All very successful commanders are prima donnas and must be so treated.

You cannot be President of the United States if you don’t have faith. Remember Lincoln, going to his knees in times of trial in the Civil War and all that stuff.

Success is not a stop sign.

A successful lawsuit is the one worn by a policeman.

Aim for the sky and you’ll reach the ceiling. Aim for the ceiling and you’ll stay on the floor.

A President cannot always be popular.

You know, you can only lead them from behind.

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

Like so many American families, our families weren’t asking for much. They didn’t begrudge anyone else’s success or care that others had much more than they did… in fact, they admired it.

One of the roles of the Presidency is to lead a political party. Having a President in office is usually a huge advantage to a party because it gives the party a mouthpiece and an advocate at the highest level.

But, you know, you can’t be a star at home.

I love that we can trust Barack to do what he says he’s going to do, even when it’s hard – especially when it’s hard.

The Creator has not thought proper to mark those in the forehead who are of stuff to make good generals. We are first, therefore, to seek them blindfold, and then let them learn the trade at the expense of great losses.

The people of the world genuinely want peace. Some day the leaders of the world are going to have to give in and give it to them.

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

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

I look at where I’m at today and realize that most of my success is owed to the mentors that was in my life.

What keeps me going is goals.

Great industries are never made from single companies. There is room in space for a lot of winners.

The more successful I become, the more I need a man.

If you carefully consider what you want to be said of you in the funeral experience, you will find your definition of success.

If a star or studio chief or any other great movie personages find themselves sitting among a lot of nobodies, they get frightened – as if somebody was trying to demote them.

I feel good because I believe I have made progress in rebuilding the people’s trust in their government.

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

Building a mission and building a business go hand in hand. The primary thing that excites me is the mission. But we have always had a healthy understanding that we need to do both.

The longer a man’s fame is likely to last, the longer it will be in coming.

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.

Everybody could be an entrepreneur, but very few will become very rich entrepreneurs.

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.

People say ‚I want to be rich‘. The question is, ‚Are you willing to do what it takes?‘

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.

To remain a credible leader, I must always work first, hardest, and longest on changing myself. This is neither easy nor natural, but it is essential.

It’s been my experience in politics that you can try and plan it out: ‚I’m going to hit the three ball which will hit the eight ball.‘ You’ve just got to go run and try to do everything right. And then have a little luck.

If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.

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.

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

In order for me to be successful… In order to be a great artist – musician, actor, painter, whatever – you must be able to be private in public at all times. That is what we do.

I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.

Martyrdom: The only way a man can become famous without ability.

There is no substitute for victory.

‚Soul Plane‘ put me in a position to succeed. I’m glad I had the opportunity to be the lead man.

I think if I keep working in the way that I am, from the heart and from passion and with love, well, the fruits of that will keep coming.

If I don’t run for president, we’ll all be OK.

A lot has happened over the years. And while this nation has been tested by war, and it’s been tested by recession and all manner of challenges – I stand before you again tonight, after almost two terms as your president, to tell you I am more optimistic about the future of America than ever before.

It constitutes a superhuman effort to lead any people in times of crisis. Without them, the changes would be impossible.

Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.

I would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him, he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared, and then he is gone.

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.

Talent without working hard is nothing.

My songs are the door to every dream I’ve ever had and every success I’ve ever achieved.

Well, I think that there’s a very thin dividing line between success and failure. And I think if you start a business without financial backing, you’re likely to go the wrong side of that dividing line.

Those people who develop the ability to continuously acquire new and better forms of knowledge that they can apply to their work and to their lives will be the movers and shakers in our society for the indefinite future.

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.

The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.

When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat.

The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.

I’m not going to get somewhere and say, ‚OK, I’m done.‘ Success is never final; I’ll just keep on going. The same way as failure never being fatal. Just keep going. I’m going to the stars and then past them.

From a young age, I learned to focus on the things I was good at and delegate to others what I was not good at. That’s how Virgin is run. Fantastic people throughout the Virgin Group run our businesses, allowing me to think creatively and strategically.

Not every difficult and dangerous thing is suitable for training, but only that which is conducive to success in achieving the object of our effort.

Crime when it succeeds is called virtue.