Great is the hand that holds dominion over man by a scribbled name.

The herd seek out the great, not for their sake but for their influence; and the great welcome them out of vanity or need.

Hoover was a patriot in his heart, but he definitely exceeded his power.

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.

Do not let circumstances control you. You change your circumstances.

I have a cult-like following because I exemplify what it is to be a human being.

Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable – a most sacred right – a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.

I’m grateful for the opportunities God gave me to minister to people in high places; people in power have spiritual and personal needs like everyone else, and often they have no one to talk to.

I don’t think the Christian Right dominates America in the way some in the media believe they do.

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

So many people have this idea: I want to achieve something great or be somebody great. And they neglect the step that leads to greatness. They don’t honor this step at this moment because they have this idea of some future moment where they are going to be great.

Our greatness has always come from people who expect nothing and take nothing for granted – folks who work hard for what they have, then reach back and help others after them.

To make America the greatest is my goal, so I beat the Russian and I beat the Pole. And for the U.S.A. won the medal of gold. The Greeks said, ‚You’re better than the Cassius of old.‘

My mother, I suppose, is still a main figure in my life because her life was so sad and unfair, and she so brave, but also because she was determined to make me into the Sunday-school-recitation little girl I was, from the age of seven or so, fighting not to be.

If the United States loses the economic weapons of control, it is very much weakened.

Like any creative human being, I would like a bit more control so that it would be a little easier for me when the director says, ‚One tear, right now,‘ that one tear would pop out.

Only kings, presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial ‚we.‘

Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire.

Most of the confidence which I appear to feel, especially when influenced by noon wine, is only a pretense.

I do not like the man who squanders life for fame; give me the man who living makes a name.

Success is always dangerous, and we need to be alert and avoid becoming the victims of our own success. Will we influence the world for Christ, or will the world influence us?

It’s a mystery. That’s the first thing that interests me about the idea of God. If there is one, it’s mysterious and powerful and awesome to even consider the concept, and you have to take it seriously.

Remember that the essence of authority is that people willingly follow your lead.

The price of greatness is responsibility.

Not brute force but only persuasion and faith are the kings of this world.

It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man and the security of a god.

Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.

Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.

I was born during the war and grew up in a time of rationing. We didn’t have anything. It’s influenced the way I look at the world.

Many Communist government officials have a rigid, dictatorial power, but they live in constant suspicion and fear of anything that might undermine the power they have.

Well, I think indigenous peoples have ways of living on the Earth that they’ve had forever. And they’ve been overrun by organized religion, which has had a lot of money and power.

It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.

One thing I hope I’ll never be is drunk with my own power. And anybody who says I am will never work in this town again.

I’ve used the prestige and influence of having been a president of the United States as effectively as possible. And secondly, I’ve still been able to carry out my commitments to peace and human rights and environmental quality and freedom and democracy and so forth.

I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way.

I would be lying if I didn’t admit sadness that our wonderful airline is merging with another. Because I’m not American, the U.S. Department of Transportation stipulated I take some of my shares in Virgin America as non-voting shares, reducing my influence over any takeover. So there was sadly nothing I could do to stop it.

The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure criticism without resentment.

Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness.

The good opinion of mankind, like the lever of Archimedes, with the given fulcrum, moves the world.

It is more agreeable to have the power to give than to receive.

Music is something no one can control.

My music is influenced by L.A. culture.

The public is a ferocious beast; one must either chain it or flee from it.

If you’re going to change things, you have to be with the people who hold the levers.

The colored folks been singing it and playing it just like I’m doin‘ now, man, for more years than I know. I got it from them.

No man was ever great by imitation.

A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.

There was a time Michael Jackson couldn’t get his video on MTV because he was considered to be ‚urban.‘ The Michael Jackson. So I literally have to be the Michael Jackson of apparel in order to break down the doors for everyone who will come after I’m gone, after I’m dead.

The effect of power and publicity on all men is the aggravation of self, a sort of tumor that ends by killing the victim’s sympathies.

Everybody, to some extent, manipulates. Even children learn to cry when they want something. There are all kinds of subtle things we do to get others to follow our lead, not bother us, and so on.

I believed in God when cancer come to me. Now when I speak, I speak with authority because I’ve been there.

The purposes of the United States should not be doubted. The Security Council resolutions will be enforced – the just demands of peace and security will be met – or action will be unavoidable. And a regime that has lost its legitimacy will also lose its power.

War – An act of violence whose object is to constrain the enemy, to accomplish our will.

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.

Any man can call time out, but no man can say how long the time out will be.

I don’t see how people are comfortable with seeing other people be great. You can be happy for anybody, but what is your excuse to not want to be great? These people are great because they just say, ‚I’ma do that,‘ and they do it. That’s it. There’s no scientifical process.

I’m the only president you’ve got.

Words are loaded pistols.

If we want to reduce poverty and misery, if we want to give to every deserving individual what is needed for a safe existence of an intelligent being, we want to provide more machinery, more power. Power is our mainstay, the primary source of our many-sided energies.

It’s OK to have your eggs in one basket as long as you control what happens to that basket.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.