It’s one of the few regrets of my presidency – that the rancor and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better. There’s no doubt a president with the gifts of Lincoln or Roosevelt might have better bridged the divide, and I guarantee I’ll keep trying to be better so long as I hold this office.

If you ask the CEO of some major corporation what he does, he will say, in all honesty, that he is slaving 20 hours a day to provide his customers with the best goods or services he can and creating the best possible working conditions for his employees.

A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.

I made a mistake by being ejected from the presidency. Next time, I will choose a Cabinet which will allow me to be life President.

Fame may go by and – so long, I’ve had you.

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.

The Creator has not thought proper to mark those in the forehead who are of stuff to make good generals. We are first, therefore, to seek them blindfold, and then let them learn the trade at the expense of great losses.

I never felt settled or calm. You can’t really commit to life when you feel that.

To paraphrase Winston Churchill, I did not take the oath I have just taken with the intention of presiding over the dissolution of the world’s strongest economy.

Better a broken promise than none at all.

Nothing recedes like progress.

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.

How do leaders serve their people? They may pay good wages and treat employees with respect.

The more responsibility the Scoutmaster gives his patrol leaders, the more they will respond.

Substitute ‚damn‘ every time you’re inclined to write ‚very‘; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.

To some degree it matters who’s in office, but it matters more how much pressure they’re under from the public.

Some people plant in the spring and leave in the summer. If you’re signed up for a season, see it through. You don’t have to stay forever, but at least stay until you see it through.

A leader who doesn’t hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader.

Mad or glad, Mr. Reagan is head over heels in love with Mrs. Reagan and can’t even imagine a world without her – He loves her.

If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.

Leaders who are kind of insecure or egocentric, they basically sabotage themselves.

Some people, they take their form of working out as a religion that they think is better than everyone else’s. I’m not like that. If you have a better way to work out, and you can teach it to me, and I find it to be useful and gets me in better shape, I’m all about.

Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end.

My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves.

God created man, but I could do better.

Every first-term president has to learn something after he comes into office. Nobody can be completely ready for the inevitable crises.

Common Core is a big win for education.

There is no such thing as Something for nothing.

I’m going to be so much better a president for having been at the CIA that you’re not going to believe it.

Through every victory and every setback, I’ve insisted that change is never easy and never quick; that we wouldn’t meet all of our challenges in one term, or one presidency, or even in one lifetime.

Every sentence spoken by Napoleon, and every line of his writing, deserves reading, as it is the sense of France.

In a world of complex threats, our security and leadership depends on all elements of our power – including strong and principled diplomacy.

Leadership is influence.

I can’t imagine what this place would be – I can’t imagine what the country would be – with Donald Trump as our president.

When I graduated from law school in 1959, there wasn’t a single woman on any federal bench. It wouldn’t be a realistic ambition for a woman to want to become a federal judge. It wasn’t realistic until Jimmy Carter became our president.

It is more difficult to rule yourself than to rule a city.

Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God.

I feel good because I believe I have made progress in rebuilding the people’s trust in their government.

A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.

Never neglect details. When everyone’s mind is dulled or distracted the leader must be doubly vigilant.

I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone – and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward.

So, for example, a country was into recession right after I was sworn in, a dot-com bust had taken place. Then the attacks of September the 11th, and then of course the great financial meltdown in the -the fundamental question facing any presidency is how do you deal with the hand you’re dealt?

Since it is difficult to join them together, it is safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking.

A word of encouragement from a teacher to a child can change a life. A word of encouragement from a spouse can save a marriage. A word of encouragement from a leader can inspire a person to reach her potential.

You’ve all seen over the last eight years what President Obama means to this country. He is the embodiment of honor, resolve, and character – one of the finest presidents we have ever had.

In this age, I don’t care how tactically or operationally brilliant you are: if you cannot create harmony – even vicious harmony – on the battlefield based on trust across service lines, across coalition and national lines, and across civilian/military lines, you need to go home, because your leadership is obsolete.

When you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be right and wise.

When I take action, I’m not going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt. It’s going to be decisive.

The British people know that, given strong leadership, time, and a little bit of hope, the forces of good ultimately rally and triumph over evil.

This country is being managed to death, being public related to death.

My favourite president, and the one I admired most, was Harry Truman.

We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times… and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK. That’s not leadership. That’s not going to happen.

I want a president with a record of public service: someone whose life’s work shows our children that we don’t chase form and fortune for ourselves; we fight to give everyone a chance to succeed.

With Malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds.

Players now have a groin injury for months and months, and I often think they don’t really give a toss whether they’re playing or not because they’re getting paid anyway.

I think women love very hard. We love men. We just love with everything we have. And sometimes, I don’t know that that love is met with the type of dignity that we wish it would be met with.

The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.

The trouble with Nixon is that he’s a serious politics junkie. He’s totally hooked and like any other junkie, he’s a bummer to have around, especially as President.

If a leader doesn’t convey passion and intensity then there will be no passion and intensity within the organization and they’ll start to fall down and get depressed.

Being a good husband is like being a good stand-up comic – you need ten years before you can even call yourself a beginner.