An exceptional company is the one that gets all the little details right. And the people out on the front line, they know when things are not going right, and they know when things need to be improved. And if you listen to them, you can soon improve all those niggly things which turns an average company into an exceptional company.

There’s an inherent danger in letting people think that they have perfected something. When they believe they’ve ‚nailed it,‘ most people tend to sit back and rest on their laurels while countless others will be labouring furiously to better their work!

Better is the enemy of good.

When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back.

I have an eye for detail.

Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.

I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better.

I’m different than most people. When I cross the finish line of a big race, I see that people are ecstatic, but I’m thinking about what I’m going to do tomorrow. It’s as if my journey is everlasting, and there is no finish line.

Other than obvious errors like forgetting a line, often I can’t see any difference between take one and take 20.

Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.

I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.

My view is there’s no bad time to innovate.

I think that’s why my career is going to be so long: Because I haven’t given people everything.

It’s a piece of cake until you get to the top. You find you can’t stop playing the game the way you’ve always played it.

Oh, the difference between nearly right and exactly right.

I keep working because I learn something new all the time.

The only things worth learning are the things you learn after you know it all.

Never neglect details. When everyone’s mind is dulled or distracted the leader must be doubly vigilant.

Start wide, expand further, and never look back.

I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better. I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

First I shake the whole Apple tree, that the ripest might fall. Then I climb the tree and shake each limb, and then each branch and then each twig, and then I look under each leaf.

In the successful organization, no detail is too small to escape close attention.

You’re always learning. The problem is, sometimes you stop and think you understand the world. This is not correct. The world is always moving. You never reach the point you can stop making an effort.

However great a man’s natural talent may be, the act of writing cannot be learned all at once.

This is what customers pay us for – to sweat all these details so it’s easy and pleasant for them to use our computers. We’re supposed to be really good at this. That doesn’t mean we don’t listen to customers, but it’s hard for them to tell you what they want when they’ve never seen anything remotely like it.

It doesn’t bother me when people try to deconstruct my songs – because at least they’re looking at the lyrics, and paying attention to the way the story is told.

We have to abandon the idea that schooling is something restricted to youth. How can it be, in a world where half the things a man knows at 20 are no longer true at 40 – and half the things he knows at 40 hadn’t been discovered when he was 20?

I’m just like you – I want to be a good human being. I’m doing my best, and I’m working at it. And I’m trying to be a Christian. I’m always amazed when people walk up to me and say, ‚I’m a Christian.‘ I always think, ‚Already? You’ve already got it?‘ I’m working at it. And at my age, I’ll still be working at it at 96.

Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.

A man cannot make a pair of shoes rightly unless he do it in a devout manner.

One thing is sure. We have to do something. We have to do the best we know how at the moment… If it doesn’t turn out right, we can modify it as we go along.

I’m only as good as my last word, my last hook, my last bridge.

I think you’re working and learning until you die.