I do not think psychoanalysis has a scientific basis. If we can’t explain why a cockroach decides to turn left, how can we explain why a human being decides to do something?

We will burn that bridge when we come to it.

I’ve turned down shows offering large amounts of money.

‚Tis better to bear the ills we have than fly to others that we know not of.

The simplest and most psychologically satisfying explanation of any observed phenomenon is that it happened that way because someone wanted it to happen that way.

My biographers… would like to have my time at the court almost complete before they finish the book. We decided… to flip the order.

Really I feel less keen about the Army every day. I think the Church would suit me better.

The desire to annoy no one, to harm no one, can equally well be the sign of a just as of an anxious disposition.

When you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be right and wise.

It seems to me that terrestrial beings, as they become more autonomous, psychologically richer, shut themselves up in a way against one another, and at the same time gradually become strangers to the cosmic environment and currents, impenetrable to one another, and incapable of exteriorizing themselves.

You do the policy, I’ll do the politics.

People are usually more convinced by reasons they discovered themselves than by those found by others.

A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes.

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

Put your leaders in stressful scenarios. Make them figure out solutions under pressure. See if you can make them frustrated, angry, and flustered, and then demand decisive leadership from them. They will be challenged at first, but they will get better over time.

We need an adult in the White House. When making life-or-death, war-or-peace decisions, a president can’t just pop off or lash out irrationally.

He only employs his passion who can make no use of his reason.

In matters of truth the fact that you don’t want to publish something is, nine times out of ten, a proof that you ought to publish it.

Presidents quickly realize that while a single act might destroy the world they live in, no one single decision can make life suddenly better or can turn history around for the good.

One of the key qualities a leader must possess is the ability to detach from the chaos, mayhem, and emotions in a situation and make good, clear decisions based on what is actually happening.

Humans cannot avoid trying to influence others. Everything we say or do is examined and interpreted by others for clues as to our intentions.

I have no human feelings.

The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.

We do need women in civic life. We do need women to run for office, to be in political office. We need a feminist to be at the table when decisions are being made so that the right decisions will be made.

People seldom do what they believe in. They do what is convenient, then repent.

Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get.

Before I lost my voice, it was slurred, so only those close to me could understand, but with the computer voice, I found I could give popular lectures. I enjoy communicating science. It is important that the public understands basic science, if they are not to leave vital decisions to others.

I don’t think I’m bad for people. If I did think I was bad for people, I would go back to driving a truck, and I really mean this.

I can make more generals, but horses cost money.

I don’t want to spend money the club doesn’t have; I don’t want to hold a player that doesn’t want to stay.

We need someone with superb judgement in their own right because, yes, a president can hire the best advisors on Earth, but I guarantee you this: Five advisors will give five different opinions. And it is the president – and the president alone – who always makes the final call.

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.

I thought ‚Heller‘ was a very bad decision.

I never resist temptation, because I have found that things that are bad for me do not tempt me.

How many things there are concerning which we might well deliberate whether we had better know them.

Choose your life’s mate carefully. From this one decision will come 90 percent of all your happiness or misery.

We’re the only animal that wakes up and doesn’t stretch.

You have a nice personality, but not for a human being.

Fortunately we’re not a public company – we’re a private group of companies, and I can do what I want.

One aspect of appellate judging is we have to give reasons for all of our decisions. And when you sit down and try to write it out, sometimes you find that your first judgment wasn’t the right one.

If you call yourself a leader, then you have to be decisive. If you’re decisive, then you have the chance to be a leader. These are two sides to the same coin.

Your emotions are very unstable and should never be the foundation for direction in your life.

Buy the ticket, take the ride.

If I think too hard about a relationship, I’ll talk myself out of it.

I’m working on my life story. I’m not decided if it’s going to be a musical or a movie with music in it.

It’s so hard to know what to do when one wishes earnestly to do right.

This nuclear option is ultimately an example of the arrogance of power.

I had to make a choice at one point in my life, of missing films or missing my children. It was a very easy decision to make because I missed my children so very much.

An idea, like a ghost, must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself.

Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content.

Every mind must make its choice between truth and repose. It cannot have both.

Example is leadership.

Every President wants to do right.

It is a fine game to play – the game of politics – and it is well worth waiting for a good hand before really plunging.

The issues a president faces are not black and white, and cannot be boiled down into 140 characters. Because when you have the nuclear codes at your fingertips and the military at your command, you can’t make snap decisions. You can’t have a thin skin or the tendency to lash out.

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.

Next to knowing when to seize an opportunity, the most important thing in life is to know when to forego an advantage.

I think you can have 10,000 explanations for failure, but no good explanation for success.

There’s no difference between one’s killing and making decisions that will send others to kill. It’s exactly the same thing, or even worse.

We spend so much time sublimatin‘, thinkin‘ about, ‚What am I going to have for lunch, dinner?‘