My desire to devolve authority has nothing to do with a wish to shirk responsibility.

Power over a man’s subsistence is power over his will.

The topic of leadership is a touchy one. A lot of leaders fail because they don’t have the bravery to touch that nerve or strike that chord. Throughout my years, I haven’t had that fear.

No one gets away with anything, ever, so take responsibility for your own life.

The people of the world genuinely want peace. Some day the leaders of the world are going to have to give in and give it to them.

Only the guy who isn’t rowing has time to rock the boat.

Absolute liberty is absence of restraint; responsibility is restraint; therefore, the ideally free individual is responsible to himself.

We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on.

Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism.

Failure is nature’s plan to prepare you for great responsibilities.

There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.

Use every man after his desert, and who should scape whipping?

There is no necessity to separate the monarch from the mob; all authority is equally bad.

In war, you can only be killed once, but in politics, many times.

As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence.

For me, already being part of a single parent household and knowing it was just me and my mom, you’d would wake up times and hope that the next day you’d be able to be alongside your mother because she was out trying to make sure that I was taken care of. But all I cared about was her being home.

If we had more hell in the pulpit, we would have less hell in the pew.

Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.

As commanders and staff officers, we are coaches and sentries for our units: how can we coach anything if we don’t know a hell of a lot more than just the TTPs?

Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all.

I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is opposed to every instinct in my body. But as president I must put the interests of America first Therefore, I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow.

The people respect and believe in men who fulfill their duty.

I’m glad I’m not Brezhnev. Being the Russian leader in the Kremlin. You never know if someone’s tape recording what you say.

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.

Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes,‘ he said, his voice rising as applause and cheers mounted. ‚Shake it off. Stop complainin‘. Stop grumblin‘. Stop cryin‘. We are going to press on. We have work to do.

To state the facts frankly is not to despair the future nor indict the past. The prudent heir takes careful inventory of his legacies and gives a faithful accounting to those whom he owes an obligation of trust.

A good model of how to ‚work with the enemy‘ internally is presented by the Dalai Lama, in his endless caretaking of his soul as he confronts the Chinese government that invaded Tibet.

We all have the duty to do good.

From a young age, I learned to focus on the things I was good at and delegate to others what I was not good at. That’s how Virgin is run. Fantastic people throughout the Virgin Group run our businesses, allowing me to think creatively and strategically.

I don’t want to express my opinion about actual politics, because if I do, I have to be responsible for my decision.

Being prime minister is a lonely job… you cannot lead from the crowd.

With every word we utter, with every action we take, we know our kids are watching us. We as parents are their most important role models.

Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.

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.

The proper study of Man is anything but Man; and the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.

I’m no leader; I’m a little humble follower.

In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.

Earn your success based on service to others, not at the expense of others.

When you’re around the kids, you feel like you act the most grown up just because you’re supposed to lead. I say things, like every other parent, that reminds you of your own parents. One thing I do know about being a parent, you understand why your father was in a bad mood a lot.

The path to the CEO’s office should not be through the CFO’s office, and it should not be through the marketing department. It needs to be through engineering and design.

Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.

A piece of spaghetti or a military unit can only be led from the front end.

Go before the people with your example, and be laborious in their affairs.

The absent are never without fault, nor the present without excuse.

The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.

That’s the good thing about being president, I can do whatever I want.

When you’re one of the leaders of the team, there are no days off.

If I don’t run for president, we’ll all be OK.

The minute you got the Nobel Peace Prize, things that I said yesterday, with nobody paying too much attention, I say the same things after I got it – oh! It was quite crucial for people, and it helped our morale because apartheid did look invincible.

The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.

Wise leaders generally have wise counselors because it takes a wise person themselves to distinguish them.

A great fortune is a great slavery.

Man is fully responsible for his nature and his choices.

Accept the terrible responsibility of life with eyes wide open.

There is but one way for a president to deal with Congress, and that is continuously, incessantly, and without interruption. If it is really going to work, the relationship has got to be almost incestuous.

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

Soldiers generally win battles; generals get credit for them.

The story being told in ‚Star Wars‘ is a classic one. Every few hundred years, the story is retold because we have a tendency to do the same things over and over again. Power corrupts, and when you’re in charge, you start doing things that you think are right, but they’re actually not.

He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it.

There’s no difference between one’s killing and making decisions that will send others to kill. It’s exactly the same thing, or even worse.

I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end… I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.