Maxwell Maltz Quotes

Making good decisions is a crucial skill at every level.

Writing is sort of like chess for me. You have to think carefully before you move, thinking, planning.

Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential.

A military mindset is objectively analyzing a planned course of action and anticipating the likely consequences before you take that action.

Sometimes I do have something in my head. But, for me, I think it usually ends up being about considering all of the elements, and trying to understand the distance from where we are to where we want to go.

You always, I think, debate with yourself about whether or not you made the right decision. And you have to then give the person that you’re working for - in my instance, the president - your best judgment based on your understanding of the facts, but also the calculus you use to make a determination about what’s the best way to go forward.

One of the things I advised Donald Trump to do was to make sure that, before he commits to certain courses of action, he has really dug in and thought through how various issues play themselves out.

I'm pretty good at thinking about everything - all of my consequences - before I make a decision, and I think about everything that's going to happen because of that decision. I'm a Libra, and I'm very strategic.

Chess helps you to concentrate, improve your logic. It teaches you to play by the rules and take responsibility for your actions, how to problem solve in an uncertain environment.

The great problem now is that we don’t know what to do.

Analysis of opponents is something I like doing.

Critical thinking is the most important factor with chess. As it is in life, you need to think before you make decisions.

I learned to play chess at a young age, and I think that's where learning to plan things out and put things in position, that was the best thing for me.

Life is very much about making the best decisions you can. So I think chess is very valuable.

People who are great at making decisions in the face of uncertainty have great judgment.

That's all managing is: just coming up with the right questions and getting the right answers.

By playing at Chess then, we may learn: First: Foresight... Second: Circumspection... Third: Caution...And lastly, we learn by Chess the habit of not being discouraged by present bad appearances in the state of our affairs, the habit of hoping for a favorable chance, and that of persevering in the secrets of resources

The game of chess is a metaphor for life... it teaches you strategy and it teaches you the value of knowing where you are, where you want to get to and what obstacles are in the way that you need to navigate in order to get there.

Almost everything I do when I approach an operational problem comes from the time I've been in space. It's a way of organizing your thoughts. We use problem-solving; what we call "what-if-ing." What if this happened? What would we do? We go over plan B, C, D, E, F, and whatever else, depending on the criticality of what we're doing. This kind of thing can be applied almost everywhere, even at home.

It would have marked a want of foresight in the convention, which our own experience would have rendered inexcusable.

Chess makes man wiser and clear-sighted.

I started playing chess when I was about 4 or 5 years old. It is very good for children to learn to play chess, because it helps them to develop their mental abilities. It also helps to consolidate a person's character, because as it happens both in life and in a chess game we have to make decisions constantly. In chess there is no luck and no excuses: everything is in your hands.

An inch of foreknowledge is worth ten miles of after-thought.

I learned how to order my thoughts, and most important, learned how to develop a plan. I discovered the power of a plan. If you can plan it out, and it seems logical to you, you can do it. And that was the secret to success.

Chess teaches you to control the initial excitement you feel when you see something that looks good and it trains you to think objectively when you're in trouble