“People who confuse what they wish were true with what is really true create distorted pictures of reality that make it impossible for them to make the best choices.”

School typically doesn’t prepare young people for real life – unless their lives are spent following instructions and pleasing others. In my opinion, that’s why so many students who succeed in school fail in life.

Nature gave us pain as a messaging device to tell us that we are approaching, or that we have exceeded, our limits in some way.

Most people have a hard time confronting their weaknesses in a really straightforward, evidence-based way. They also have problems speaking frankly to others. Some people love knowing about their weaknesses and mistakes and those of others because it helps them be so much better, while others can’t stand it.

I believe that for the most part, achieving success – whatever that is for you – is mostly a matter of personal choice and that, initially, making the right choices can be difficult.

More than anything else, what differentiates people who live up to their potential from those who don’t is a willingness to look at themselves and others objectively.

Everyone has to decide for themselves what works for them and their organization.

There is a strong tendency to get used to and accept very bad things that would be shocking if seen with fresh eyes.

Watch out for people who think it’s embarrassing not to know.

The pain of problems is a call to find solutions rather than a reason for unhappiness and inaction, so it’s silly, pointless, and harmful to be upset at the problems and choices that come at you (though it’s understandable).

There is nothing to fear from truth….Being truthful is essential to being an independent thinker and obtaining greater understanding of what is right.

If you have the power to see things through somebody else’s eyes, it’s like going from black and white to color or two dimensions to three dimensions.

There are far more good answers “out there” than there are in you.

Treat your life like a game.

Over the long run, the price of gold approximates the total amount of money in circulation divided by the size of the gold stock. If the market price of gold moves a long way from this level, it may indicate a buying or selling opportunity.

To make money in the markets, you have to think independently and be humble.

It is a law of nature that you must do difficult things to gain strength and power. As with working out, after a while you make the connection between doing difficult things and the benefits you get from doing them, and you come to look forward to doing these difficult things.

To succeed, you also have to know how to make choices and how to think more broadly.

Russia does not and cannot have any political choice but democracy.

Politics is the choice between the lesser of two evils.

Our choices affect everyone around us. There is no such thing as “individual risk” or “individual wellness.

The love of books is among the choicest gifts of the gods.

You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices.

If you are born an artist, you have no choice but to fight to stay an artist.

I have the choice of being constantly active and happy or introspectively passive and sad. Or I can go mad by ricocheting in between.