Excerpts from the book - "Wings of Fire: An Autobiography APJ Abdul Kalam"

(Pg 12) Iyadurai Solomon used to say, "To succeed in life and achieve results, you must understand and master three mighty forces - desires, belief, and expectation.

(Pg 17) There were setbacks, disappointments and distractions, but my father's inspiring words anchored me in those periods of nebulous drift. "He who knows others is learned, but the wise one is the one who knows himself. Learning without wisdom is of no use."

(Pg 28) I would enter the assembly shop leaving my other problems outside, just as my father used to enter the mosque for prayer, leaving his shoes outside.

(Pg 29) So far, I had believed that the sky was the limit, but now it appeared that the limits were much closer. There are boundaries that dictate life:  you can only lift so much weight; you can only learn so fast; you can only work so hard; you can only go so far!

(Pg 38) What makes life in Indian organizations difficult is the widespread prevalence of this very contemptuous pride. It stops us from listening to our juniors, subordinates and people down the line.

(Pg 51) ...these lines from a little-known poet of the nineteenth-century crossed my mind: For all your days prepare, And meet them ever alike, When you are the anvil - bear, When you are the hammer - strike.

(Pg 58) I have always considered the price of perfection prohibitive, and (instead) allowed mistakes as part of the learning process.

(Pg 73) Beautiful hands are those that do, Work that is earnest and brave and true, Moment by moment, The long day through.

(Pg 80) I preferred exiting workable solutions which would be the best options. Nothing that is new comes into time-bound projects without its own problems.

(Pg 89) Do not make rocketry your profession, your livelihood - make it your religion, your mission.

(Pg 112) I still recall quoting Ronald Fischer at one of the meetings, "The sweetness we taste in a piece of sugar is neither the property of the sugar now a property of ourselves. We are producing the experience of sweetness in the process of interacting with the sugar."

(Pg 175) Take this from me, the more decisions you can make avoiding external pressures, which will constantly try to manipulate and immobilize you, the better your life will be, the better your society will become.

(Pg 176) As Pythagoras had said twenty-five centuries ago, "Above all things, reverence yourself."

Excerpts from "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out"

My favorite excerpts from the book - "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out" on Richard Feynman.

(Pg 11) They [must have] expected me to be wonderful to offer me a job like this and I wasn't wonderful, and therefore I realized a new principle, which was that I'm not responsible for what other people think I am able to do; I don't have to be good because they think I'm going to be good.

(Pg 24) I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong.

(Pg 86) And the one thing that Von Neumann gave me was an idea that he had which was interesting. That you don't have to be responsible for the world that you're in, and so I have developed a very powerful sense of social irresponsibility as a result of Von Neumann's advice.

(Pg 146) We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress we must recognize the ignorance and leave room for doubt. Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty - some most unsure, some nearly sure, none absolutely certain.

(Pg 179) I finally figured out a way to test whether you have taught an idea or you have only taught a definition. Test it this way: You say, "Without using the new word which you have just learned, try to rephrase what you have just learned in your own language."

(Pg 182) I learned then what science was about. It was patience.

(Pg 187) Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.

(Pg 231) And that's one thing I did learn, that if you have some reason for doing something that's very strong and you start working at it, you must look around every once in a while and find out if the original motives are still right.

(Pg 245) In this age of specialization, men who thoroughly know one field are often incompetent to discuss another.