding, sheltering, and caring for his own family, the whole community of man is sick.

In all communities you find groups that behave badly. But you must understand them too.