All the president is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing, and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.

People invest in businesses that they believe have the leadership, mission and team to grow and operate profitably.

When you get to be President, there are all those things, the honors, the twenty-one gun salutes, all those things. You have to remember it isn’t for you. It’s for the Presidency.

Do something wonderful, people may imitate it.

I often say of George Washington that he was one of the few in the whole history of the world who was not carried away by power.

All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.

I was a little worried that young people would think the only game was being political and manipulative when really the bigger game is being so good at what you do that nobody can argue with your results.

The secret of my influence has always been that it remained secret.

I hate letting my teammates down. I know I’m not going to make every shot. Sometimes I try to make the right play, and if it results in a loss, I feel awful. I don’t feel awful because I have to answer questions about it. I feel awful in that locker room because I could have done something more to help my teammates win.

People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook. I earned everything I’ve got.

Yeah, I wasn’t chosen to be first. I was just chosen to command that flight. Circumstance put me in that particular role. That wasn’t planned by anyone.

You know, you can only lead them from behind.

Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.

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.

When your friends begin to flatter you on how young you look, it’s a sure sign you’re getting old.

For the world to be interesting, you have to be manipulating it all the time.

I don’t think I ever thought of myself as Superman. But there were people who thought of me that way, and maybe I believed them a little.

The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.

Before I became a chief minister, I never thought that one day I’d be the chief minister.

Knavery and flattery are blood relations.

We don’t believe in planners and deciders making the decisions on behalf of Americans.

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility – I welcome it.

You could tell ‚The Handmaid’s Tale‘ from a male point of view. People have mistakenly felt that the women are oppressed, but power tends to organise itself in a pyramid. I could pick a male narrator from somewhere in that pyramid. It would interesting.

No foreign policy – no matter how ingenious – has any chance of success if it is born in the minds of a few and carried in the hearts of none.

I think whether you’re having setbacks or not, the role of a leader is to always display a winning attitude.

Control is the source of strategic power.

I felt we must separate political responsibility. The Dalai Lama should not carry that burden. So that is my selfish reason – to protect the old Dalai Lama tradition. It is safer without political involvement.

A lot has happened over the years. And while this nation has been tested by war, and it’s been tested by recession and all manner of challenges – I stand before you again tonight, after almost two terms as your president, to tell you I am more optimistic about the future of America than ever before.

I’ve seen firsthand that being president doesn’t change who you are. It reveals who you are.

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.

Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.

If we could just find out who’s in charge, we could kill him.

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.

The issues a president faces are not black and white, and cannot be boiled down into 140 characters. Because when you have the nuclear codes at your fingertips and the military at your command, you can’t make snap decisions. You can’t have a thin skin or the tendency to lash out.

Barack Obama would not be President if he were dark skin. You know what I mean? That’s just the truth. I might not be as successful as I am now if I was dark skin.

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

People and organizations don’t grow much without delegation and completed staff work because they are confined to the capacities of the boss and reflect both personal strengths and weaknesses.

A politician is a man who understands government. A statesman is a politician who’s been dead for 15 years.

The authority you establish must emerge naturally from your character, from the particular strengths you possess.

My music is influenced by L.A. culture.

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

There is much to support the view that it is clothes that wear us, and not we, them; we may make them take the mould of arm or breast, but they mould our hearts, our brains, our tongues to their liking.

The buck stops here!

The world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians.

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.

Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish. Do not overdo it.

Hillary doesn’t play. She has more experience and exposure to the presidency than any candidate in our lifetime – yes, more than Barack, more than Bill. So she is absolutely ready to be Commander-in-Chief on day one. And, yes, she happens to be a woman.

If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read: ‚President Can’t Swim.‘

We’re not a fragile people. We’re not a frightful people. Our power doesn’t come from some self-declared savior promising that he alone can restore order as long as we do things his way. We don’t look to be ruled.

But even the President of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked.

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

Putin sought to keep Ukraine weak through corruption.

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

Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing.

Compromise used to mean that half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to mean that half a loaf; is better than a whole loaf.

Faith, there hath been many great men that have flattered the people who ne’er loved them.

I believe that God has put gifts and talents and ability on the inside of every one of us. When you develop that and you believe in yourself and you believe that you’re a person of influence and a person of purpose, I believe you can rise up out of any situation.

Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.

The world is all the richer for having a devil in it, so long as we keep our foot upon his neck.

If you leave the smallest corner of your head vacant for a moment, other people’s opinions will rush in from all quarters.

Remember that the essence of authority is that people willingly follow your lead.