Quotes from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“When [what you are deeply passionate about, what you can be best in the world at and what drives your economic engine] come together, not only does your work move toward greatness, but so does your life. For, in the end, it is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work. Perhaps, then, you might gain that rare tranquility that comes from knowing that you’ve had a hand in creating something of intrinsic excellence that makes a contribution. Indeed, you might even gain that deepest of all satisfactions: knowing that your short time here on this earth has been well spent, and that it mattered.”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great. We don't have great schools, principally because we have good schools. We don't have great government, principally because we have good government. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life.”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“The purpose of bureaucracy is to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline.”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“Great vision without great people is irrelevant.”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“A company should limit its growth based on its ability to attract enough of the right people.”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“For, in the end, it is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work.”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“Letting the wrong people hang around is unfair to all the right people, as they inevitably find themselves compensating for the inadequacies of the wrong people. Worse, it can drive away the best people. Strong performers are intrinsically motivated by performance, and when they see their efforts impeded by carrying extra weight, they eventually become frustrated.”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“By definition, it is not possible to everyone to be above the average.”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“Faith in the endgame helps you live through the months or years of buildup.”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“The good-to-great leaders never wanted to become larger-than-life heroes. They never aspired to be put on a pedestal or become unreachable icons. They were seemingly ordinary people quietly producing extraordinary results.”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice.”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you’ve made a hiring mistake.”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“Mediocrity results first and foremost from management failure, not technological failure.”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“Indeed, the real question is not, “Why greatness?” but “What work makes you feel compelled to try to create greatness?” If you have to ask the question, “Why should we try to make it great? Isn’t success enough?” then you’re probably engaged in the wrong line of work.”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“What separates people, Stockdale taught me, is not the presence or absence of difficulty, but how they deal with the inevitable difficulties of life.”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“Freedom is only part of the story and half the truth.... That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplanted by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast. —VIKTOR E. FRANKL, Man’s Search for Meaning”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you do not mind who gets the credit. —HARRY S. TRUMAN1”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“while you can buy your way to growth, you absolutely cannot buy your way to greatness.”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“The moment a leader allows himself to become the primary reality people worry about, rather than reality being the primary reality, you have a recipe for mediocrity, or worse. This is one of the key reasons why less charismatic leaders often produce better long-term results than their more charismatic counterparts. Indeed,”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“Think of the transformation as a process of buildup followed by breakthrough, broken into three broad stages: disciplined people, disciplined thought, and disciplined action. Within each of these three stages, there are two key concepts, shown in the framework and described below. Wrapping around this entire framework is a concept we came to call the flywheel, which captures the gestalt of the entire process of going from good to great.”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“Perhaps your quest to be part of building something great will not fall in your business life. But find it somewhere. If not in corporate life, then perhaps in making your church great. If not there, then perhaps a nonprofit, or a community organization, or a class you teach. Get involved in something that you care so much about that you want to make it the greatest it can possibly be, not because of what you will get, but just because it can be done.”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you do not mind who gets the credit.”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“thoughtless reliance on technology is a liability,”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“Every good-to-great company had Level 5 leadership during the pivotal transition years. • “Level 5” refers to a five-level hierarchy of executive capabilities, with Level 5 at the top. Level 5 leaders embody a paradoxical mix of personal humility and professional will. They are ambitious, to be sure, but ambitious first and foremost for the company, not themselves. • Level 5 leaders set up their successors for even greater success in the next generation, whereas egocentric Level 4 leaders often set up their successors for failure. • Level 5 leaders display a compelling modesty, are self-effacing and understated. In contrast, two thirds of the comparison companies had leaders with gargantuan personal egos that contributed to the demise or continued mediocrity of the company. • Level 5 leaders are fanatically driven, infected with an incurable need to produce sustained results. They are resolved to do whatever it takes to make the company great, no matter how big or hard the decisions. • Level 5 leaders display a workmanlike diligence—more plow horse than show horse. • Level 5 leaders look out the window to attribute success to factors other than themselves. When things go poorly, however, they look in the mirror and blame themselves, taking full responsibility. The comparison CEOs often did just the opposite—they looked in the mirror to take credit for success, but out the window to assign blame for disappointing results.”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“The good-to-great companies made a habit of putting their best people on their best opportunities, not their biggest problems. The comparison companies had a penchant for doing just the opposite, failing to grasp the fact that managing your problems can only make you good, whereas building your opportunities is the only way to become great. There is an important”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“You absolutely cannot make a series of good decisions without first confronting the brutal facts. The good-to-great companies operated”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“It didn’t matter how bleak the situation or how stultifying their mediocrity, they all maintained unwavering faith that they would not just survive, but prevail as a great company. And yet, at the same time, they became relentlessly disciplined at confronting the most brutal facts of their current reality.”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“Those who build great companies understand that the ultimate throttle on growth for any great company is not markets, or technology, or competition, or products. It is one thing above all others: the ability to get and keep enough of the right people. The management team”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“That’s what makes death so hard—unsatisfied curiosity. —BERYL MARKHAM,”
― James C. Collins, quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

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“Te miri cum frumuseţea ne dă iluzia deplină a binelui. Când o femeie frumoasă îndrugă prostii, o asculţi şi nu-i observi prostia, ci tot ce-ţi spune ţi se pare inteligent. Vorbeşte şi se poartă oribil şi tu vezi în asta ceva drăgălaş. Dacă însă nici nu spune prostii nici nu face lucruri urâte şi mai e şi frumoasă, te convingi numaidecât că e un miracol de deşteptăciune şi de moralitate.

Milioane de oameni, generaţii de robi cad victimă muncii silnice din fabrici numai pentru a satisface capriciile femeilor. Femeile, aidoma unor regine, ţin nouăzeci la sută din omenire în captivitatea lor şi în sclavia muncii grele… Ele se răzbună, acţionând asupra simţurilor noastre, prinzându-ne în mrejele lor. Da, totul purcede de aici. Femeile au făurit din ele însele o atât de puternică armă de acţionare asupra simţurilor, încât bărbatul nu se poate purta calm faţă de femeie. E de ajuns bărbatul să se apropie de femeie ca să cadă pradă vrăjii ei şi să-şi piardă capul. Şi odinioară mă simţeam totdeauna prost, stingherit când vedeam o doamnă gătită de bal; acum, însă mă cuprinde de-a dreptul groaza, văd în ea pur şi simplu o primejdie pentru oameni, o nelegiuire, şi-mi vine să chem Poliţia, să strig după ajutor.

Căci numai noi, bărbaţii, nu ştim şi, fiindcă nu vrem să ştim, pe câtă vreme femeile ştiu foarte bine că cea mai sublimă, cea mai poetică dragoste, cum îi spunem noi, nu depinde de însuşirile morale ale femeii, ce de apropierea fizică şi totodată de pieptănătură, de culoarea şi croiala rochiei.

Oamenii se căsătoresc fără să vadă în căsătorie altceva decât o împerechere şi rezultatul este fie înşelăciunea, fie silnicia. Înşelăciunea e mai uşor de suportat. Bărbatul şi soţia înşeală numai lumea, lăsând să se creadă că ar fi monogami, când în realitate trăiesc poligamie sau poliandrie. Şi asta e destul de greu, dar mai merge. Când însă – şi lucru acesta se întâmplă cel mai adesea – soţul şi soţia şi-au asumat obligaţia formală de a trăi toată viaţa împreună şi chiar din a doua lună a căsniciei încep a se urî unul pe altul, doresc să se despartă şi totuşi stau laolaltă, atunci ajung la acel infern îngrozitor, care-i duce la beţie, care-i face să se împuşte, să se omoare sau să-şi otrăvească fiecare viaţa lui şi pe a celuilalt”
― Leo Tolstoy, quote from The Kreutzer Sonata

“To me...she was spring. It was as if while imprisoned inside the dark cage of the inner family...I had completely frozen into snow...and then there she was--fresh, clear spring. It was almost inevitable that..I would fall in love with her. -Hatori”
― Natsuki Takaya, quote from Fruits Basket, Vol. 2

“Christ should leave us. He is too much with us and I don’t like his friends. We have no hope of recovering Christ until Christ leaves us. There is after all something worse than being God-forsaken. It is when God overstays his welcome and takes up with the wrong people.”
― Walker Percy, quote from The Last Gentleman

“Here is a lesson in creative writing.

First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college.

And I realize some of you may be having trouble deciding whether I am kidding or not. So from now on I will tell you when I'm kidding.

For instance, join the National Guard or the Marines and teach democracy. I'm kidding.

We are about to be attacked by Al Qaeda. Wave flags if you have them. That always seems to scare them away. I'm kidding.

If you want to really hurt your parents, and you don't have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, quote from A Man Without a Country

“One day a man has a job, and life is full of possibilities. The next day the job and the car are gone, and the man cannot look his wife in the eye.”
― Anita Shreve, quote from Sea Glass

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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

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