We misjudge risk if we feel we have some control over it, even if it’s an illusory sense of control.

As president, you can get all kinds of advice from all kinds of people. But at the end of the day, when it comes time to make that decision, as president, all you have to guide you are your values and your vision and the life experiences that make you who you are.

In my line of work, the enemy gets a vote.

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.

People often think I’m a faker, but I’m usually honest, in a certain way – in such a way that often nobody believes me!

Policy makers who have never served in the military continue to use the military to lead social change in this country.

It takes a smart man to play dumb.

The vulgar man is always the most distinguished, for the very desire to be distinguished is vulgar.

An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.

Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works.

Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.

How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.

Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.

I bought a gun and chose drugs instead.

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

Would you bet your paycheck on a weather forecast for tomorrow? If not, then why should this country bet billions on global warming predictions that have even less foundation?

I have no delusions about my likability in every scenario. I know that in order to get things done the way you want them, oftentimes your position will be unpopular.

A man’s only as old as the woman he feels.

The common question that gets asked in business is, ‚why?‘ That’s a good question, but an equally valid question is, ‚why not?‘

Your emotions are very unstable and should never be the foundation for direction in your life.

On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, ‚Is it safe?‘ Expediency asks the question, ‚Is it politic?‘ And Vanity comes along and asks the question, ‚Is it popular?‘ But Conscience asks the question, ‚Is it right?‘

Any man can call time out, but no man can say how long the time out will be.

My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.

Reality simply consists of different points of view.

I don’t want people to think of me as sexy.

There is a difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man is really so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.

You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.

We should work with the principle that a work that can be done at a lower level should never be escalated to a higher level.

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.

We view things not only from different sides, but with different eyes; we have no wish to find them alike.

You should do what other people do, unless you have a very good reason not to.

A ‚No‘ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‚Yes‘ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.

See things from the boy’s point of view.

People are getting smarter nowadays; they are letting lawyers, instead of their conscience, be their guide.

Inability to make decisions is one of the principal reasons executives fail. Deficiency in decision-making ranks much higher than lack of specific knowledge or technical know-how as an indicator of leadership failure.

We shall see but a little way if we require to understand what we see.

When I was running training, we would fire a couple of leaders from every SEAL team because they couldn’t lead. And 99.9% of the time, it wasn’t a question of their ability – it was a question of their ability to listen.

There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.

The issues that cross a president’s desk are never easy. The easy questions don’t even get to the president.

In order to govern, the question is not to follow out a more or less valid theory but to build with whatever materials are at hand. The inevitable must be accepted and turned to advantage.

It is always your next move.

‚Tis strange what a man may do, and a woman yet think him an angel.

Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike.

The people themselves, and not their servants, can safely reverse their own deliberate decisions.

Meaning and reality were not hidden somewhere behind things, they were in them, in all of them.

When people meet me, they say that I’m really kind – contrary to a lot of my music.

Between stimulus and response, there is a space where we choose our response.

Decisiveness is a characteristic of high-performing men and women. Almost any decision is better than no decision at all.

There’s no reality except the one contained within us. That’s why so many people live an unreal life. They take images outside them for reality and never allow the world within them to assert itself.

I think the American people, with some justification, think that most politicians live in la-la land.

I never resist temptation, because I have found that things that are bad for me do not tempt me.

I delayed my father’s funeral because of cricket.

Necessity never made a good bargain.

Even if you’re happy with the life you’ve chosen, you’re still curious about the other options.

Loving others always costs us something and requires effort. And you have to decide to do it on purpose. You can’t wait for a feeling to motivate you.

The eyes are more exact witnesses than the ears.

I don’t have a magic formula for prioritizing the world’s problems.

There is an optical illusion about every person we meet.

I would warn you that I do not attribute to nature either beauty or deformity, order or confusion. Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautiful or ugly, well-ordered or confused.

I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone – and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward.