Really I feel less keen about the Army every day. I think the Church would suit me better.

It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.

When I speak at my local church, which I try to do 35 to 40 times a year, I try in every lesson to take the Old Testament text or New Testament text and apply them to what is happening to me or how that applies to the audience that I’m teaching in a modern, fast-changing, technological world. I use headlines, interfaith and that sort of thing.

It’s not worth doing something unless you were doing something that someone, somewere, would much rather you weren’t doing.

Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.

What I’ve learned is that you really don’t need to be a celebrity or have money or have the paparazzi following you around to be famous.

People want to go out and travel around and meet cool people. I could just go live in Vermont, but is that what I really want?

I bought a company in the mid-’90s called Dexter Shoe and paid $400 million for it. And it went to zero. And I gave about $400 million worth of Berkshire stock, which is probably now worth $400 billion. But I’ve made lots of dumb decisions. That’s part of the game.

If you have a family mission statement that clarifies what your purpose is, then you use that as the criterion by which you make the decisions.

Jump out the window if you are the object of passion. Flee it if you feel it. Passion goes, boredom remains.

There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much prudence, may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either.

I always have a basic plot outline, but I like to leave some things to be decided while I write.

Let’s just be smart this time. I’m looking for smart.

It is our future on the line, and we must at least have a say in it.

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.

I always like to take my time and examine the two candidates, see not only the two candidates but the policies they will bring in, the people they will bring in, who they might appoint to the Supreme Court, and look at the whole range of issues before making a decision.

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.

I’ve noticed a terrible thing, which is I will agree to anything if it’s far enough in the future.

The men who have succeeded are men who have chosen one line and stuck to it.

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.

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

Test yourself on mankind. It is something that makes the doubter doubt, the believer believe.

If the critics are right that I’ve made all my decisions based on polls, then I must not be very good at reading them.

It is better to do one’s own duty, however defective it may be, than to follow the duty of another, however well one may perform it. He who does his duty as his own nature reveals it, never sins.

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.

I want to be a man who is truthful and who won’t let pride get in the way of my ripping myself open to my partner and saying, ‚Here I am. This is me.‘ I feel there’s something powerful when a man reaches a point in his life when he can be completely vulnerable.

I used to go away for weeks in a state of confusion.

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.

Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.

Joanne‘ is a progression for me. It was about going into the studio and forgetting that I was famous.

High office teaches decision making, not substance. It consumes intellectual capital; it does not create it. Most high officials leave office with the perceptions and insights with which they entered; they learn how to make decisions but not what decisions to make.

A leader who doesn’t hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader.

Whatever you have, you must either use or lose.

Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what’s right.

I understood at a very early age that in nature, I felt everything I should feel in church but never did. Walking in the woods, I felt in touch with the universe and with the spirit of the universe.

Do I wear a helmet? Ugh. I do when I’m riding through a precarious part of town, meaning Midtown traffic. But when I’m riding on secure protected lanes or on the paths that run along the Hudson or through Central Park – no, I don’t wear the dreaded helmet then.

I understood that with the swipe of my pen as a prosecutor, I would have the decision in my pen to make a decision about someone’s life.

To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don’t be.

Indecision may or may not be my problem.

I’ve turned down shows offering large amounts of money.

In countries where innocent people are dying, the leaders are following their blood rather than their brains.

I worked with someone who told me they’d never like me. But for some reason, I just felt like I needed her approval. So I started changing myself to please her. It made me stop being social and friendly. I was so unhappy.

When in doubt, don’t.

God has entrusted me with myself.

You gotta keep trying to find your niche and trying to fit into whatever slot that’s left for you or to make one of your own.

Eight, as you know, is not a good number for a multi-member court.

I’ve experienced great things, I’ve experienced great tragedies. I’ve done almost everything I could possibly ever imagine doing, but I just know that there’s more.

Don’t swap horses in crossing a stream.

Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.

Since the team understands that the leader is de facto in charge, in that respect, a leader has nothing to prove. But in another respect, a leader has everything to prove: Every member of the team must develop the trust and confidence that their leader will exercise good judgment, remain calm, and make the right decisions when it matters most.

Anything important is never left to the vote of the people. We only get to vote on some man; we never get to vote on what he is to do.

It is difficult for the common good to prevail against the intense concentration of those who have a special interest, especially if the decisions are made behind locked doors.

The court generally moves in small steps rather than in one giant step.

If you want to be a good strategist, you can never just go off a principle you read in a book. You need to adapt what you do to the situation; no rule of thumb is true all the time.

In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself.

It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.

I’ll be judged on the body of work and not the popularity of any one decision.

I have never been able to renounce the light, the pleasure of being, and the freedom in which I grew up.

In any decision for action, when you have to make up your mind what to do, there is always a ‚should‘ involved, and this cannot be worked out from, ‚If I do this, what will happen?‘ alone.

To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.

Your life will be a blessed and balanced experience if you first honor your identity and priority.