I don’t want to tell President Obama how to make a speech. He’s a much better speech maker than I am. But I think always to tell the truth in a sometimes blatant way, even though it might be temporarily unpopular, is the best approach.

If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.

I love that I can talk to my fans through Twitter, to cut out the middle man. Because I’ve done interviews where my words have gotten twisted, so it’s nice to be able to have things coming straight from me.

Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.

Public opinion is the thermometer a monarch should constantly consult.

The best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.

The chief virtue that language can have is clearness, and nothing detracts from it so much as the use of unfamiliar words.

Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart.

Integrity means that you are the same in public as you are in private.

Innovation has nothing to do with how many R & D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R & D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.

Never pretend to a love which you do not actually feel, for love is not ours to command.

The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.

The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.

When our governments want to sell us a course of action, they do it by making sure it’s the only thing on the agenda, the only thing everyone’s talking about. And they pre-load the ensuing discussion with highly selected images, devious and prejudicial language, dubious linkages, weak or false ‚intelligence‘ and selected ‚leaks.‘

Tell the audience what you’re going to say, say it; then tell them what you’ve said.

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.

No public man can be just a little crooked.

I don’t have faith in young people any more. I don’t waste time trying to communicate with them.

I cannot lead you into battle. I do not give you laws or administer justice but I can do something else – I can give my heart and my devotion to these old islands and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations.

Before a man speaks it is always safe to assume that he is a fool. After he speaks, it is seldom necessary to assume it.

Deeply earnest and thoughtful people stand on shaky footing with the public.

Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.

You’ve got to work things out in the cloakroom, and when you’ve got them worked out, you can debate a little before you vote.

What makes us human, I think, is an ability to ask questions, a consequence of our sophisticated spoken language.

Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.

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

If one does not understand a person, one tends to regard him as a fool.

Some people are making music just for numbers and views.

Eloquence is a painting of the thoughts.

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

My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

They’re right to think that about me, because I’m the person most likely to sleep with my female fans, I genuinely love other women. And I think they know that.

Every President wants to do right.

Standing as I do, with my hand upon this staff, and under the folds of the American flag, I ask you to stand by me so long as I stand by it.

I’m convinced of this: Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaking to people rather than walking by them like they’re stones that don’t matter. As long as you’re breathing, it’s never too late to do some good.

Give thy thoughts no tongue.

I am not one who – who flamboyantly believes in throwing a lot of words around.

There are people who are really good managers, people who can manage a big organization, and then there are people who are very analytic or focused on strategy. Those two types don’t usually tend to be in the same person. I would put myself much more in the latter camp.

To the extent I am known, I think I am known as a person who expresses his opinion freely about things – and I was sensitive to the possibility that if I was seen taking money for saying nice things about a product, my comments and choices and opinions would become, understandably, suspect.

When President Obama speaks about raising taxes on the rich, he speaks about high-income employees and small business owners, not entrepreneurs who build big businesses.

If you can’t convince them, confuse them.

I neither will aspire to nor will I accept, the position of president of the council of state and commander in chief.

Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.

I try to not focus on what people expect from me.

He who has great power should use it lightly.

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

Confidence… thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live.

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.

I am afraid we must make the world honest before we can honestly say to our children that honesty is the best policy.

We must think and act like a nation of a billion people and not like that of a million people. Dream, dream, dream!

I’m going to save my public voice largely for the issues where I have some depth.

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.

I grew up cursing a lot. It felt natural. My parents told me to stop.

Cruel leaders are replaced only to have new leaders turn cruel.

Sometimes cameras and television are good to people and sometimes they aren’t. I don’t know if its the way you say it, or how you look.

Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes,‘ he said, his voice rising as applause and cheers mounted. ‚Shake it off. Stop complainin‘. Stop grumblin‘. Stop cryin‘. We are going to press on. We have work to do.

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.

Most people don’t like change. They revolt against it unless they can clearly see the advantage it brings. For that reason, when good leaders prepare to take action or make changes, they take people through a process to get them ready for it.

Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.

I’m guarded; I don’t talk much.

I’m the only president you’ve got.