Be the chief but never the lord.

Accept the terrible responsibility of life with eyes wide open.

If you have to control people, you have to have an administrative force that does it. So in U.S. industry, even more than elsewhere, there’s layer after layer of management – a kind of economic waste, but useful for control and domination. And the same is true in universities.

Americans… still believe in an America where anything’s possible – they just don’t think their leaders do.

The ultimate authority must always rest with the individual’s own reason and critical analysis.

I think if someone gets kicked in the face it is their fault – they watched the foot come towards their face.

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.

The measure of a man is what he does with power.

I believe in Coach Louis Wong. He is so much more than just a football coach.

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.

Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.

My parents were dealing with evictions and repossessions and electricity getting shut off, and I just realized that I had to get it together.

A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or regard that quality in its chosen leaders today – and in fact we have forgotten.

I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?

We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times… and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK. That’s not leadership. That’s not going to happen.

A leader does not deserve the name unless he is willing occasionally to stand alone.

Our brand of democracy is hard. But I can promise that a year from now, when I no longer hold this office, I’ll be right there with you as a citizen – inspired by those voices of fairness and vision, of grit and good humor and kindness that have helped America travel so far.

There is probably a perverse pride in my administration… that we were going to do the right thing, even if short-term it was unpopular. And I think anybody who’s occupied this office has to remember that success is determined by an intersection in policy and politics and that you can’t be neglecting of marketing and P.R. and public opinion.

The first duty of a state is to see that every child born therein shall be well housed, clothed, fed and educated till it attains years of discretion.

He who dreads hostility too much is unfit to rule.

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

It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.

I know I do not exaggerate, unconsciously and unintentionally, the scantiness of my resources and the difficulty of my life… I know that, but for the mercy of God, I might easily have been, for any care that was taken of me, a little robber or a vagabond.

International affairs is very much run like the mafia. The godfather does not accept disobedience, even from a small storekeeper who doesn’t pay his protection money. You have to have obedience; otherwise, the idea can spread that you don’t have to listen to the orders, and it can spread to important places.

Sadly, the truth is, there aren’t many people who can be put in high positions who won’t start thinking highly of themselves.

For me, already being part of a single parent household and knowing it was just me and my mom, you’d would wake up times and hope that the next day you’d be able to be alongside your mother because she was out trying to make sure that I was taken care of. But all I cared about was her being home.

Responsibility is the price of freedom.

Because my dad abused me, I was determined to never let a man tell me what to do. God clearly showed me that I needed to be a submissive wife if I wanted to be effective in ministry. The truth is, if we don’t learn to submit to authority, we won’t ever learn to submit to God.

We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on.

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.

Soldiers generally win battles; generals get credit for them.

Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We, of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.

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.

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

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.

The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I, therefore, intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt.

In my heart, I’m confident I could make a good president.

Democracy is the process by which people choose the man who’ll get the blame.

I just figured out that if I gave my all into this game – if I put everything into the fight business – then I would eventually run the fight business.

The Scoutmaster teaches boys to play the game by doing so himself.

Don’t let your ego get too close to your position, so that if your position gets shot down, your ego doesn’t go with it.

The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them.

If we do not maintain justice, justice will not maintain us.

Whenever I’m around some who is modest, I think, ‚Run like hell and all of fire.‘ You don’t want modesty, you want humility.

I believe the first test of a truly great man is in his humility.

The people who are doing the work are the moving force behind the Macintosh. My job is to create a space for them, to clear out the rest of the organization and keep it at bay.

The army teaches boys to think like men.

Understand, when you eat meat, that something did die. You have an obligation to value it – not just the sirloin but also all those wonderful tough little bits.

The mob is the mother of tyrants.

I’m not trying to get myself up a notch on the ladder by shoving somebody else down on the ladder, whether it’s a candidate or the president of the United States or anybody else. I just don’t believe that’s the way one oughta campaign, I’ve never done that.

There are some women I definitely would not want to succeed me… but a man like David Souter, that would be great.

I remember the last three days that I was president, I never went to bed at all. I never went to bed until we had negotiated the final release of the hostages.

The wit knows that his place is at the tail of a procession.

True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.

I think you have a moral responsibility when you’ve been given far more than you need, to do wise things with it and give intelligently.

No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men.

Remember upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all.

My momma didn’t clean up floors so I could be a thug… so I could wear my pants down.

A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.

Never give an order that can’t be obeyed.