Authority poisons everybody who takes authority on himself.

How do leaders serve their people? They may pay good wages and treat employees with respect.

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

Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts… perhaps the fear of a loss of power.

I repeat… that all power is a trust; that we are accountable for its exercise; that from the people and for the people all springs, and all must exist.

He who has great power should use it lightly.

The happiest people in the world are those who feel absolutely terrific about themselves, and this is the natural outgrowth of accepting total responsibility for every part of their life.

I don’t need a successor, only willing hands to accept the torch for a new generation.

If the American people don’t love me, their descendants will.

I like to always lead from the front and set an example for whoever is playing with me or around me. I like taking responsibilities. That is my natural thing.

How can we help President Obama?

Reputation is the cornerstone of power. Through reputation alone you can intimidate and win; once it slips, however, you are vulnerable, and will be attacked on all sides. Make your reputation unassailable.

Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.

I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone – and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward.

I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.

I’m the only president you’ve got.

Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.

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.

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

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

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.

Michael Jordan changed so much in basketball, he took his power to make a difference. It’s so much going on in music right now and somebody has to make a difference.

Gray Davis can run a dirty campaign better than anyone, but he can’t run a state.

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.

I’m no leader; I’m a little humble follower.

The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.

This land is your land and this land is my land, sure, but the world is run by those that never listen to music anyway.

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

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.

When a team takes ownership of its problems, the problem gets solved. It is true on the battlefield, it is true in business, and it is true in life.

Probably the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton, but the opening battles of all subsequent wars have been lost there.

Leadership is influence.

One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves.

Decisiveness is a characteristic of high-performing men and women. Almost any decision is better than no decision at all.

Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work.

The President is not only the leader of a party, he is the President of the whole people. He must interpret the conscience of America. He must guide his conduct by the idealism of our people.

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.

Pull the string, and it will follow wherever you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all.

Mothers all want their sons to grow up to be president, but they don’t want them to become politicians in the process.

Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God.

Leaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision.

You know, one of the things I think you understand as president is you’re held responsible for everything, but you don’t always have control of everything, right?

We have to understand what the older generation has dealt to us, what mess they have created that we have to clean up and live with.

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

To all the positions, I just bring the determination to win. Me being an unselfish player, I think that can carry on to my teammates. When you have one of the best players on the court being unselfish, I think that transfers to the other players.

When you meet chimps you meet individual personalities. When a baby chimp looks at you it’s just like a human baby. We have a responsibility to them.

I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.

I think the great part about what I do is that there’s a scoreboard. At the end of every week, you know how you did. You know how well you prepared. You know whether you executed your game plan. There’s a tangible score.

The power of man has grown in every sphere, except over himself.

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.

Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences.

The biggest problem that we have is that California is being run now by special interests. All of the politicians are not anymore making the moves for the people, but for special interests and we have to stop that.

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

The attempt to combine wisdom and power has only rarely been successful and then only for a short while.

The wicked leader is he who the people despise. The good leader is he who the people revere. The great leader is he who the people say, ‚We did it ourselves.‘

The issues a president faces are not black and white, and cannot be boiled down into 140 characters. Because when you have the nuclear codes at your fingertips and the military at your command, you can’t make snap decisions. You can’t have a thin skin or the tendency to lash out.

Of course we all know Biden is the intellect of the Democratic Party. Kind of a grin with a body behind it.

Arafat’s departure has created an awesome opportunity.

Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.

Most businesses think that product is the most important thing, but without great leadership, mission and a team that deliver results at a high level, even the best product won’t make a company successful.

The authority you establish must emerge naturally from your character, from the particular strengths you possess.