All my authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

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.

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.

Look, when you’re the president, there’s all kinds of things said about us. I mean, it’s just the nature of the job.

What we won when all of our people united must not be lost in suspicion and distrust and selfishness and politics. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as president.

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.

I believe in a president whose religious views are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the nation or imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office.

I always believe the rule by king or official leader is outdated. Now we must catch up with the modern world.

To lead people walk behind them.

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.

It’s one of the few regrets of my presidency – that the rancor and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better. There’s no doubt a president with the gifts of Lincoln or Roosevelt might have better bridged the divide, and I guarantee I’ll keep trying to be better so long as I hold this office.

Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned in the blood of his followers and the sacrifices of his friends.

Which government is the best? The one that teaches us to govern ourselves.

I don’t create companies for the sake of creating companies, but to get things done.

Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.

Concede that the new government of Louisiana is only to what it should be, as the egg is to the fowl; we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it.

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.

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.

Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism.

Great indeed is the sublimity of the Creative, to which all beings owe their beginning and which permeates all heaven.

It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.

I don’t call myself a Buddhist. I’m a free spirit. I believe I’m here on earth to admire and enjoy it; that’s my religion.

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.

I have always believed in evolving a consensus before taking any major decision.

As a leader, you have to have the ability to assimilate new information and understand that there might be a different view.

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

The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves.

The earth is bountiful, and where her bounty fails, nitrogen drawn from the air will refertilize her womb. I developed a process for this purpose in 1900. It was perfected fourteen years later under the stress of war by German chemists.

The earth laughs in flowers.

Heaven cannot brook two suns, nor earth two masters.

With Malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds.

Puny man can do nothing at all to help or please God Almighty, and Luck is not the hand of God.

Many years ago, I concluded that a few hair shirts were part of the mental wardrobe of every man. The president differs from other men in that he has a more extensive wardrobe.

The man who occupies the first place seldom plays the principal part.

You can play fast but not in a hurry. As a point guard, I can dictate that.

Just as discipline and freedom are opposing forces that must be balanced, leadership requires finding the equilibrium in the dichotomy of many seemingly contradictory qualities between one extreme and another.

He who dreads hostility too much is unfit to rule.

A good model of how to ‚work with the enemy‘ internally is presented by the Dalai Lama, in his endless caretaking of his soul as he confronts the Chinese government that invaded Tibet.

We long for an affection altogether ignorant of our faults. Heaven has accorded this to us in the uncritical canine attachment.

Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. In your desire to please or impress them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite – inspire fear and insecurity.

If you tell people where to go, but not how to get there, you’ll be amazed at the results.

The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men.

Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.

Being no bigot myself to any mode of worship, I am disposed to endulge the professors of Christianity in the church, that road to heaven which to them shall seem the most direct plainest easiest and least liable to exception.

I am not interested in power for power’s sake, but I’m interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.

The faith that stands on authority is not faith.

I know My God commands, whose power no power resists.

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

It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.

I think whether you’re having setbacks or not, the role of a leader is to always display a winning attitude.

Divide and rule, the politician cries; unite and lead, is watchword of the wise.

A revolution can be neither made nor stopped. The only thing that can be done is for one of several of its children to give it a direction by dint of victories.

No man has any natural authority over his fellow men.

All the gold which is under or upon the earth is not enough to give in exchange for virtue.

People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.

President Obama seems completely unaware of how many of the policies he is trying to impose have been tried before, in many times and places around the world, and have failed time and again.

I played by the rules of politics as I found them.

Politics is not bean bags. It’s serious, tough stuff.

I want a president who will teach our children that everyone in this country matters, a president who truly believes in the vision that our Founders put forth all those years ago that we are all created equal, each a beloved part of the great American story.

My desire to devolve authority has nothing to do with a wish to shirk responsibility.

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.