Just Because You've Been Successful And Just

Above All, Recognize That If You Have Had Success, You Have Also Had Luck — And With Luck Comes Obligation. You Owe A Debt, And Not Just To Your Gods. You Owe A Debt To The Unlucky.

If You Have A Patient In A Doctor's Office Who's Just Been Told They Have Terminal Cancer But There's This Operation They Could Perform Right Now That Might Save Their Lives. ... They Have A 90 Percent Chance Of Surviving The Operation — If You Tell Them That, They Respond One Way. If You Tell Them ... That They Have A 10 Percent Chance Of Being Killed By The Operation, They Are About Three Times Less Likely To Have The Operation.

The Sheer Quantity Of Brain Power That Hurled Itself Voluntarily And Quixotically Into The Search For New Baseball Knowledge Was Either Exhilarating Or Depressing, Depending On How You Felt About Baseball. The Same Intellectual Resources Might Have Cured The Common Cold, Or Put A Man On Pluto.

The Vicious Cycle That Is Bringing Down European States Is Not Going To Hit Us [the Usa], At Least Not For A While, At The Level Of The Federal Government. The Same Cannot Be Said Of State And Local Governments.

When An American Declares Bankruptcy, When He Hits Bottom, He Can Reinvent Himself. There's A Story He Can Tell. We Tolerate Reinvention. We Encourage Reinvention. That's What This Country Has That Europe Does Not. It's Not Just A Crisis; It's An Opportunity.