One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice-president, and that one word is ‚to be prepared‘.

But let me tell you, this gender thing is history. You’re looking at a guy who sat down with Margaret Thatcher across the table and talked about serious issues.

If people lose faith in their government, the result is the same whether or not the loss of confidence is justified.

Personally, I’d like to see more of our leaders take a technocratic approach to solving our biggest problems.

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

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

The most practical kind of politics is the politics of decency.

People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.

In various countries and times, leaders of groups that lagged behind, economically and educationally, have taught their followers to blame all their problems on other people – and to hate those other people.

Being a good listener is absolutely critical to being a good leader; you have to listen to the people who are on the front line.

As a country, we can’t teach kids how to read and write when we got 18 years to do it. And that’s – that’s a disgrace.

The onus is on the managers to send out an attacking formation and to tell their players to be bold.

If I had chosen the populist course, it would have been a breach of the trust placed in me by the people.

Untutored courage is useless in the face of educated bullets.

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.

Conscientious people are apt to see their duty in that which is the most painful course.

I think a number of the leaders are, whether you like it or not, in the hip-hop generation. And when they understand enough, they’ll do wonders. I count on them.

Our schools and colleges are turning out people who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling other people what to do.

I vividly remember a conversation I had many years ago in 1974, which marked a turning point in my leadership journey. I was sitting at a Holiday Inn with my friend, Kurt Campmeyer, when he asked me if I had a personal growth plan. I didn’t. In fact, I didn’t even know you were supposed to have one.

We still think of a powerful man as a born leader and a powerful woman as an anomaly.

How easy it is to govern when one follows a system of consulting the will of the people and one holds as the only norm all the actions which contribute to the well being of the people.

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

Let me define a leader. He must have vision and passion and not be afraid of any problem. Instead, he should know how to defeat it. Most importantly, he must work with integrity.

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

History has proven that each generation of Howard graduates will forge the way forward for our country and our world.

A president either is constantly on top of events or, if he hesitates, events will soon be on top of him. I never felt that I could let up for a moment.

Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.

Responsibility is the price of freedom.

It is a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in others is the true test.

You think that the heads of state only have serious conversations, but they actually often begin really with the weather or, ‚I really like your tie.‘

I can tell you this: If I’m ever in a position to call the shots, I’m not going to rush to send somebody else’s kids into a war.

Good executives never put off until tomorrow what they can get someone else to do today.

Do your duty and a little more and the future will take care of itself.

Imagine for yourself a character, a model personality, whose example you determine to follow, in private as well as in public.

In George Bush you get experience, and with me you get – The Future!

I’m committed to the people of Gujarat. I will devote each and every moment to serve my people of Gujarat.

Our chief justices have probably had more profound and lasting influence on their times and on the direction of the nation than most presidents.

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.

We came into a broken world. And we’re the cleanup crew.

I will only hire someone to work directly for me if I would work for that person. It’s a pretty good test.

I’m more than comfortable just sitting back and scoring 21, 22 points or whatever and getting 10, 11 assists whatever the case might be. More than comfortable with that. It’s just a matter of the pieces that you have around you and what you can do to elevate everybody else.

Sadly, the truth is, there aren’t many people who can be put in high positions who won’t start thinking highly of themselves.

When a team takes ownership of its problems, the problem gets solved. It is true on the battlefield, it is true in business, and it is true in life.

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.

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

Put two or three men in positions of conflicting authority. This will force them to work at loggerheads, allowing you to be the ultimate arbiter.

No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it.

A president has an inescapable responsibility to provide direction: What are we trying to achieve? What are we trying to prevent? Why? To do that, he has to both analyze and reflect.

A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don’t have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed.

War should be the only study of a prince. He should consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes as ability to execute, military plans.

The book, ’12 Rules For Life,‘ is a very serious book. There’s elements of humor in it, but I’m trying to struggle with things at the deepest possible level and to explain to people why it’s necessary to live a upstanding and noble and moral and truthful and responsible life, and why there’s hell to pay if you don’t do that.

International affairs is very much run like the mafia. The godfather does not accept disobedience, even from a small storekeeper who doesn’t pay his protection money. You have to have obedience; otherwise, the idea can spread that you don’t have to listen to the orders, and it can spread to important places.

I am a child but I have to think and act like a woman, this business forces you to.

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.

Americans… still believe in an America where anything’s possible – they just don’t think their leaders do.

So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly arise and make them miserable.

If the leader is filled with high ambition and if he pursues his aims with audacity and strength of will, he will reach them in spite of all obstacles.

It’s time to stop thinking of the Republican Party as an exclusive club where your ideological card is checked at the door, and start thinking about how we can attract more solution-based leaders like Nathan Fletcher and Anthony Adams.

Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.

Many people, including some conservatives, have been very impressed with how brainy the president and his advisers are. But that is not quite as reassuring as it might seem.