How do leaders serve their people? They may pay good wages and treat employees with respect.

Time, which alone makes the reputation of men, ends by making their defects respectable.

Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. In your desire to please or impress them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite – inspire fear and insecurity.

Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.

Leaders who are kind of insecure or egocentric, they basically sabotage themselves.

If we are not free, no one will respect us.

The best morale exist when you never hear the word mentioned. When you hear a lot of talk about it, it’s usually lousy.

I think, under President Obama, who was a really bright guy – I didn’t agree with a lot of his politics – but we got to the point internationally where our friends didn’t trust us. They were confused. And our enemies didn’t quite respect us.

We don’t believe in planners and deciders making the decisions on behalf of Americans.

Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all.

Never injure a friend, even in jest.

The issues that cross a president’s desk are never easy. The easy questions don’t even get to the president.

I need privacy. I would think that because what I do makes a lot of people happy that I might deserve a little bit of respect in return. Instead, the papers try to drag me off my pedestal.

Any man who wants to be president is either an egomaniac or crazy.

Leaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision.

Scrubbing floors and emptying bedpans has as much dignity as the Presidency.

It feels good to have your work respected again.

Men have a respect for scholarship and learning greatly out of proportion to the use they commonly serve.

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

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.

Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.

Every sentence spoken by Napoleon, and every line of his writing, deserves reading, as it is the sense of France.

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.

I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances.

I hate victims who respect their executioners.

A conductor can’t be too arrogant with an orchestra and try to impose himself too much.

I vividly remember a conversation I had many years ago in 1974, which marked a turning point in my leadership journey. I was sitting at a Holiday Inn with my friend, Kurt Campmeyer, when he asked me if I had a personal growth plan. I didn’t. In fact, I didn’t even know you were supposed to have one.

Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around.

When you’re around the kids, you feel like you act the most grown up just because you’re supposed to lead. I say things, like every other parent, that reminds you of your own parents. One thing I do know about being a parent, you understand why your father was in a bad mood a lot.

Leadership is a choice, not a position.

Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.

I’m no leader; I’m a little humble follower.

Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.

The worst disease which can afflict executives in their work is not, as popularly supposed, alcoholism; it’s egotism.

You think that the heads of state only have serious conversations, but they actually often begin really with the weather or, ‚I really like your tie.‘

As president, you can get all kinds of advice from all kinds of people. But at the end of the day, when it comes time to make that decision, as president, all you have to guide you are your values and your vision and the life experiences that make you who you are.

The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.

Only the guy who isn’t rowing has time to rock the boat.

The nose of a mob is its imagination. By this, at any time, it can be quietly led.

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.

Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear.

No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it.

I have never yet seen any plan which has not been mended by the observations of those who were much inferior in understanding to the person who took the lead in the business.

Instead of being critical of people in authority over you and envious of their position, be happy you’re not responsible for everything they have to do. Instead of piling on complaints, thank them for what they do. Overwhelm them with encouragement and appreciation!

If you’re talking to a man who wouldn’t fight with you under any circumstances whatsoever, then you’re talking to someone for whom you have absolutely no respect.

I like to always lead from the front and set an example for whoever is playing with me or around me. I like taking responsibilities. That is my natural thing.

The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.

If you continue to keep low performers on your team, that are actually dragging the team down; you’re failing the whole team, and eventually, the whole team is going to fail.

I break ground. I trailblaze.

When it comes to the qualifications that we should demand of our president, to start with, we need someone who will take the job seriously.

The other day the President said, I know you’ve had some rough times, and I want to do something that will show the nation what faith that I have in you, in your maturity and sense of responsibility. He paused, then said, would you like a puppy?

Take me seriously. Take me and my role seriously. Take my talent seriously.

The commander in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong, unless proved otherwise.

If you want to reach the top, don’t run over others. Likely, the only way you’ll reach the top is to be carried there by others.

No man is good enough to govern another man without the other’s consent.

In America the young are always ready to give to those who are older than themselves the full benefits of their inexperience.

Like it or not, there are a lot of dance teachers in this country who respect me, whether they personally like me or not.

Policy makers who have never served in the military continue to use the military to lead social change in this country.

Being prime minister is a lonely job… you cannot lead from the crowd.

If we could just find out who’s in charge, we could kill him.

Moral authority comes from following universal and timeless principles like honesty, integrity, treating people with respect.