The figures selected for NU's Top 25 Living Legends ofInsurance are best known for their game-changing contributions tothe P&C industry, and some of them are also known for beingoutspoken leaders in the field.

Here are the Top 10 statements by some of these industry giantswhile speaking with us for this popular feature.

Editor's Note: Click here to read in-depth profiles of all 25Living Legends.

10. “I look back on it and say, 'What a screwball I was to takethat job.' Why would a sound man with a heavy mortgage and two kidsin school take that job?” —Jack Byrne, on becoming Chief Executive ofGEICO in 1976

9. “I thought about how the poor are impacted by a lot of thingslike not being able to afford auto insurance and how they aregypped on claims. I thought God had prepared me with my actuarialexperience for what he was calling me into.” — J. Robert Hunter, Director of Insurancefor the Consumer Federation of America, on his work for the FederalInsurance Administration

8. “The first thing you learn about leadership is that it is notabout you. If you are a real leader, you appreciate the fact thatthe people you have the good fortune to inspire and motivate arethe people who give you the opportunity to work with them, and it'sthese same people who make the success of the company, not you.”—Joseph Plumeri, Chairman/CEO,Willis

7. After Hurricane Katrina, “I was shocked. I began meeting with[insurers and reinsurers], and I was horrified to learn that at theboard level there was not a complete understanding of the wideuncertainty inherent in the models.” —Karen Clark, mother of cat modeling andPresident/CEO, Karen Clark & Co.

6. “I never operated with a complex­—as a woman, as a blackwoman, as a black, but instead as a person in business. We knewthere were problems, but I could not let that be a deterrent tome.” — Ernesta Procope, Founder/CEO of E.G. Bowman Inc.,the largest minority-owned insurance brokerage in theU.S.

5. “Hard market or soft market, we are always prepared to quotebusiness. No matter how hard the market, no matter how tight themarket, we will always quote on business that we think offers us anopportunity to make a dollar. And that means virtually anything.”— William R. Berkley, Chairman/CEO, W.R.Berkley Corp.

4. “There's an old cliché that anything is possible, and before[the Cigna deal] I would have been skeptical of that. But I learnedthat if you have the motivation and support, don't set your sightslow. Set them as high as you possibly can.” —Brian Duperreault, former Ace CEO andPresident/CEO, Marsh & McClennan Cos.

3. “I'd like [people] to remember me as someone who if peopleneeded help, that I'd be able to help them, whether personallyrelated or professionally. That's the bottom line for me.” — Pat Ryan, former Aon CEO and FoundingChairman/CEO, Ryan Specialty Group

2. After the passing of Proposition 103 in California, whichrequired insurers to cut rates by 20 percent across the board, hebecame “committed to the customer at an increasingly psychopathiclevel—and boy, has that approach paid off.” — Peter Lewis, Chairman, ProgressiveInsurance

1. “We opened China. I first went to China in 1975 [when] mostinsurance companies probably couldn't locate it on a map.” —Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, former AIG CEOand Chairman/CEO, The Starr Cos.

Click here to watch Bryant Rousseau's exclusivefive-part interview with Hank Greenberg!

Editor's Note: Click here to read in-depth profiles of all 25Living Legends.