For what I always hated and detested and cursed above all things was this contentment, this healthiness and comfort, this carefully preserved optimism of the middle classes, this fat and prosperous brood of mediocrity.

— Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf

…strive to hire people who are smarter than you and can replace you.

— Titus Winters, Tom Manshreck, and Hyrum Wright, Software Engineering at Google

All that we are is the result of all that we have thought. It is founded on thought. It is based on thought.

— Gautama Buddha, The Dhammapada

What matters isn’t what a person has or doesn’t have; it is what he or she is afraid of losing.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Skin in the Game

All drama in leadership and life is caused by the need to be right. Letting go of that need is a radical shift all great leaders make.

— Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, and Kaley Klemp, The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership