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

My dad always said, ‚Champ, the measure of a man is not how often he is knocked down, but how quickly he gets up.‘

It’s OK for China to invent cancer drugs that cure patients in the United States. We want them to catch up. But as the leader, we want to keep setting a very, very high standard. We don’t want them to catch up because we’re slowing down or, even worse, going into reverse.

A man’s got to take a lot of punishment to write a really funny book.

I wrote some of the worst poetry west from the Mississippi River, but I wrote. And I finally sometimes got it right.

Being beautiful is not so fun when you’re in a business with all men.

Nobody can hurt me without my permission.

The only way of catching a train I have ever discovered is to miss the train before.

It’s kind of like a challenge to myself to be able to hear somebody else’s hook and kind of interpret the words. Because my own hooks, I already know what I mean when I write them.

Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.

In order to deal with all the medical cost demands and other challenges in the U.S., as we look to raise that revenue, the rich will have to pay slightly more. That’s quite clear.

I think a number of the leaders are, whether you like it or not, in the hip-hop generation. And when they understand enough, they’ll do wonders. I count on them.

When I was 8 years old I became a mute and was a mute until I was 13, and I thought of my whole body as an ear, so I can go into a crowd and sit still and absorb all sound. That talent or ability has lasted and served me until today.

The 14th Amendment was recognized right away to be problematic. The concept of person was both too narrow and too broad, and the courts went to work to overcome both of those flaws.

I won at every level – all the way since I started playing the game of basketball at nine. I’ve won at every level, won championships at every level. And, you know, it won’t be fulfilled until I win at the highest level.

Well I do think, when there are more women, that the tone of the conversation changes, and also the goals of the conversation change. But it doesn’t mean that the whole world would be a lot better if it were totally run by women. If you think that, you’ve forgotten high school.

The space shuttle was often used as an example of why you shouldn’t even attempt to make something reusable. But one failed experiment does not invalidate the greater goal. If that was the case, we’d never have had the light bulb.

Energy, like the biblical grain of the mustard-seed, will remove mountains.

America makes prodigious mistakes, America has colossal faults, but one thing cannot be denied: America is always on the move. She may be going to Hell, of course, but at least she isn’t standing still.

The person who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore.

In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm… in the real world all rests on perseverance.

You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.

No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.

Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.

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

My mother had a saying: ‚Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you’re not the last.‘

Every noble work is at first impossible.

If I can be a leader, I will.

Even if you have a terminal disease, you don’t have to sit down and mope. Enjoy life and challenge the illness that you have.

By indignities men come to dignities.

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

History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.

When restraint and courtesy are added to strength, the latter becomes irresistible.

We all face storms in life. Some are more difficult than others, but we all go through trials and tribulation. That’s why we have the gift of faith.

Success comes to those who have an entire mountain of gold that they continually mine, not those who find one nugget and try to live on it for fifty years.

I worked my way up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty.

In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider.

The thornbush is the old obstacle in the road. It must catch fire if you want to go further.

It’s lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself.

There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.

Anywhere in Latin America there is a potential threat of the pathology of caudillismo and it has to be guarded against.

The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous.

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

When you’re not engaged in the day-to-day struggles that everybody feels, you slowly start losing touch. And I think it’s important for the people in the White House to have a finger on the pulse.

If you want a love message to be heard, it has got to be sent out. To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.

Sometimes if you got a problem deep rooted in your life, it takes a little bit of time to overcome it in that area.

Governments need to have both shepherds and butchers.

Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick.

No man lives without jostling and being jostled; in all ways he has to elbow himself through the world, giving and receiving offence.

Whatever you want to do, do with full passion and work really hard towards it. Don’t look anywhere else. There will be a few distractions, but if you can be true to yourself, you will be successful for sure.

My game is really played above time. I don’t say that like I’m saying I’m ahead of my time. I’m saying, like, if I’m on the court and I throw a pass, the ball that I’ve thrown will lead my teammate right where he needs to go, before he even knows that that’s the right place to go to.

Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.

If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.

Happy is he who still loves something he loved in the nursery: He has not been broken in two by time; he is not two men, but one, and he has saved not only his soul but his life.

As a man sow, shall he reap. and I know that talk is cheap. But the heat of the battle is as sweet as the victory.

With Malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds.

I firmly believe that unless one has tasted the bitter pill of failure, one cannot aspire enough for success.

If I’m going to get you to do stuff, I need to lead you. I can’t just order you to do it.

I don’t think about the end game. I’ve got lots to occupy my mind. It’s the rage that keeps me going.

Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.

With patient and firm determination, I am going to press on for jobs. I’m going to press on for equality. I’m going to press on for the sake of our children. I’m going to press on for the sake of all those families who are struggling right now. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I am going to press on.