Every President I think I’ve ever known, except Truman, has thought they didn’t quite get done what they wanted done. And toward the end of their Administrations, they were disappointed and wished they had done some things differently.

In business, if you realize you’ve made a bad decision, you change it.

Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast.

Repeal the Missouri Compromise – repeal all compromises – repeal the Declaration of Independence – repeal all past history, you still cannot repeal human nature. It will be the abundance of man’s heart that slavery extension is wrong; and out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth will continue to speak.

Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.

Dictators free themselves, but they enslave the people.

By 1960, the South Africans knew that they were becoming a pariah state.

For any young democracy, the most difficult but important step is burying the legacy of tyranny and establishing an economy and a government and institutions that abide by the rule of law. Every country faces challenges to the rule of law, including my own.

Let us endeavor so to live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.

A leader is a dealer in hope.

The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

I’d read up on the history of our country and I’d become fascinated with the story of the Alamo. To me it represented the fight for freedom, not just in America, but in all countries.

I am not virtuous. Our sons will be if we shed enough blood to give them the right to be.

In war, you can only be killed once, but in politics, many times.

The entering class I joined in 1956 included just nine women, up from five in the then second-year class, and only one African American. All professors, in those now-ancient days, were of the same race and sex.

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.

How easy it is to govern when one follows a system of consulting the will of the people and one holds as the only norm all the actions which contribute to the well being of the people.

I think I was identified as a failed president because I wasn’t re-elected.

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.

You should read history and look at ostracism, persecution, martyrdom, and that kind of thing. They always happen to the best men, you know.

You know, you can only lead them from behind.

We should not look down on our first ancestors.

Good leaders must communicate vision clearly, creatively, and continually. However, the vision doesn’t come alive until the leader models it.

If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.

There has been a huge attack against private sector unions. Actually, that’s been going on since the Second World War.

If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.

American imperialism is often traced to the takeover of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii in 1898.

There is no such thing as accident; it is fate misnamed.

A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.

Experience, as a desire for experience, does not come off. We must not study ourselves while having an experience.

And now, of course this is another thing I didn’t count on, that now as the governor of the state of California, I am selling California worldwide. You see that? Selling.

I have always been grateful to Colonel Longley. He proved to me that when people in authority take a stand, good can come out of it.

I don’t know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.

For every moment of triumph, for every instance of beauty, many souls must be trampled.

Having the support from everyone, the bosses, whoever within the team, definitely makes it much easier for me as a driver.

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.

My mother had a saying: ‚Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you’re not the last.‘

Some people seem to fade away but then when they are truly gone, it’s like they didn’t fade away at all.

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

In the 1940s, traveling for an African was a complicated process. All Africans over the age of sixteen were compelled to carry ‚Native passes‘ issued by the Native Affairs Department and were required to show that pass to any white policeman, civil servant, or employer. Failure to do so could mean arrest, trial, a jail sentence or fine.

I would like to be remembered as a guy who had a set of priorities, and was willing to live by those priorities. In terms of accomplishments, my biggest accomplishment is that I kept the country safe amidst a real danger.

The only things one can admire at length are those one admires without knowing why.

A leader who confines his role to his people’s experience dooms himself to stagnation; a leader who outstrips his people’s experience runs the risk of not being understood.

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

When we build, let us think that we build for ever.

Every one of my regrets has produced a song I’m proud of.

What Washington needs is adult supervision.

Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend – or a meaningful day.

Earn your success based on service to others, not at the expense of others.

I’m not the same man I used to be, I’m not out hell-raising, stuff like that. I am a changed man.

When I look back on what I did for the Left, I’m in a small way quite proud of some of it – I only wish I’d done more.

During the 60’s, I was, in fact, very concerned about the civil rights movement.

Sleep is the interest we have to pay on the capital which is called in at death; and the higher the rate of interest and the more regularly it is paid, the further the date of redemption is postponed.

Some years ago I became president of Columbia University and learned within 24 hours to be ready to speak at the drop of a hat, and I learned something more, the trustees were expected to be ready to speak at the passing of the hat.

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

Some of our earliest writing, in cuneiform, was about who owes what.

I’ve been so blessed to play for the greatest coach at a time when our organization has done incredible things. I’ve played with the best teammates. Playing for Mr. Kraft and what his influence on the team has been.

There is no necessity to separate the monarch from the mob; all authority is equally bad.

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

I break ground. I trailblaze.