A piece of spaghetti or a military unit can only be led from the front end.

No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern.

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

I believe in benevolent dictatorship provided I am the dictator.

Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand.

I know it’s going to be the private sector that leads this country out of the current economic times we’re in. You can spend your money better than the government can spend your money.

The thing is, if you control the Senate meetings, you control the gavel. And the gavel is a very important instrument… an instrument of power. An instrument that establishes the agenda.

A master performer like Bill Clinton never lost sight of the fact that as president he had to project confidence and power, but if he was speaking to a group of autoworkers he would adjust his accent and his words to fit the audience, and do the same for a group of executives.

To paraphrase Winston Churchill, I did not take the oath I have just taken with the intention of presiding over the dissolution of the world’s strongest economy.

Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.

Groups that rose from poverty to prosperity seldom did so by having their own racial or ethnic leaders to follow.

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!

So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly arise and make them miserable.

History reminds us that dictators and despots arise during times of severe economic crisis.

A leader is a dealer in hope.

When you are president, being able to clearly articulate detailed plans to help the people of this country is a good thing. Knowing what you’re doing is a good thing. And let me tell you, Hillary Clinton absolutely knows what she’s doing.

But for me to have the opportunity to stand in front of a bunch of executives and present myself, I had to hustle in my own way. I can’t tell you how frustrating it was that they didn’t get that. No joke – I’d leave meetings crying all the time.

The presidency has many problems, but boredom is the least of them.

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

When I was elected President nobody asked me to negotiate between Israel and Egypt. It was not even a question raised in my campaign. But I felt that one of the reasons that I was elected President was to try to bring peace to the Holy Land.

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.

Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.

When I started Virgin from a basement in west London, there was no great plan or strategy. I didn’t set out to build a business empire… For me, building a business is all about doing something to be proud of, bringing talented people together and creating something that’s going to make a real difference to other people’s lives.

Earn your success based on service to others, not at the expense of others.

If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.

We must have government that builds stamina into communities and men. That makes men instead of mendicants.

Our friends at the Republican convention were more than happy to talk about everything they think is wrong with America, but they didn’t have much to say about how they’d make it right. They want your vote, but they don’t want you to know their plan.

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.

When you’re in a leadership role, you can never please all of the people all of the time. There’s also a lot of responsibility that goes along with it that others may not realize.

Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle.

I hate letting my teammates down. I know I’m not going to make every shot. Sometimes I try to make the right play, and if it results in a loss, I feel awful. I don’t feel awful because I have to answer questions about it. I feel awful in that locker room because I could have done something more to help my teammates win.

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.

Every first-term president has to learn something after he comes into office. Nobody can be completely ready for the inevitable crises.

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.

In politics… never retreat, never retract… never admit a mistake.

I try to lead by example, being conscious of others and being responsible.

In business, if you realize you’ve made a bad decision, you change it.

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.

If you ask the CEO of some major corporation what he does, he will say, in all honesty, that he is slaving 20 hours a day to provide his customers with the best goods or services he can and creating the best possible working conditions for his employees.

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.

The leaders come up from the volunteers that do the work, and it’s amazing because then they do these incredible things in their community that they never thought they had the power to make that happen.

Everything rises and falls on leadership.

A politician is a man who understands government. A statesman is a politician who’s been dead for 15 years.

I am sometimes a fox and sometimes a lion. The whole secret of government lies in knowing when to be the one or the other.

I am mindful not only of preserving executive powers for myself, but for predecessors as well.

In America the President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs forever and ever.

If we could just find out who’s in charge, we could kill him.

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

You’re president, if you conclude my judgment is not the right judgment, I abide by that, but I want an opportunity to have an input.

I don’t think consensus-building politics is what I’m meant to be doing.

To rule a country of a thousand chariots, there must be reverent attention to business, and sincerity; economy in expenditure, and love for men; and the employment of the people at the proper seasons.

In a world of complex threats, our security and leadership depends on all elements of our power – including strong and principled diplomacy.

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.

The best leaders are readers of people. They have the intuitive ability to understand others by discerning how they feel and recognizing what they sense.

My job is to play quarterback, and I’m going to do that the best way I know how, because I owe that to my teammates regardless of who is out there on the field with me.

I have a cult-like following because I exemplify what it is to be a human being.

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.

It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own.

Never neglect details. When everyone’s mind is dulled or distracted the leader must be doubly vigilant.

My sisters like cooking at my place. It has a bit more room, and the food tastes a little bit better. A big pot of spaghetti and sauce, some warm French bread – works all the time. I think I’ve been eating pasta for 26 years.

Some people will have to be afraid. Those who plunder the nation, deliver injustice, will have to feel scared of me. And I am not afraid of admitting this. Government cannot be so lenient that it forgives them.