Basketball's 'Coach K' on Honesty in Teamwork

Mike Krzyewski, the men's basketball coach for Duke University since 1980, is basketball's all-time winningest coach. Most people know him as ...

Harry Potter's Friend Holds Him Accountable

Toward the end of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, there's a scene where Harry, Ron, and Hermione are about to break the rules and leave ...

Medical Establishment Practices 'Mutual Pretense'

During his training to become a hospital chaplain, a man was surprised to learn of a phenomenon in the medical community widely known as "Mutual ...

Tom Hanks Admits He often Lies to People

After Reader's Digest nominated the actor Tom Hanks as "the most trusted man in the world" (in 2013), on the Late Show David Letterman asked ...

It's Harder to Deceive an Honest Person

"You speak the truth, that is plain: the Men of the Mark [that is, the men of Rohan] do not lie, and therefore they are not easily deceived." ...

Flattery Like Gum

Flattery is like chewing gum. Enjoy it, but don't swallow it.

—Hank Ketcham, cartoonist and creator of Dennis the Menace

Winston Churchill on Popularity

Winston Churchill was once asked, "Doesn't it thrill you to know that every time you make a speech, the hall is packed to overflowing?"

"It's ...

The Fickle Crowd

Oliver Cromwell, who took the British throne away from Charles I and established the Commonwealth, said to a friend, "Do not trust to the cheering, ...

The Pure in Heart

Blessed is he who has learned to admire but not to envy, to follow but not imitate, to praise but not flatter, and to lead but not manipulate.

A Complimentary Angle

At a wedding reception, I overheard a man being introduced to an attractive woman he had not met before. He said to her, "I don't know how old ...