The measure of a man is what he does with power.

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

Heroes are not known by the loftiness of their carriage; the greatest braggarts are generally the merest cowards.

Soldiers generally win battles; generals get credit for them.

It is unnecessary to say that Fidel Castro possesses the high qualities of a fighter and statesman: our path, our struggle, and our triumph we owed to his vision.

The best leaders understand the motivations of their team members and know their people – their lives and their families. But a leader must never grow so close to subordinates that one member of the team becomes more important than another, or more important than the mission itself.

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.

Human greatness does not lie in wealth or power, but in character and goodness. People are just people, and all people have faults and shortcomings, but all of us are born with a basic goodness.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

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.

For Forms of Government let fools contest; whatever is best administered is best.

I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom.

The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.

Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.

Kings are not born: they are made by artificial hallucination.

My job is not to represent Washington to you, but to represent you to Washington.

The first duty of a state is to see that every child born therein shall be well housed, clothed, fed and educated till it attains years of discretion.

The colored folks been singing it and playing it just like I’m doin‘ now, man, for more years than I know. I got it from them.

We still think of a powerful man as a born leader and a powerful woman as an anomaly.

If you’re going to change things, you have to be with the people who hold the levers.

The price of greatness is responsibility.

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

The government, whether state or central, is elected. That means we have a responsibility to elect the right kind of leaders.

The willow which bends to the tempest, often escapes better than the oak which resists it; and so in great calamities, it sometimes happens that light and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and presence of mind sooner than those of a loftier character.

You must capture and keep the heart of the original and supremely able man before his brain can do its best.

What I admire most about Hillary is that she never buckles under pressure. She never takes the easy way out. And Hillary Clinton has never quit on anything in her life. And when I think about the kind of president that I want for my girls and all our children, that’s what I want.

Many shoulder heavy burdens of righteous responsibility which, on occasion, seem so difficult to bear. I have heard those challenges termed impossible.

But let me tell you, this gender thing is history. You’re looking at a guy who sat down with Margaret Thatcher across the table and talked about serious issues.

I think you have a moral responsibility when you’ve been given far more than you need, to do wise things with it and give intelligently.

If you are a leader, you should never forget that everyone needs encouragement. And everyone who receives it – young or old, successful or less-than-successful, unknown or famous – is changed by it.

The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That’s the day we truly grow up.

Probably the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton, but the opening battles of all subsequent wars have been lost there.

And oftentimes excusing of a fault doth make the fault the worse by the excuse.

Ethics and power are separate.

Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail.

For everything I do, I think about a 6-year-old girl and her mom that I saw at my concert last night. I think about what those two individuals would think if I were at a club last night. I never want to be arrested, and I never want to get a DUI, those are my moral values.

Ultimately this issue is on us. We’re the ones who make the decisions about what our kids eat.

When I have been asked during these last weeks who caused the riots and the killing in L.A., my answer has been direct and simple: Who is to blame for the riots? The rioters are to blame. Who is to blame for the killings? The killers are to blame.

I always say, decisions I make, I live with them. There’s always ways you can correct them or ways you can do them better. At the end of the day, I live with them.

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.

In other words, don’t expect to always be great. Disappointments, failures and setbacks are a normal part of the lifecycle of a unit or a company and what the leader has to do is constantly be up and say ‚we have a problem, let’s go and get it‘.

For my own part, I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen the representative of our country. He is a bird of bad moral character. He does not get his living honestly.

Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control.

The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.

Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

The future influences the present just as much as the past.

When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing more to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.

He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.

In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.

The moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

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.

People make a big fuss over you when you’re President. But I’m very serious about doing everything I can to make sure that it doesn’t go to my head.

It’s really fun to put yourself into a character – into shoes you wouldn’t normally be in.

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.

There is no necessity to separate the monarch from the mob; all authority is equally bad.

I have kind of a funny relationship with movies. I don’t have to see the whole movie to get an impression of it or to let it have an influence on me.

Woe to him that claims obedience when it is not due; woe to him that refuses it when it is.

When you meet chimps you meet individual personalities. When a baby chimp looks at you it’s just like a human baby. We have a responsibility to them.

People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything.

This country is being managed to death, being public related to death.