Here in the West, people often don’t like listening to their leaders, even if they are right.

We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another – until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices.

Doing nothing while the middle class is hurting. That’s not leadership. Loose regulations and lax enforcement. That’s not leadership. That’s abandoning our middle class.

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.

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

As commanders and staff officers, we are coaches and sentries for our units: how can we coach anything if we don’t know a hell of a lot more than just the TTPs?

Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid.

For success of any mission, it is necessary to have creative leadership. Creative leadership is vital for government, non-governmental organisations as well as for industries.

This President is going to lead us out of this recovery.

I’m the only president you’ve got.

People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.

Insults are the arguments employed by those who are in the wrong.

The strong man is the one who is able to intercept at will the communication between the senses and the mind.

The trouble with Nixon is that he’s a serious politics junkie. He’s totally hooked and like any other junkie, he’s a bummer to have around, especially as President.

Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.

I do think that we’re gonna move towards this world where eventually you’ll be able to capture a whole experience that you’re in and be able to send that to someone.

It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own.

Using e-mail, I can communicate with scientists all over the world.

I don’t say very much I don’t really think through. I know that sounds inconsistent with Joe Biden.

We named the book ‚Extreme Ownership‘ because we really found that when we looked at not only at leaders but at teams that were the most successful, we found that the ones that had this attitude of extreme ownership were the ones that did the best, and it’s definitely an attitude that I had.

You might be the funniest guy in the world, but if you don’t have anything to talk about, people are eventually going to gravitate towards the guy that’s actually saying something.

We can’t allow the world’s worst leaders to blackmail, threaten, hold freedom-loving nations hostage with the world’s worst weapons.

Talk to a man about himself and he will listen for hours.

But even the President of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked.

Power is poison. Its effect on Presidents had always been tragic.

Why a four-year-old child could understand this report. Run out and find me a four-year-old child. I can’t make head nor tail out of it.

In my neighborhood, when you’ve got something to say to a guy, you look him in the eye and you say it to him.

If you’re a quarterback, you want everything on your shoulders. You want to be the one to make the decisions.

I’ve had moments when I’ve thought about somebody, picked up the phone to call them and they are on the line already, and I think that maybe there’s some vibration, some connection.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

We shall never be able to remove suspicion and fear as potential causes of war until communication is permitted to flow, free and open, across international boundaries.

A word of encouragement from a teacher to a child can change a life. A word of encouragement from a spouse can save a marriage. A word of encouragement from a leader can inspire a person to reach her potential.

I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.

Our country was founded by geniuses, but it’s being run by idiots.

Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.

The true genius shudders at incompleteness – and usually prefers silence to saying something which is not everything it should be.

We are eager to tunnel under the Atlantic and bring the Old World some weeks nearer to the New, but perchance the first news that will leak through into the broad, flapping American ear will be that the Princess Adelaide has the whooping cough.

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?

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.

Many people listen to what I have to say and I appear a lot in media, so therefore I influence a lot of people and therefore I have a bigger responsibility because I have a bigger platform.

In politics nothing is contemptible.

If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.

Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you.

Now from a distance, I look back on what the Corps taught me: to think like men of action, and to act like men of thought!

Please don’t ask me to do that which I’ve just said I’m not going to do, because you’re burning up time. The meter is running through the sand on you, and I am now filibustering.

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

The most successful politician is he who says what the people are thinking most often in the loudest voice.

I can make more generals, but horses cost money.

Most negotiators are trying to get their way.

In the early days of the military Arpanet, my daughter was studying in Nicaragua. Because the U.S. was essentially at war with them, contact was difficult. I managed to use MIT’s Arpanet connection, and she found one, so we could communicate thanks to the Pentagon!

When your mother asks, ‚Do you want a piece of advice?‘ it is a mere formality. It doesn’t matter if you answer yes or no. You’re going to get it anyway.

I talk to myself all the time. Just make sure you answer.

Only two things are necessary to keep one’s wife happy. One is to let her think she is having her own way, and the other is to let her have it.

What Washington needs is adult supervision.

Being president isn’t anything like reality TV. It’s not about sending insulting tweets or making fiery speeches; it’s about whether or not the candidate can handle the awesome responsibility of leading this country.

I can’t deny that the thought of being governor, the thought of being president, is alluring. And beyond that, it would be an opportunity to make a real impact on people’s lives on a global scale. But there are a lot of other things I want to do first.

A master performer like Bill Clinton never lost sight of the fact that as president he had to project confidence and power, but if he was speaking to a group of autoworkers he would adjust his accent and his words to fit the audience, and do the same for a group of executives.

If you can’t convince them, confuse them.

When I started Virgin from a basement in west London, there was no great plan or strategy. I didn’t set out to build a business empire… For me, building a business is all about doing something to be proud of, bringing talented people together and creating something that’s going to make a real difference to other people’s lives.