I don’t think that a leader can control, to any great extent, his destiny. Very seldom can he step in and change the situation if the forces of history are running in another direction.

I loved being Secretary of State, that’s probably evident to everyone who watched me.

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.

Whoever won’t fight when the President calls him, deserves to be kicked back in his hole and kept there.

I don’t care whether you’re driving a hybrid or an SUV. If you’re headed for a cliff, you have to change direction. That’s what the American people called for in November, and that’s what we intend to deliver.

Reputation is the cornerstone of power. Through reputation alone you can intimidate and win; once it slips, however, you are vulnerable, and will be attacked on all sides. Make your reputation unassailable.

You listen to Charlie Parker or John Coltrane before they found their voice, they sounded different. And when you listen to them after they found their voice on their instruments, they sound more confident and in control. Artists have that, too.

Military school was great and especially great for leadership and then I spent two years in Vietnam.

To the person with a firm purpose all men and things are servants.

Never give an order that can’t be obeyed.

Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.

Our affections as well as our bodies are in perpetual flux.

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

If a person doesn’t change, there’s something really wrong with him.

Leadership is influence.

I’m going to be so much better a president for having been at the CIA that you’re not going to believe it.

As commanders and staff officers, we are coaches and sentries for our units: how can we coach anything if we don’t know a hell of a lot more than just the TTPs?

Anybody who tells you that a two-day conference, you’re going to turn into the General Patton of leadership, they’re not telling you the truth. But you can learn the fundamentals; you can absolutely understand the fundamentals.

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

God wants us to prosper financially, to have plenty of money, to fulfill the destiny He has laid out for us.

To rule is easy, to govern difficult.

I did my utmost to ensure that everyone below me in the chain of command felt comfortable approaching me with concerns, ideas, thoughts, and even disagreements.

Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.

We need someone with superb judgement in their own right because, yes, a president can hire the best advisors on Earth, but I guarantee you this: Five advisors will give five different opinions. And it is the president – and the president alone – who always makes the final call.

Practice Golden-Rule 1 of Management in everything you do. Manage others the way you would like to be managed.

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

I’ve been so blessed to play for the greatest coach at a time when our organization has done incredible things. I’ve played with the best teammates. Playing for Mr. Kraft and what his influence on the team has been.

These people are very unskilled in arms… with 50 men they could all be subjected and made to do all that one wished.

If you change and adapt your persona, you are seen as inauthentic; if you stay the angry young man, you fade from attention or seem tiresome.

I am not interested in power for power’s sake, but I’m interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.

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

A President cannot always be popular.

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

It is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it… anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.

Even though the risks of death are higher driving than flying, many people would rather drive simply because they feel they have more control driving. The facts are that only a few hundred people die a year flying, and 44,000 are killed a year driving.

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.

He who dreads hostility too much is unfit to rule.

The imminent demise of the large record companies as gatekeepers of the world’s popular music is a good thing, for the most part.

A revolution can be neither made nor stopped. The only thing that can be done is for one of several of its children to give it a direction by dint of victories.

The strongest and most effective force in guaranteeing the long-term maintenance of power is not violence in all the forms deployed by the dominant to control the dominated, but consent in all the forms in which the dominated acquiesce in their own domination.

And I will do everything that I can as long as I am President of the United States to remind the American people that we are one nation under God, and we may call that God different names but we remain one nation.

A policy is a temporary creed liable to be changed, but while it holds good it has got to be pursued with apostolic zeal.

Dictators free themselves, but they enslave the people.

Every man, every woman who has to take up the service of government, must ask themselves two questions: ‚Do I love my people in order to serve them better? Am I humble and do I listen to everybody, to diverse opinions in order to choose the best path?‘ If you don’t ask those questions, your governance will not be good.

Peace comes when you talk to the guy you most hate. And that’s where the courage of a leader comes, because when you sit down with your enemy, you as a leader must already have very considerable confidence from your own constituency.

So, for example, a country was into recession right after I was sworn in, a dot-com bust had taken place. Then the attacks of September the 11th, and then of course the great financial meltdown in the -the fundamental question facing any presidency is how do you deal with the hand you’re dealt?

I do hope that some of my dissents will one day be the law.

There are three constants in life… change, choice and principles.

If you want to influence people, you want them to accept your suggestions, you don’t say, ‚You don’t know how to use the English language,‘ or ‚How could you make that argument?‘ It will be welcomed much more if you have a gentle touch than if you are aggressive.

I just think overall there’s not as many female ministers than there are male ministers.

Times and conditions change so rapidly that we must keep our aim constantly focused on the future.

I think we all change each other’s paths. I don’t know which law idea that is in physics, but I don’t think any of us can live without affecting one another.

This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.

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

In George Bush you get experience, and with me you get – The Future!

The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes better to abandon one’s self to destiny.

We are continually shaped by the forces of coincidence.

I have been influenced in my thinking by both west and east.

Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.

In the long-run every Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom; we have to say, Like People like Government.

A disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman.