“Before you can master any of the other axioms of wisdom, you must first strive to be men and women of honor and integrity.”

— William H. McRaven, The Wisdom of the Bullfrog, 2023, p. 11

About William H. McRaven

Retired U.S. Navy admiral and former Navy SEAL, chancellor of the University of Texas System, and author of 'Make Your Bed' (2017).

“If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.”

“If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day.”

“Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that the little things in life matter.”

“If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces.”

“Always take the short cut; and that is the rational one. Therefore say and do everything according to soundest reason.”

“The young have exalted notions, because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations.”

“Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.”

“I assert that the cosmic religious experience is the strongest and noblest driving force behind scientific research.”

“There is no logical path to these laws; only intuition, resting on sympathetic understanding of experience, can reach them.”