I feel good because I believe I have made progress in rebuilding the people’s trust in their government.

Since it is difficult to join them together, it is safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking.

War contains so much folly, as well as wickedness, that much is to be hoped from the progress of reason.

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

We’ve come a long way from the days where there was state-enforced segregation. But we still have a way to go.

You can never have a revolution in order to establish a democracy. You must have a democracy in order to have a revolution.

He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command.

But there’s so much kludge, so much terrible stuff, we are at the 1908 Hurley washing machine stage with the Internet. That’s where we are. We don’t get our hair caught in it, but that’s the level of primitiveness of where we are. We’re in 1908.

When Hillary was First Lady, we went to the Beijing Women’s Conference. She courageously stood up and spoke out on behalf of human rights and women’s rights, inspiring millions to fight for a better future.

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

Netscape was able to get the government working on its behalf.

The time has come for us to draw the line. The time has come for the responsible leaders of both political parties to take a stand against overgrown Government and for the American taxpayer.

Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times.

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.

I would like to be remembered as a guy who had a set of priorities, and was willing to live by those priorities. In terms of accomplishments, my biggest accomplishment is that I kept the country safe amidst a real danger.

In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.

One of my direct subordinates, one of my guys that worked for me, he would call me up or pull me aside with some major problem, some issue that was going on. And he’d say, ‚Boss, we’ve got this, and that, and the other thing.‘ And I’d look at him and I’d say, ‚Good.‘

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

Anything important is never left to the vote of the people. We only get to vote on some man; we never get to vote on what he is to do.

People and organizations don’t grow much without delegation and completed staff work because they are confined to the capacities of the boss and reflect both personal strengths and weaknesses.

I would put our legislative and foreign policy accomplishments in our first two years against any president – with the possible exceptions of Johnson, FDR, and Lincoln – just in terms of what we’ve gotten done in modern history. But, you know, but when it comes to the economy, we’ve got a lot more work to do. And we’re gonna keep on at it.

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

I think one of the great things about the United States has been our ability to maintain a distinction between our military and domestic law enforcement.

Yeah, I wasn’t chosen to be first. I was just chosen to command that flight. Circumstance put me in that particular role. That wasn’t planned by anyone.

I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done.

Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.

A president has an inescapable responsibility to provide direction: What are we trying to achieve? What are we trying to prevent? Why? To do that, he has to both analyze and reflect.

From a young age, I learned to focus on the things I was good at and delegate to others what I was not good at. That’s how Virgin is run. Fantastic people throughout the Virgin Group run our businesses, allowing me to think creatively and strategically.

With Benghazi, I don’t see anyone saying, ‚Hey look, I am overall responsible for this and therefore, I take responsibility for what happened. It’s my fault.‘ I haven’t heard that yet. Meanwhile, the other side of the coin, the Osama bin Laden raid, it seems everyone made that decision, and that’s just unbelievable to me.

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?

A lot of the things that will really improve the world fortunately aren’t dependent on Washington doing something different.

We still think of a powerful man as a born leader and a powerful woman as an anomaly.

We’re all of us guinea pigs in the laboratory of God. Humanity is just a work in progress.

Well, no one gives aid to Zimbabwe through the Mugabe government.

Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power.

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

The army teaches boys to think like men.

One way to make sure crime doesn’t pay would be to let the government run it.

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.

As President Nixon says, presidents can do almost anything, and President Nixon has done many things that nobody would have thought of doing.

The slogan of progress is changing from the full dinner pail to the full garage.

Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.

The IRS! They’re like the Mafia, they can take anything they want!

The people who are doing the work are the moving force behind the Macintosh. My job is to create a space for them, to clear out the rest of the organization and keep it at bay.

A good model of how to ‚work with the enemy‘ internally is presented by the Dalai Lama, in his endless caretaking of his soul as he confronts the Chinese government that invaded Tibet.

The last thing I wanted to do was to be a wartime President.

We welcome the scrutiny of the world – because what you see in America is a country that has steadily worked to address our problems and make our union more perfect.

Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government too.

What matters in the Sun-tzu universe are not positions of strength and power, but situations in which you have options, full of potential force.

The onus is on the managers to send out an attacking formation and to tell their players to be bold.

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.

Liberty must be limited in order to be possessed.

I’m often accused of being ahead of my time, but it’s simply not true. The truth is that everybody else is behind.

It is wise to persuade people to do things and make them think it was their own idea.

New ideas pass through three periods: 1) It can’t be done. 2) It probably can be done, but it’s not worth doing. 3) I knew it was a good idea all along!

There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.

It is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it… anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.

You simply have to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. Put blinders on and plow right ahead.

The Bill of Rights is not an a la carte menu.

I can’t really criticize the Tea Party people, because I came into the White House pretty much on the same basis that they have become popular. That is dissatisfaction with the way things are going in Washington and disillusionment and disencouragement about the government.

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