The problems afflicting a nation are always in equal measure spiritual crises.

If the breadth of perspectives is wide enough to represent the fullest range of views, consensus is unlikely. If consensus is swiftly achieved, it probably means too few voices have been heard.

It was easier to be the headstrong monk, a boy on a long-shot mission, before he actually won anything. With the prize in hand, he realized his single-minded drive came across as aloof cockiness; his...

I’m [Paul O’Neill] an old guy, and I’m rich. And there’s nothing they can do to hurt me.

Reaching out to any fellow ghetto kids is an act he puts in the same category as doing drugs: the initial rush of warmth and euphoria puts you on a path to ruin.

If the opposite of certainty is doubt, humility must lie somewhere between the two,

These were lobbyists—many of them compensated quite handsomely not to react as human beings.

Rapid change, accommodating it can be one of the great human capacities. But living through it can be the stuff of stress and often suffering.

The key is to put your outrage in a place where you can get it when you need to, but not have it bubble up so much, especially when you’re asked to explain new ideas...

Younger colleagues tended to draw untested self-confidence from their bonuses and prestigious degrees.

Choose your words meticulously and then let them rumble up from some deep furnace of conviction.

He was confronted at an early age with adult-strength realizations about powerlessness, desperation, and distrust, taking his dose right alongside the overwhelmed adults. This steady stream of shocks and realizations leaves so many boys raised...

He (Larry Summers) can frame arguments with such force and conviction that people think he knows more than he does.

It is one thing to rouse the passion of a people, and quite another to lead them.

Nonetheless, the fact remains; he had hope in a better world he could not yet see that overwhelmed the cries of “you can’t” or “you won’t” or “why bother.” More than anything else, mastering that...

A little known area often defines the fortunes of leaders — management skills.

Trust is something you have to practice. Someday you’re going to fall in love with someone, and you need to understand what trust is all about. What you doing now is developing bad practices of...

For any thinking person, it (perpetual happiness) is untenable. If you’re a thinking person, your upbeat sometimes, said sometimes.

Civilizations rise and fall on confidence. America had figured out a way to borrow money to manufacture it.

The whole game was about confidence, as it always was. Everything was fine—until it wasn’t.

The phone rang. It was a familiar voice.It was Alan Greenspan. Paul O’Neill had tried to stay in touch with people who had served under Gerald Ford, and he’d been reasonably conscientious about it. Alan...

Confidence is the immaterial residue of material actions. Confidence is the public face of competence.

A boy, if he’s lucky, discovers his limitations across a leisurely passage of years, with a self-awareness arriving slowly. That way, at least he has plenty of time to heroically imagine himself first. Most boys...

Summers was simply a master explainer, able to deftly boil down the complexities of economic and financial, and to put them in terms the non-expert could understand. He was brilliant at cultivating a sense of...

It’s exciting to work with the kids so devoid of irony, so unguarded. And also terrifying.