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

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

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

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.

My authoritarian and quick manner of making decisions led me to have serious problems and to be accused of being ultraconservative. I have never been a right-winger. It was my authoritarian way of making decisions that created problems.

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

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

The last thing I wanted to do was to be a wartime President.

Leaders who fail to prune their pride will meet demise. That’s not a guess, it’s a guarantee. With pride, it’s not a matter of ‚if‘ we will fall, but ‚when.‘ There are no exceptions.

The presidency has many problems, but boredom is the least of them.

Steve Jobs‘ ability to focus in on a few things that count, get people who get user interface right, and market things as revolutionary are amazing things.

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.

If you have to control people, you have to have an administrative force that does it. So in U.S. industry, even more than elsewhere, there’s layer after layer of management – a kind of economic waste, but useful for control and domination. And the same is true in universities.

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

One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves.

A conductor can’t be too arrogant with an orchestra and try to impose himself too much.

History reminds us that dictators and despots arise during times of severe economic crisis.

Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs.

To be good is noble; but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble.

A master performer like Bill Clinton never lost sight of the fact that as president he had to project confidence and power, but if he was speaking to a group of autoworkers he would adjust his accent and his words to fit the audience, and do the same for a group of executives.

The commander in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong, unless proved otherwise.

Not brute force but only persuasion and faith are the kings of this world.

To rule is easy, to govern difficult.

But I do not believe that the world would be entirely different if there were more women leaders. Maybe if everybody in leadership was a woman, you might not get into the conflicts in the first place. But if you watch the women who have made it to the top, they haven’t exactly been non-aggressive – including me.

Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.

The mob is the mother of tyrants.

Unless and until you inspire the people, you will not get results. Imposition will never give you the results. Inspiration will always give you the results.

I feel good because I believe I have made progress in rebuilding the people’s trust in their government.

If you don’t drive your business, you will be driven out of business.

What we won when all of our people united must not be lost in suspicion and distrust and selfishness and politics. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as president.

Rhetoric is a poor substitute for action, and we have trusted only to rhetoric. If we are really to be a great nation, we must not merely talk; we must act big.

I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.

It constitutes a superhuman effort to lead any people in times of crisis. Without them, the changes would be impossible.

Founding a company is hard. Most of it isn’t smooth. You’ll have to make very hard decisions. You have to fire a few people. Therefore, if you don’t believe in your mission, giving up is easy. The majority of founders give up. But the best founders don’t give up.

Some people want to win races. Other people want to be President of the United States.

The buck stops here!

Be the chief but never the lord.

Romney and Ryan would do a much better job running the country, and that’s what everybody needs to know.

I am often asked if, when I was secretary, I had problems with foreign men. That is not who I had problems with, because I arrived in a very large plane that said United States of America. I had more problems with the men in our own government.

A leader who confines his role to his people’s experience dooms himself to stagnation; a leader who outstrips his people’s experience runs the risk of not being understood.

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.

Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you.

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.

I am confident that when the facts and policies have been examined, when the record of performances have been reviewed, Barack Obama and Joe Biden will once again be elected to lead our beloved country to a better future.

If you tell people where to go, but not how to get there, you’ll be amazed at the results.

No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern.

I love that we can trust Barack to do what he says he’s going to do, even when it’s hard – especially when it’s hard.

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

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

Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans – born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace.

All leaders in the Lord’s Church are called by proper authority. No prophet or any other leader in this Church, for that matter, has ever called himself or herself. No prophet has ever been elected.

A leader is a dealer in hope.

Any man who wants to be president is either an egomaniac or crazy.

We need an adult in the White House. When making life-or-death, war-or-peace decisions, a president can’t just pop off or lash out irrationally.

A word of encouragement from a teacher to a child can change a life. A word of encouragement from a spouse can save a marriage. A word of encouragement from a leader can inspire a person to reach her potential.

I once told Nixon that the Presidency is like being a jackass caught in a hail storm. You’ve got to just stand there and take it.

President Obama seems completely unaware of how many of the policies he is trying to impose have been tried before, in many times and places around the world, and have failed time and again.

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.

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 family with the wrong members in control; that, perhaps, is as near as one can come to describing England in a phrase.

This President is going to lead us out of this recovery.