Quotes from Jim Stockdale

Stress is essential to leadership. Living with stress, knowing how to handle pressure, is necessary for survival. It is related to man's ability to wrest control of his own destiny from the circumstances that surround him or, if you like, to prevail over technology.

But what I'm saying is that whenever I've been in trouble spots -- in crises (and I've been in a lot of trouble and in a lot of crises) -- the sine qua non of a leader has lain not in his chesslike grasp of issues and the options they portend, not in his style of management, not in his skill at processing information, but in his having the character, the heart, to deal spontaneously, honorably, and candidly with people, perplexities, and principles.

Honest men in prison know that there is no such thing as "brainwashing" or "breaking." These expressions of self-delusion never find use behind bars. They are just unfortunate metaphors that allow people outside prison to be less uncomfortable in discussing human limitations.

Let me start with the overobvious, boxed in a cliché, wrapped in some truisms.