A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.

Socialism is the same as Communism, only better English.

Finishing second in the Olympics gets you silver. Finishing second in politics gets you oblivion.

We still think of a powerful man as a born leader and a powerful woman as an anomaly.

What I admire most about Hillary is that she never buckles under pressure. She never takes the easy way out. And Hillary Clinton has never quit on anything in her life. And when I think about the kind of president that I want for my girls and all our children, that’s what I want.

This nuclear option is ultimately an example of the arrogance of power.

I will only hire someone to work directly for me if I would work for that person. It’s a pretty good test.

If you continue to keep low performers on your team, that are actually dragging the team down; you’re failing the whole team, and eventually, the whole team is going to fail.

You can’t be in politics unless you can walk in a room and know in a minute who’s for you and who’s against you.

The time has come for all evangelists to practice full financial disclosure. The world is watching how we walk and how we talk. We must have the highest standards of morality, ethics and integrity if we are to continue to have influence.

Honor is not the exclusive property of any political party.

If we can boondoggle ourselves out of this depression, that word is going to be enshrined in the hearts of the American people for years to come.

William Gladstone has not a single redeeming defect.

The effort to try to present the Social Security program as if it’s a major problem, that’s just a hidden way of trying to undermine and destroy it.

We are not going to be satisfied by politicians saying ‚we support you‘ and then walking away. We won’t be satisfied until they meet our demands and act. That’s why simply taking a selfie or posting support on Twitter isn’t enough. That’s why we have to keep striking.

Politics has always been ugly to me, and yet I accept that as a fact of life.

Personally, I’d like to see more of our leaders take a technocratic approach to solving our biggest problems.

Never give an order that can’t be obeyed.

I will never retire unless I have to.

The Trump phenomenon is in large part a reaction of Middle America to attacks on its values by intellectual and academic communities. There are other reasons, but this is a significant one.

I think I was identified as a failed president because I wasn’t re-elected.

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.

Trump just looks stupid trying to appeal to blacks and Latinos.

In this age, I don’t care how tactically or operationally brilliant you are: if you cannot create harmony – even vicious harmony – on the battlefield based on trust across service lines, across coalition and national lines, and across civilian/military lines, you need to go home, because your leadership is obsolete.

Everybody is a political person, whether you say something or you are silent. A political attitude is not whether you go to parliament; it’s how you deal with your life, with your surroundings.

Before we acquire great power we must acquire wisdom to use it well.

I know of no single formula for success. But over the years I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm and their inspiration to work together.

Politics, as a practise, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds.

If I’m going to get you to do stuff, I need to lead you. I can’t just order you to do it.

Through every victory and every setback, I’ve insisted that change is never easy and never quick; that we wouldn’t meet all of our challenges in one term, or one presidency, or even in one lifetime.

Commodities such as gold and silver have a world market that transcends national borders, politics, religions, and race. A person may not like someone else’s religion, but he’ll accept his gold.

Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root.

On every front there are clear answers out there that can make this country stronger, but we’re going to break through the fear and the frustration people are feeling. Our job is to make sure that even as we make progress, that we are also giving people a sense of hope and vision for the future.

War should be the only study of a prince. He should consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes as ability to execute, military plans.

Some years ago I became president of Columbia University and learned within 24 hours to be ready to speak at the drop of a hat, and I learned something more, the trustees were expected to be ready to speak at the passing of the hat.

I would hear stories about Steve Jobs and feel like he was at 100 percent exactly what he wanted to do, but I’m sure even a Steve Jobs has compromised. Even a Rick Owens has compromised. You know, even a Kanye West has compromised. Sometimes you don’t even know when you’re being compromised till after the fact, and that’s what you regret.

Go before the people with your example, and be laborious in their affairs.

Most liberals think of civil liberties as their Achilles heel. It isn’t.

In politics stupidity is not a handicap.

I told y’all I didn’t vote, right? But if I would’ve voted, I would’ve voted for Trump.

A faction willing to take the risks of making war on the ossified status quo in the Middle East can be described as many things, but not as conservative.

Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.

The practice of politics in the East may be defined by one word: dissimulation.

Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to trust your team. It’s a lesson I’ve had to relearn quite a few times.

I don’t think that a Justice should have uppermost in her mind, ‚A Democratic president appointed me, so I must leave to be sure that another Democratic president can appoint my successor.‘

Being the boss anywhere is lonely. Being a female boss in a world of mostly men is especially so.

I must have been one of the least surprised people on earth on September 11. I felt very braced for that. I knew something like that was going to come.

I speak directly to the people, and I know that the people of California want to have better leadership. They want to have great leadership. They want to have somebody that will represent them. And it doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or a Republican, young or old.

America’s promises do not come with a price tag. We meet our commitments. We bear our burdens. That’s one of the reasons why almost every country on Earth sees America as stronger and more respected today than they did eight years ago when I took office.

One lesson you better learn if you want to be in politics is that you never go out on a golf course and beat the President.

Authority poisons everybody who takes authority on himself.

I can tell you this: If I’m ever in a position to call the shots, I’m not going to rush to send somebody else’s kids into a war.

It is as hard and severe a thing to be a true politician as to be truly moral.

Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government.

You begin saving the world by saving one man at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics.

No party has a monopoly on wisdom. No democracy works without compromise. But when Governor Romney and his allies in Congress tell us we can somehow lower our deficit by spending trillions more on new tax breaks for the wealthy – well, you do the math. I refuse to go along with that. And as long as I’m President, I never will.

I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is opposed to every instinct in my body. But as president I must put the interests of America first Therefore, I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow.

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.

He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled.

I believe that in every country the people themselves are more peaceably and liberally inclined than their governments.

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