Conscientious people are apt to see their duty in that which is the most painful course.

We misjudge risk if we feel we have some control over it, even if it’s an illusory sense of control.

Learn to say ‚no‘ to the good so you can say ‚yes‘ to the best.

Wisdom consists not so much in knowing what to do in the ultimate as knowing what to do next.

Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike.

Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.

Whoever won’t fight when the President calls him, deserves to be kicked back in his hole and kept there.

If co-operation is a duty, I hold that non-co-operation also under certain conditions is equally a duty.

Alas, after a certain age every man is responsible for his face.

I made a decision when my father passed away that I was going to be who God made me to be and not try to preach like my father.

He who steals a little steals with the same wish as he who steals much, but with less power.

Initiative is doing the right things without being told.

Test a servant while in the discharge of his duty, a relative in difficulty, a friend in adversity, and a wife in misfortune.

Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.

The advantage of the emotions is that they lead us astray.

We spend so much time sublimatin‘, thinkin‘ about, ‚What am I going to have for lunch, dinner?‘

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

An individual step in character training is to put responsibility on the individual.

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.

We have to work harder to develop a profound theology of women within the church. The feminine genius is needed wherever we make important decisions.

I act on impulse and I go with my instincts.

My parents didn’t want to move to Florida, but they turned sixty and that’s the law.

Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous.

Who will take responsibility for raising the next generation?

It is our future on the line, and we must at least have a say in it.

Never give an order that can’t be obeyed.

I’m substantially concerned about the policy directions of the space agency. We have a situation in the U.S. where the White House and Congress are at odds over what the future direction should be. They’re sort of playing a game and NASA is the shuttlecock that they’re hitting back and forth.

I don’t ever make moves under pressure.

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.

Infinite striving to be the best is man’s duty; it is its own reward. Everything else is in God’s hands.

Defending peace is the duty of all.

Stupidity has a knack of getting its way.

Rascals are always sociable, more’s the pity! and the chief sign that a man has any nobility in his character is the little pleasure he takes in others‘ company.

To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies. So it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects.

I am certain no one sets out to be cruel, but our treatment of the elderly ill seems to have no philosophy to it. As a society, we should establish whether we have a policy of life at any cost.

Love can do much, but duty more.

As soon as questions of will or decision or reason or choice of action arise, human science is at a loss.

Do what you feel in your heart to be right- for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.

Every time I try to retire, or even think of retiring from acting, my agent comes up with a script.

Do you realize the responsibility I carry? I’m the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House.

I do the dishes every night – other people volunteer, but I like the way I do it.

You cannot be in a position of power and destroy the life of another person.

In countries where innocent people are dying, the leaders are following their blood rather than their brains.

The best thing is to always keep honest people around, because when you have a bunch of yes men around that know that you’re making a mistake but let you go on with it, that’s when it ruins your mind state as an artist.

I lived a sloppy life. So I took very small increments in my life. I started making my bed. I started cleaning my room. There were dishes in the sink. It started off with doing small house chores. I saw that the yard needed to be mowed. So instead of being told it needed to be mowed, I would mow it.

I said that America’s role would be limited; that we would not put ground troops into Libya; that we would focus our unique capabilities on the front end of the operation, and that we would transfer responsibility to our allies and partners.

What we have to do, what at any rate it is our duty to do, is to revive the old art of Lying.

In the game of cricket, a hero is a person who respects the game and does not corrupt the game. The one who doesn’t or corrupts the game, they are the villain. They should be punished, and they have been punished in the past.

It’s so hard to know what to do when one wishes earnestly to do right.

A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.

The greatest heroes are those who do their duty in the daily grind of domestic affairs whilst the world whirls as a maddening dreidel.

The responsibility of tolerance lies with those who have the wider vision.

Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost.

A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.

You can tell the tree by the fruit it bears. You see it through what the organization is delivering as far as a concrete program. If the tree’s fruit sours or grows brackish, then the time has come to chop it down – bury it and walk over it and plant new seeds.

There is nothing good or evil save in the will.

It’s better to be good than evil, but one achieves goodness at a terrific cost.

Judges should avoid commenting on a candidate for public office.

A man’s character is his guardian divinity.

Beautiful sentences pop into my head. Beautiful sentences that aren’t always absolutely accurate. Then, I have to choose between the beautiful sentence and being absolutely accurate. It can be a difficult choice.

I’ll be judged on the body of work and not the popularity of any one decision.