I remember the last three days that I was president, I never went to bed at all. I never went to bed until we had negotiated the final release of the hostages.

Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.

I have never yet seen any plan which has not been mended by the observations of those who were much inferior in understanding to the person who took the lead in the business.

To compromise simply means that you go a tiny bit below what you know is right.

The path to the CEO’s office should not be through the CFO’s office, and it should not be through the marketing department. It needs to be through engineering and design.

Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion,and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose – and you allow him to make war at pleasure.

For me every ruler is alien that defies public opinion.

Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer.

The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That’s what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they’ll go through the pain no matter what happens.

Standing as I do, with my hand upon this staff, and under the folds of the American flag, I ask you to stand by me so long as I stand by it.

The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.

I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.

Nothing will work unless you do.

I think a big test we all face in life on a regular basis is that discouragement test. Life’s not always fair, but I believe if you keep doing the right thing, God will get you to where you are.

I’m no longer just a candidate. I’m the President. I know what it means to send young Americans into battle, for I have held in my arms the mothers and fathers of those who didn’t return. I’ve shared the pain of families who’ve lost their homes, and the frustration of workers who’ve lost their jobs.

There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.

I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is opposed to every instinct in my body. But as president I must put the interests of America first Therefore, I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow.

I wanted in my lifetime to vote for a radical Native American woman, since my vision of any future that we might have is that it will be led by women and older women.

Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.

The true history of my administration will be written 50 years from now, and you and I will not be around to see it.

I’m always trying. Between every book, I think, ‚Well now, it’s time to get down to the serious stuff.‘

If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the nearest land was a thousand miles away, I’d still swim. And I’d despise the one who gave up.

Divide and rule, the politician cries; unite and lead, is watchword of the wise.

The buck stops here!

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

Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.

I did my utmost to ensure that everyone below me in the chain of command felt comfortable approaching me with concerns, ideas, thoughts, and even disagreements.

I know Elon, we’re very like minded in many ways. We’re not conceptual twins. One thing I want us to do is go to Mars, but for me it’s one thing. He’s singularly focused on that. I think motivation wise, for me I don’t find that Plan B idea motivating. I don’t want a plan B for Earth, I want Plan B to make sure Plan A works.

This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.

A taste for truth at any cost is a passion which spares nothing.

Failure at some point in your life is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable.

It always seems impossible until it’s done.

I just think you ought to talk straight with your people.

When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing more to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.

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

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.

If you’re a quarterback, you want everything on your shoulders. You want to be the one to make the decisions.

The minute you got the Nobel Peace Prize, things that I said yesterday, with nobody paying too much attention, I say the same things after I got it – oh! It was quite crucial for people, and it helped our morale because apartheid did look invincible.

Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.

Leaders who fail to prune their pride will meet demise. That’s not a guess, it’s a guarantee. With pride, it’s not a matter of ‚if‘ we will fall, but ‚when.‘ There are no exceptions.

The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

When I checked into SEAL Team One many years ago, one of the things that I noticed was there was this old guy, who was younger than I am today, who I decided that I was going to be like. I wanted to emulate what he was doing, and one of those things was he got to work before anybody else.

In the world today many people rightfully feel entitled to have success and the good things in life, but they usually understand it will require sacrifice and hard work.

Most of the problems a President has to face have their roots in the past.

Leadership is influence.

No matter what happens on the field, getting an education makes you a winner.

The balloons only have one life and the only way of finding out whether they work is to attempt to fly around the world.

I had a soft-spot in my heart for Ronald Reagan, if only because he was a sportswriter in his youth.

I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am the prod.

My game is really played above time. I don’t say that like I’m saying I’m ahead of my time. I’m saying, like, if I’m on the court and I throw a pass, the ball that I’ve thrown will lead my teammate right where he needs to go, before he even knows that that’s the right place to go to.

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility – I welcome it.

In 2008, I spoke out against calling the president a Muslim as if that was a curse. And then in 2012, once again, I was very disturbed about some of the intolerance I was seeing in the party, so I made a statement saying there’s a level of intolerance in some parts of the Republican Party. And there was, and I think there still is.

O, you men who think or say that I am malevolent, stubborn or misanthropic, how greatly do you wrong me. You do not know the secret cause which makes me seem that way to you, and I would have ended my life – it was only my art that held me back. Ah, it seemed impossible to leave the world until I had brought forth all that I felt was within me.

I always was that person who was hard on myself and challenged myself no matter what I was doing, whether it was passing third grade or playing basketball.

It is as hard and severe a thing to be a true politician as to be truly moral.

Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you ready or not, to put this plan into action.

Especially when you’re at a high level in an organization, criticism can be devastating to an employee. I prefer to praise employees for what they’re doing right, and it tends to lead to them doing more of the same. Not always, but it’s the way I choose to bet.

No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men.

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.

Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.