I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.

I’d be more frightened by not using whatever abilities I’d been given. I’d be more frightened by procrastination and laziness.

Nothing can be more hurtful to the service, than the neglect of discipline; for that discipline, more than numbers, gives one army the superiority over another.

And poets, in my view, and I think the view of most people, do speak God’s language – it’s better, it’s finer, it’s language on a higher plane than ordinary people speak in their daily lives.

In fact, my courage and my bravery at a young age was the thing I was bullied for, a kind of ‚Who do you think you are?‘

We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.

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.

I have not worked out my poems with a careful will, falling rather on haphazard and blind formulation of wordage, a more flowing concept, in a hope for a more new and lively path. I do personalize at times, but this only for the grace and elan of the dance.

Instead of worrying about what people say of you, why not spend time trying to accomplish something they will admire.

I think the best thing I ever did with my life was stand up and say I’ve got Alzheimer’s.

Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.

He who has courage and faith will never perish in misery!

A word is dead when it is said, some say. I say it just begins to live that day.

In this age, I don’t care how tactically or operationally brilliant you are: if you cannot create harmony – even vicious harmony – on the battlefield based on trust across service lines, across coalition and national lines, and across civilian/military lines, you need to go home, because your leadership is obsolete.

By most accounts, Aristide is the most popular figure in Haiti.

You have to dream before your dreams can come true.

Eating words has never given me indigestion.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.

To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.

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

I’d like to think you don’t stop being creative once you get happy.

Just as discipline and freedom are opposing forces that must be balanced, leadership requires finding the equilibrium in the dichotomy of many seemingly contradictory qualities between one extreme and another.

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.

Like a pianist runs her fingers over the keys, I’ll search my mind for what to say. Now, the poem may want you to write it. And then sometimes you see a situation and think, ‚I’d like to write about that.‘ Those are two different ways of being approached by a poem, or approaching a poem.

I used to have nightmares that they would put ‚He played Ted‘ on my tombstone.

Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.

I grew up in a rural area called Vega Baja and I’m the first of so many talented people in this area to make it out. I take great pride to represent where I come from and I am able to show my fans, and everyone who listens and watches me, that anything is possible.

The financial crisis should not become an excuse to raise taxes, which would only undermine the economic growth required to regain our strength.

When you are organizing a group of people, the first thing that we do is we talk about the history of what other people have been able to accomplish – people that look like them, workers like them, ordinary people, working people – and we give them the list: these are people like yourself; this is what they were able to do in their community.

If one has the answers to all the questions – that is the proof that God is not with him. It means that he is a false prophet using religion for himself. The great leaders of the people of God, like Moses, have always left room for doubt. You must leave room for the Lord, not for our certainties; we must be humble.

In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.

I think it is perfectly natural for any artist to admire intensely and love a young man. It is an incident in the life of almost every artist.

Take a chance! All life is a chance. The man who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare.

When younger writers and poets, musicians and painters are weakened by a stemming of funds, they come to me saddened, not as full of dreams and excitement and ideas. I am then weakened and diminished, and made less rich.

My favorite literary heroine is Jo March. It is hard to overstate what she meant to a small, plain girl called Jo, who had a hot temper and a burning ambition to be a writer.

You can change your world by changing your words… Remember, death and life are in the power of the tongue.

I never woke up and thought, ‚I really want to live a bold life.‘

My heroes are the ones who survived doing it wrong, who made mistakes, but recovered from them.

With a tree, all the growth takes place at the growing tips. Humanity is exactly the same. All the growth takes place in the growing tip: among that one percent of the population. It’s made up of pioneers, the beginners. That’s where the action is.

Each daughter of God is of infinite worth because of her divine mission.

The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.

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

Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it.

The hope, the hope that lives in the breast of the black American, is just so tremendous that it overwhelms me sometimes.

If you see everything from the point of view of women being victims in some way, you don’t see the wood for the trees. It is better to be a person than a woman.

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

Let each become all that he was created capable of being.

If I wish to compose or write or pray or preach well, I must be angry. Then all the blood in my veins is stirred, and my understanding is sharpened.

Pennies do not come from heaven. They have to be earned here on earth.

A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or regard that quality in its chosen leaders today – and in fact we have forgotten.

I never dared to be radical when young for fear it would make me conservative when old.

I am sometimes a fox and sometimes a lion. The whole secret of government lies in knowing when to be the one or the other.

Cruel leaders are replaced only to have new leaders turn cruel.

Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.

If I wished to do something, even if I couldn’t find anyone who wanted to make the effort with me, I would go out solo climbing. I did find solo climbing very challenging and a little frightening. You knew that you were completely on your own, and you had to overcome all the problems and possible dangers.

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.

Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We, of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

I can die a happy man never having been president of the United States of America. But it doesn’t mean I won’t run.

Exceeds man’s might: that dwells with the gods above.