I ain’t Martin Luther King. I don’t have a dream, I have a plan.

— Spike Lee

Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead.

— David Farragut, Union Admiral during the American Civil War

On this date in 1862, David Farragut commanded a Union flotilla past two Confederate forts on the Mississippi River on his way to capture New Orleans. It wouldn’t be until more than two years later, at the Battle of Mobile Bay, when he would utter his famous phrase.

There’s no such thing as a glass ceiling. It’s just a thick layer of men.

— Laura Liswood, Secretary-General Council of Women World Leaders

Those “best leaders” excel at six skills . . . They have a winning attitude, a passion for customers, an ability to collaborate across boundaries, a global mindset, an ability to leverage diversity and a talent for working just “fast enough” — getting the right balance point between overly rapid decision-making and paralysis by analysis.

– Ann Livermore, HP Executive VP
(From a Knowledge at Wharton article)