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.

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

I’ve seen how the issues that come across a president’s desk are always the hard ones – the problems where no amount of data or numbers will get you to the right answer.

I found that the corridors of power in Delhi were littered with lobbies of various kinds.

We must think and act like a nation of a billion people and not like that of a million people. Dream, dream, dream!

Surveys show our standing around the world is higher than when I was elected to this office, and when it comes to every important international issue, people of the world do not look to Beijing or Moscow to lead – they call us.

Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions. If they have no clue what you are up to, they cannot prepare a defense.

The man who can dominate a London dinner-table can dominate the world.

My favourite president, and the one I admired most, was Harry Truman.

The economy’s always been the engine for our national security.

The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I, therefore, intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt.

In politics nothing is contemptible.

When I took over as president, I studied the Constitution, and the more I studied it, the more I realised that it does not prevent the president of India from giving the nation a vision. So when I went and presented this vision in Parliament and in legislative assemblies; everyone welcomed it, irrespective of party affiliations.

I wasn’t sure of the exact mindset you should have when you go into a Test match. So I probably became too defensive when I played my first Test match. Short balls in one-day cricket, I have never thought of just defending.

I think our democracy has it exactly right: two terms, eight years. It’s enough. Because it’s important to have one foot in reality when you have access to this kind of power.

The way people look at me these days – that’s the same way I looked at President Obama before I met him. We tend to forget that people who’ve attained a certain position are human.

But I do not believe that the world would be entirely different if there were more women leaders. Maybe if everybody in leadership was a woman, you might not get into the conflicts in the first place. But if you watch the women who have made it to the top, they haven’t exactly been non-aggressive – including me.

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?

No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it.

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.

You must capture and keep the heart of the original and supremely able man before his brain can do its best.

Putin goes to bed at night knowing he can break all the rules, and the West will follow all the rules.

How can we help President Obama?

Good executives never put off until tomorrow what they can get someone else to do today.

As a leader, the first person I need to lead is me. The first person that I should try to change is me.

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.

Most members of Congress are politicians. They’re bores.

I am concerned about the whole man. I am concerned about what the people, using their government as an instrument and a tool, can do toward building the whole man, which will mean a better society and a better world.

Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.

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.

If we had more hell in the pulpit, we would have less hell in the pew.

Every family should have the right to spend their money, after tax, as they wish, and not as the government dictates. Let us extend choice, extend the will to choose and the chance to choose.

Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

I know it’s going to be the private sector that leads this country out of the current economic times we’re in. You can spend your money better than the government can spend your money.

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.

If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.

When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home.

The mob is the mother of tyrants.

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

Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish. Do not overdo it.

Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.

The government, whether state or central, is elected. That means we have a responsibility to elect the right kind of leaders.

It takes a smart man to play dumb.

The world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians.

On every front there are clear answers out there that can make this country stronger, but we’re going to break through the fear and the frustration people are feeling. Our job is to make sure that even as we make progress, that we are also giving people a sense of hope and vision for the future.

Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion.

Nobody wants to put the creditworthiness of the United States in jeopardy. Nobody wants to see the United States default. So we’ve got to seize this moment, and we have to seize it soon.

The female loves to play man against man. And if she is in a position to do it, there is not one who will resist.

I believe in a president whose religious views are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the nation or imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office.

I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it.

No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern.

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.

Never neglect details. When everyone’s mind is dulled or distracted the leader must be doubly vigilant.

I found this national debt, doubled, wrapped in a big bow waiting for me as I stepped into the Oval Office.

Obamacare sucks, it can’t be fixed.

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.

Nobody ever defended anything successfully, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.

Hyperinflation can take virtually your entire life’s savings, without the government having to bother raising the official tax rate at all.

Look, when you’re the president, there’s all kinds of things said about us. I mean, it’s just the nature of the job.

If you are a small company taking on a big company, you need to have a sense of humor.

I think the running game is very important to every offense. Being balanced is extremely important. There’s times where you have to throw the ball. You could be down late in the game, you need to come back; you have to be able to pass it when they know you’re passing it.