As his vice president for eight years, I learned more from Ronald Reagan than from anyone I encountered in all my years of public life.

I just owe almost everything to my father and it’s passionately interesting for me that the things that I learned in a small town, in a very modest home, are just the things that I believe have won the election.

Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.

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

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

I never let schooling interfere with my education.

Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country? If you are the first, then you are a parasite; if the second, then you are an oasis in the desert.

I believe in a president whose religious views are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the nation or imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office.

Wise kings generally have wise counselors; and he must be a wise man himself who is capable of distinguishing one.

I am mindful not only of preserving executive powers for myself, but for predecessors as well.

Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.

Computers themselves, and software yet to be developed, will revolutionize the way we learn.

I’m responsible for starting a whole new school of pretension.

We should work with the principle that a work that can be done at a lower level should never be escalated to a higher level.

I know of no single formula for success. But over the years I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm and their inspiration to work together.

Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.

I would hear stories about Steve Jobs and feel like he was at 100 percent exactly what he wanted to do, but I’m sure even a Steve Jobs has compromised. Even a Rick Owens has compromised. You know, even a Kanye West has compromised. Sometimes you don’t even know when you’re being compromised till after the fact, and that’s what you regret.

To all the positions, I just bring the determination to win. Me being an unselfish player, I think that can carry on to my teammates. When you have one of the best players on the court being unselfish, I think that transfers to the other players.

The learning and knowledge that we have, is, at the most, but little compared with that of which we are ignorant.

The day-to-day making of policy is arguing all the time. You’re trying to get the right approach and the right answer, and there are moments that aren’t very pleasant. But in the end, you look at the overall product.

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.

He who has great power should use it lightly.

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.

It doesn’t take a majority to make a rebellion; it takes only a few determined leaders and a sound cause.

I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there.

The true history of my administration will be written 50 years from now, and you and I will not be around to see it.

Never give an order that can’t be obeyed.

Leaders in all spheres who are living with HIV should be encouraged, not coerced, to lead by example and disclose their HIV status.

Older people sit down and ask, ‚What is it?‘ but the boy asks, ‚What can I do with it?‘.

Genius without education is like silver in the mine.

The best leaders understand the motivations of their team members and know their people – their lives and their families. But a leader must never grow so close to subordinates that one member of the team becomes more important than another, or more important than the mission itself.

I went to a lovely school, and I got an incredible education. And I actually think that my education is what really sets me apart, ‚cause I’m very smart.

My relationship to power and authority is that I’m all for it. People need somebody to watch over them. Ninety-five percent of the people in the world need to be told what to do and how to behave.

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

Power is poison. Its effect on Presidents had always been tragic.

We are often raised as dependents then given over to teachers. It’s experience and exploration that can transform us and lead to mastery.

I’m not a one-man show. I was never that in my life, and I never want to be that.

This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.

Now from a distance, I look back on what the Corps taught me: to think like men of action, and to act like men of thought!

Here in the West, people often don’t like listening to their leaders, even if they are right.

Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There’s nothing to do but to stand there and take it.

Gray Davis can run a dirty campaign better than anyone, but he can’t run a state.

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

I had never been in charge of anything. I’d always worked for someone. I worked for a furniture warehouse. I did masonry. I always had a boss yelling at me. So I’d never been in charge of an organization.

And I love that even in the toughest moments, when we’re all sweating it – when we’re worried that the bill won’t pass, and it seems like all is lost – Barack never lets himself get distracted by the chatter and the noise. Just like his grandmother, he just keeps getting up and moving forward… with patience and wisdom, and courage and grace.

I like school and I like learning.

Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones.

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

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

He who learns but does not think, is lost! He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.

To go to the field and train and understand when days are less, that’s where experience helps.

No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men.

When the burdens of the presidency seem unusually heavy, I always remind myself it could be worse. I could be a mayor.

In politics nothing is contemptible.

Since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything.

What matters in the Sun-tzu universe are not positions of strength and power, but situations in which you have options, full of potential force.

It’s passionately interesting for me that the things that I learned in a small town, in a very modest home, are just the things that I believe have won the election.

It is pretty ironic that the so-called ‚least advanced‘ people are the ones taking the lead in trying to protect all of us, while the richest and most powerful among us are the ones who are trying to drive the society to destruction.

I just figured out that if I gave my all into this game – if I put everything into the fight business – then I would eventually run the fight business.