Pool, it became clear to me, is all about angles. First, there are simple angles, as you must hit the cue ball to either side when you are not straight on.

It’s a juicy thing to say we’re building a phone, which is why people want to write about it. But it’s so clearly the wrong strategy for us.

To Sun-tzu and the ancient Chinese, doing something extraordinary had little effect without a setup of something ordinary. You had to mix the two – to fix your opponent’s expectations with some banal, ordinary maneuver, a comfortable pattern that they would then expect you to follow.

Play the game for more than you can afford to lose… only then will you learn the game.

I played by the rules of politics as I found them.

Experience teaches us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession.

No foreign policy – no matter how ingenious – has any chance of success if it is born in the minds of a few and carried in the hearts of none.

You can play fast but not in a hurry. As a point guard, I can dictate that.

The great defense against the air menace is to attack the enemy’s aircraft as near as possible to their point of departure.

‚Tis best to weigh the enemy more mighty than he seems.

Competitions are a business, first and foremost.

I’ve learned new footwork patterns that are very unusual. I’ve learned how to find a lower centre of gravity, and I’ve found more angles to throw shots.

Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.

From a young age, I learned to focus on the things I was good at and delegate to others what I was not good at. That’s how Virgin is run. Fantastic people throughout the Virgin Group run our businesses, allowing me to think creatively and strategically.

Our favorite holding period is forever.

Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times.

The onus is on the managers to send out an attacking formation and to tell their players to be bold.

In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.

I shall proceed from the simple to the complex. But in war more than in any other subject we must begin by looking at the nature of the whole; for here more than elsewhere the part and the whole must always be thought of together.

An army marches on its stomach.

Everybody that’s successful lays a blueprint out.

Concentrate your energies, your thoughts and your capital. The wise man puts all his eggs in one basket and watches the basket.

I have a scheme for stopping war. It’s this – no nation is allowed to enter a war till they have paid for the last one.

Plans are nothing; planning is everything.

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

One must change one’s tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one’s superiority.

The secret to success is to offend the greatest number of people.

If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.

Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions. If they have no clue what you are up to, they cannot prepare a defense.

If you can’t beat them, arrange to have them beaten.

You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war.

We have always said that in our war with the Arabs we had a secret weapon – no alternative.

There are good examples of companies – Coca-Cola is one – that invested before there was a huge market in countries, and I think that ended up playing out to their benefit for decades to come.

I always avoid prophesying beforehand, because it is a much better policy to prophesy after the event has already taken place.

The female loves to play man against man. And if she is in a position to do it, there is not one who will resist.

I love going one-on-one with someone. That’s what I do. I’ve never lost. It’s a whole different game, just to have them right in front of you and be able to do whatever you want.

Nobody ever defended anything successfully, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.

I don’t think there’s been anything in the game of football in my lifetime that has changed college football more than redshirting.

You can sometimes play some really good football and not score.

Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.

It’s plain hokum. If you can’t convince ‚em, confuse ‚em. It’s an old political trick. But this time it won’t work.

No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.

It is a fine game to play – the game of politics – and it is well worth waiting for a good hand before really plunging.

You can kill ten of our men for every one we kill of yours. But even at those odds, you will lose and we will win.

It takes a smart man to play dumb.

I think the running game is very important to every offense. Being balanced is extremely important. There’s times where you have to throw the ball. You could be down late in the game, you need to come back; you have to be able to pass it when they know you’re passing it.

A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.

Marriage is like a game of chess except the board is flowing water, the pieces are made of smoke and no move you make will have any effect on the outcome.

War – An act of violence whose object is to constrain the enemy, to accomplish our will.

It is often useful, if an enemy happens to see you, to pretend that you have not seen him. Or it may sometimes be useful to pretend that you have other men with you. I did this once in the Boer War when, having crept up a donga to look at a Boer fort, I was seen by the enemy, and they came out to capture me.

Let’s just be smart this time. I’m looking for smart.

Tobacco exports should be expanded aggressively because Americans are smoking less.

Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.

You can fool some of the people all the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on.

War is the continuation of politics by other means.

Football is a simple game based on the giving and taking of passes, of controlling the ball and of making yourself available to receive a pass. It is terribly simple.

There is but one way for a president to deal with Congress, and that is continuously, incessantly, and without interruption. If it is really going to work, the relationship has got to be almost incestuous.

The smart thing in the art world is to have one good idea and never have another.

Wherever the enemy wants to fight, we will follow him to the ends of the Earth. We’ll adapt, we’ll train, we’ll advise, we’ll mentor, and we’ll fight, and we’ll fight well.

If you can’t convince them, confuse them.

To me, we’re marketing hope.