I don’t think that a leader can control, to any great extent, his destiny. Very seldom can he step in and change the situation if the forces of history are running in another direction.

Shakespeare – I was very influenced – still am – by Shakespeare. I couldn’t believe that a white man in the 16th century could so know my heart.

But if nothing but soul, or in soul mind, is qualified to count, it is impossible for there to be time unless there is soul, but only that of which time is an attribute, i.e. if change can exist without soul.

I am mindful not only of preserving executive powers for myself, but for predecessors as well.

Free will carried many a soul to hell, but never a soul to heaven.

To paraphrase Winston Churchill, I did not take the oath I have just taken with the intention of presiding over the dissolution of the world’s strongest economy.

Steve Jobs‘ ability to focus in on a few things that count, get people who get user interface right, and market things as revolutionary are amazing things.

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.

When I was running training, we would fire a couple of leaders from every SEAL team because they couldn’t lead. And 99.9% of the time, it wasn’t a question of their ability – it was a question of their ability to listen.

When I was growing up, there was nobody in my family – not even my mother – who I could look to and be like, ‚I know you’ve never said anything homophobic.‘ So, you know, you worry about people in the business who you’ve heard talk that way. Some of my heroes coming up talk recklessly like that.

I used to worry about every little thing, trying to figure out every problem. Well, I realize now how foolish that was. I was no more in control of my life than the man on the moon.

Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.

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.

Since the beginning, it was just the same. The only difference, the crowds are bigger now.

Most of the change we think we see in life is due to truths being in and out of favor.

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

There’s a lack of people in power that are motivated by the idea of helping people.

Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.

Except for the title ‚father,‘ there is no title, including ‚vice president,‘ that I am more proud to wear than that of United States senator.

If you change and adapt your persona, you are seen as inauthentic; if you stay the angry young man, you fade from attention or seem tiresome.

Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not.

Some day I shall be President.

Imagine for yourself a character, a model personality, whose example you determine to follow, in private as well as in public.

I cannot lead you into battle. I do not give you laws or administer justice but I can do something else – I can give my heart and my devotion to these old islands and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations.

I believe the most solemn duty of the American president is to protect the American people. If America shows uncertainty and weakness in this decade, the world will drift toward tragedy. This will not happen on my watch.

Good management consists in showing average people how to do the work of superior people.

Immense power is acquired by assuring yourself in your secret reveries that you were born to control affairs.

The man who occupies the first place seldom plays the principal part.

I have certain guys who I looked up to. Jordan, Kobe, those guys. Passing that on to doing my part to kind of keep that influence of basketball where it should be is kind of why I play the game.

Music is changing so quickly, and the landscape of the music industry itself is changing so quickly, that everything new, like Spotify, all feels to me a bit like a grand experiment.

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.

Nature is a mutable cloud which is always and never the same.

I’m very type-A, and many things in my life are about control and domination, but eating should be a submissive experience, where you let down your guard and enjoy the ride.

To be good is noble; but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble.

You know, you can only lead them from behind.

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

But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.

In my opinion eight years as president is enough and sometimes too much for any man to serve in that capacity.

The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.

The people of the world genuinely want peace. Some day the leaders of the world are going to have to give in and give it to them.

If the leader is filled with high ambition and if he pursues his aims with audacity and strength of will, he will reach them in spite of all obstacles.

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

A cloudy day or a little sunshine have as great an influence on many constitutions as the most recent blessings or misfortunes.

There are many events in the womb of time, which will be delivered.

Our chief justices have probably had more profound and lasting influence on their times and on the direction of the nation than most presidents.

I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.

Ever since Israel has been a nation the United States has provided the leadership. Every president down to the ages has done this in a fairly balanced way, including George Bush senior, Gerald Ford, and others including myself and Bill Clinton.

I think your values are always influenced by your family and your community.

Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered.

A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.

Being acknowledged for your work is always a great accomplishment, whether it’s people in my city, kids in the street, all the way up to the Grammys.

I loved being Secretary of State, that’s probably evident to everyone who watched me.

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.

What I admire most about Hillary is that she never buckles under pressure. She never takes the easy way out. And Hillary Clinton has never quit on anything in her life. And when I think about the kind of president that I want for my girls and all our children, that’s what I want.

The great thieves lead away the little thief.

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.

We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.

If I’m going to get you to do stuff, I need to lead you. I can’t just order you to do it.

When there’s justice and change, you start to see the cleansing of the soul, and that is what I want for people, and I hope it’s okay for me to say those things.

When the players go home, I can’t tell them what to do, so you need to create an atmosphere of trust. I don’t want to think, ‚What are they doing now? Do I need to call them?‘

Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to trust your team. It’s a lesson I’ve had to relearn quite a few times.