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

Having the support from everyone, the bosses, whoever within the team, definitely makes it much easier for me as a driver.

You can tell the tree by the fruit it bears. You see it through what the organization is delivering as far as a concrete program. If the tree’s fruit sours or grows brackish, then the time has come to chop it down – bury it and walk over it and plant new seeds.

Compromise used to mean that half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to mean that half a loaf; is better than a whole loaf.

Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people.

The faults of a superior person are like the sun and moon. They have their faults, and everyone sees them; they change and everyone looks up to them.

Any lady who is first lady likes being first lady. I don’t care what they say, they like it.

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

We don’t believe in planners and deciders making the decisions on behalf of Americans.

No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it.

Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.

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.

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.

I wanted in my lifetime to vote for a radical Native American woman, since my vision of any future that we might have is that it will be led by women and older women.

There are people who are really good managers, people who can manage a big organization, and then there are people who are very analytic or focused on strategy. Those two types don’t usually tend to be in the same person. I would put myself much more in the latter camp.

Chavez, who came out of the ranks of the Venezuelan Army, is methodical and tireless. I have observed him over the course of 17 years, since his first visit to Cuba. He is an extremely humanitarian and law-abiding person; he has never taken revenge on anybody.

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

Anytime we step out boldly to make changes, we take a chance that we might fail. But the only way to get better is to try.

Only the guy who isn’t rowing has time to rock the boat.

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

One must change one’s tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one’s superiority.

But I do not believe that the world would be entirely different if there were more women leaders. Maybe if everybody in leadership was a woman, you might not get into the conflicts in the first place. But if you watch the women who have made it to the top, they haven’t exactly been non-aggressive – including me.

A statesman who confines himself to popular legislation – or, for the matter of that, a playwright who confines himself to popular plays – is like a blind man’s dog who goes wherever the blind man pulls him, on the ground that both of them want to go to the same place.

Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

When you’re one of the leaders of the team, there are no days off.

I’m more than comfortable just sitting back and scoring 21, 22 points or whatever and getting 10, 11 assists whatever the case might be. More than comfortable with that. It’s just a matter of the pieces that you have around you and what you can do to elevate everybody else.

I have been on the road and visited numerous places and met people from all over the globe. I can say that it looks nearly the same everywhere I have been: The climate crisis is ignored by people in charge, despite the science being crystal clear.

If you want to reach the top, don’t run over others. Likely, the only way you’ll reach the top is to be carried there by others.

Instead of being critical of people in authority over you and envious of their position, be happy you’re not responsible for everything they have to do. Instead of piling on complaints, thank them for what they do. Overwhelm them with encouragement and appreciation!

I’m not a one-man show. I was never that in my life, and I never want to be that.

Wise kings generally have wise counselors; and he must be a wise man himself who is capable of distinguishing one.

If you call yourself a leader, then you have to be decisive. If you’re decisive, then you have the chance to be a leader. These are two sides to the same coin.

Putin goes to bed at night knowing he can break all the rules, and the West will follow all the rules.

Benefits should be conferred gradually; and in that way they will taste better.

Cruel leaders are replaced only to have new leaders turn cruel.

A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.

I had rather be first in a village than second at Rome.

People and organizations don’t grow much without delegation and completed staff work because they are confined to the capacities of the boss and reflect both personal strengths and weaknesses.

If you’re looking for the safe choice, you shouldn’t be supporting a black guy named Barack Obama to be the next leader of the free world.

I want a president with a record of public service, someone whose life’s work shows our children that we don’t chase fame and fortune for ourselves: we fight to give everyone a chance to succeed.

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.

When it comes to the health of our families, Barack refused to listen to all those folks who told him to leave health reform for another day, another president. He didn’t care whether it was the easy thing to do politically – that’s not how he was raised – he cared that it was the right thing to do.

We need an adult in the White House. When making life-or-death, war-or-peace decisions, a president can’t just pop off or lash out irrationally.

One of my direct subordinates, one of my guys that worked for me, he would call me up or pull me aside with some major problem, some issue that was going on. And he’d say, ‚Boss, we’ve got this, and that, and the other thing.‘ And I’d look at him and I’d say, ‚Good.‘

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.

It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.

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

We can succeed only by concert. It is not, ‚Can any of us imagine better,‘ but, ‚Can we all do better?‘

Carry the battle to them. Don’t let them bring it to you. Put them on the defensive and don’t ever apologize for anything.

When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people.

I think I’d be a better president because I was in combat.

You can’t put democracy and freedom back into a box.

The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.

The commander in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong, unless proved otherwise.

Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power.

If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past.

The time is long overdue to stop looking for progress through racial or ethnic leaders. Such leaders have too many incentives to promote polarizing attitudes and actions that are counterproductive for minorities and disastrous for the country.

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.

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.

As his vice president for eight years, I learned more from Ronald Reagan than from anyone I encountered in all my years of public life.

Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly.