If I want to do well in racing I need to be more focused so I stopped going to school. If I wasn’t a very good driver it would not be a wise decision, but it gives me an advantage over my competitors.

I act on impulse and I go with my instincts.

My focus is my art, and that’s what I love to do. I have to be really passionate in order to do something. I’ve turned down many things that I just didn’t believe in.

My dad kind of liked racing and motorsports, but wasn’t a big fan, it wasn’t like he watched every race or whatever.

I laugh and joke, but I don’t get distracted very easily.

F2 cars have downforce; they’re quick. But it’s difficult for your brain and eyes to keep up with everything that’s going on once you’re in an F1 car. You get used to it and you learn to stay calm, because if you react too quickly the opposite will happen. Being more relaxed is when it becomes more natural and controlled.

One of the key qualities a leader must possess is the ability to detach from the chaos, mayhem, and emotions in a situation and make good, clear decisions based on what is actually happening.

I don’t think I’m bad for people. If I did think I was bad for people, I would go back to driving a truck, and I really mean this.

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.

Every time I try to retire, or even think of retiring from acting, my agent comes up with a script.

I probably work harder, putting in a lot of time and effort, than a lot of drivers because all I think about, and all I do, is to do with racing, trying to make myself a better driver.

I am growing handsome very fast indeed! I expect I shall be the belle of Amherst when I reach my 17th year. I don’t doubt that I shall have perfect crowds of admirers at that age. Then how I shall delight to make them await my bidding, and with what delight shall I witness their suspense while I make my final decision.

Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.

Meditation is difficult for many people because their thoughts are always on some distant object or place. One form of meditation is to label the thought as it appears and then choose to let it go.

I’ve been thinking of humorous things since I was… I can’t remember when. All the way through elementary school, all the way through junior high, all the way through high school, through college and after college, I was thinking of the same kinds of things that I say in front of an audience now.

It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no advantage at all.

Really I feel less keen about the Army every day. I think the Church would suit me better.

Warren Buffet told me once and he said always follow your gut. When you have that gut feeling, you have to go with don’t go back on it.

Every President wants to do right.

In politics… never retreat, never retract… never admit a mistake.

I was a class clown. At 12, I was definitely clowning. I was making all the jokes. But I was smart, so the teachers didn’t know what to do with me.

Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences.

People are usually more convinced by reasons they discovered themselves than by those found by others.

Finality is not the language of politics.

The simple act of paying attention can take you a long way.

A person will sometimes devote all his life to the development of one part of his body – the wishbone.

Life is a matter of really tough choices.

Racing, competing, it’s in my blood. It’s part of me, it’s part of my life; I have been doing it all my life and it stands out above everything else.

Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now and facts and science and argument does not seem to be winning the day all the time is because we’re hardwired not to always think clearly when we’re scared. And the country’s scared.

If the critics are right that I’ve made all my decisions based on polls, then I must not be very good at reading them.

How about a little noise. How do you expect a man to putt?

Sometimes, I think if you get away from what you’re called to do, it’s more of a distraction.

The dangers of not thinking clearly are much greater now than ever before. It’s not that there’s something new in our way of thinking – it’s that credulous and confused thinking can be much more lethal in ways it was never before.

You can tell the tree by the fruit it bears. You see it through what the organization is delivering as far as a concrete program. If the tree’s fruit sours or grows brackish, then the time has come to chop it down – bury it and walk over it and plant new seeds.

I never knew whether to pity or congratulate a man on coming to his senses.

Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand.

I can have people around a lot more because I’m not always chasing them away so I can work on my novel. My non-novel, I mean.

If it wasn’t for the fun and money, I really don’t know why I’d bother.

Being prime minister is a lonely job… you cannot lead from the crowd.

Being flooded with information doesn’t mean we have the right information or that we’re in touch with the right people.

Even if you’re happy with the life you’ve chosen, you’re still curious about the other options.

What can I know? What ought I to do? What can I hope?

Every time I get in the McLaren I feel more comfortable, my confidence increases and I feel more at home with the team.

I would hear stories about Steve Jobs and feel like he was at 100 percent exactly what he wanted to do, but I’m sure even a Steve Jobs has compromised. Even a Rick Owens has compromised. You know, even a Kanye West has compromised. Sometimes you don’t even know when you’re being compromised till after the fact, and that’s what you regret.

As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will, he will be sure to repent.

Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life.

As soon as questions of will or decision or reason or choice of action arise, human science is at a loss.

My parents pretty much realized that I would do whatever I wanted, and that was it, really.

I was in enough to get along with people. I was never socially inarticulate. Not a loner. And that saved my life, saved my sanity. That and the writing. But to this day I distrust anybody who thought school was a good time. Anybody.

No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.

If you call yourself a leader, then you have to be decisive. If you’re decisive, then you have the chance to be a leader. These are two sides to the same coin.

If I am a cup maker, I’m interested in making the best cup I possibly can. My effort goes into that cup, not what people think about it.

I don’t really plan. I’m almost intuitive about things.

My mom was on the United Way group that decides how to allocate the money and looks at all the different charities and makes the very hard decisions about where that pool of funds is going to go.

I think the F2 tyres are probably one of the hardest things to adapt to, harder than the Formula One Pirellis were to get used to.

You have to stay fresh and blank in your mind when you go out to bat. You complicate things, and you’re gone.

It doesn’t matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes. What matters most is getting off. You cannot make progress without making decisions.

All of us knows, not what is expedient, not what is going to make us popular, not what the policy is, or the company policy – but in truth each of us knows what is the right thing to do. And that’s how I am guided.

It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

Education is what you learn after you leave school.

It is difficult for the common good to prevail against the intense concentration of those who have a special interest, especially if the decisions are made behind locked doors.