Great leaders think, and thinking requires solitude. That’s the message given to the graduating class of West Point. Some more quotes:

Solitude is one of the most important necessities of true leadership.

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We have a crisis of leadership in America because our overwhelming power and wealth, earned under earlier generations of leaders, made us complacent, and for too long we have been training leaders who only know how to keep the routine going.

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Thinking means concentrating on one thing long enough to develop an idea about it.

With technology enveloping us all, especially the younger generation, will it soon be possible to create an original thought not tied to the content we’re consuming?

Read The Entire Speech at The American Scholar (HT: Danger & Play)