I’m not trying to get myself up a notch on the ladder by shoving somebody else down on the ladder, whether it’s a candidate or the president of the United States or anybody else. I just don’t believe that’s the way one oughta campaign, I’ve never done that.

Putin goes to bed at night knowing he can break all the rules, and the West will follow all the rules.

You don’t lead by hitting people over the head – that’s assault, not leadership.

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.

Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We, of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.

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

If you’re a quarterback, you want everything on your shoulders. You want to be the one to make the decisions.

Nothing can be more hurtful to the service, than the neglect of discipline; for that discipline, more than numbers, gives one army the superiority over another.

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

Those of us who submitted or surrendered our ideas and dreams and identities to the ‚leaders‘ must take back our rights, our identities, our responsibilities.

A good leader doesn’t get stuck behind a desk.

A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.

When it comes to the qualifications that we should demand of our president, to start with, we need someone who will take the job seriously.

Right after 9-11, as far as I know, one newspaper in the United States had the integrity to investigate opinion in the Muslim world: the ‚Wall Street Journal.‘

I’ve seen how the issues that come across a president’s desk are always the hard ones – the problems where no amount of data or numbers will get you to the right answer.

Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.

One of the key qualities a leader must possess is the ability to detach from the chaos, mayhem, and emotions in a situation and make good, clear decisions based on what is actually happening.

I’ve been a mogul and executive since the beginning of my career. People are just born with that skill.

You do the policy, I’ll do the politics.

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.

A man should be upright, not be kept upright.

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

Before we acquire great power we must acquire wisdom to use it well.

I would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him, he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared, and then he is gone.

We also can’t try to take over and rebuild every country that falls into crisis. That’s not leadership; that’s a recipe for quagmire, spilling American blood and treasure that ultimately weakens us. It’s the lesson of Vietnam, of Iraq – and we should have learned it by now.

Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life – in firmness of mind and a mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do as well as to talk; and to make our words and actions all of a color.

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

Listen, I think that people want a president who is going to be interested in the things that keep them up at night, the things that are weighing on them, the things that are debilitating and can be addressed.

No such thing as a man willing to be honest – that would be like a blind man willing to see.

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

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

Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

For success of any mission, it is necessary to have creative leadership. Creative leadership is vital for government, non-governmental organisations as well as for industries.

Which government is the best? The one that teaches us to govern ourselves.

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.

Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.

The best measure of a man’s honesty isn’t his income tax return. It’s the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.

In the long-run every Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom; we have to say, Like People like Government.

The Scoutmaster who is a hero to his boys holds a powerful lever to their development but at the same time brings a great responsibility on himself. They are quick enough to see the smallest characteristic about him, whether it be a virtue or a vice.

I speak directly to the people, and I know that the people of California want to have better leadership. They want to have great leadership. They want to have somebody that will represent them. And it doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or a Republican, young or old.

Clever tyrants are never punished.

Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion.

The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands.

No woman in my time will be prime minister or chancellor or foreign secretary – not the top jobs. Anyway, I wouldn’t want to be prime minister; you have to give yourself 100 percent.

As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.

Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking.

As a leader, the first person I need to lead is me. The first person that I should try to change is me.

Sometimes we be playing the politics too much and forget who we are just to win.

Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle.

This above all; to thine own self be true.

It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.

I want to use my position of leadership to help move along at a faster pace what I believe and know the Obama administration wants to do around the urgency of climate change.

I think with the Romans, that the general of today should be a soldier tomorrow if necessary.

What Washington needs is adult supervision.

Always do everything you ask of those you command.

Some day I shall be President.

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.

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

Self-centered leaders manipulate when they move people for personal benefit. Mature leaders motivate by moving people for mutual benefit.

I am not a crook.

It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.