For over 50 years, James G. March has made a sustained and innovative contribution to the study of organizations. In his renowned course on leadership at Stanford University he explores the problems of leadership using works of great literature, such as War and Peace and Don Quixote. These essays are based on Marchrsquo; s notes for his course lectures. The notes have been interpreted by Thierry Weil, and translated here from his original French interpretation. March uses literature to examine a set of dilemmas related to leadership ndash; questions concerning the balance between private life and public duties, between ingenuity and innocence, between diversity and integration,