I try to lead by example, being conscious of others and being responsible.

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.

Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to the country and to mankind is to bring up a family.

No valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.

I don’t think consensus-building politics is what I’m meant to be doing.

Leaders are responsible not for running public opinion polls but for the consequences of their actions.

So much of what we do every single day is the result of habits that we have formed over time.

Right discipline consists, not in external compulsion, but in the habits of mind which lead spontaneously to desirable rather than undesirable activities.

A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don’t have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed.

If people lose faith in their government, the result is the same whether or not the loss of confidence is justified.

Begin with the end in mind.

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.

Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it. It comes without seeking and is retained without effort.

You need to understand, if you take out a government, take out a regime, guess who becomes the government and regime and is responsible for the country? You are. So if you break it, you own it.

Be as you wish to seem.

You can start right where you stand and apply the habit of going the extra mile by rendering more service and better service than you are now being paid for.

The challenge is to stay cool enough to handle the pressure in the moment so that you can succeed in the future.

You have learnt something. That always feels at first as if you had lost something.

The spirit of America has nurtured responsibility and community unlike any other country.

How can I be useful, of what service can I be? There is something inside me, what can it be?

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.

All ways of living can be sanctified, and for each individual, the ideal way is that to which our Lord leads him through the natural development of his tastes and the pressure of circumstances.

I don’t want to express my opinion about actual politics, because if I do, I have to be responsible for my decision.

I don’t see myself as ever being like anybody else.

My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.

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.

My husband and I had to raise five of my younger brothers and sisters. They lived with us. We sent them to school.

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

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.

I am not interested in power for power’s sake, but I’m interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.

What kind of people do they think we are? Is it possible they do not realize that we shall never cease to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget?

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

Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.

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.

Leadership is a choice, not a position.

In George Bush you get experience, and with me you get – The Future!

Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconcious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character.

By appreciation, we make excellence in others our own property.

People tend to think that life really does progress for everyone eventually, that people progress, but actually only some people progress. The rest of the people don’t.

I would counsel people to go to college, because it’s one of the best times in your life in terms of who you meet and develop a broad set of intellectual skills.

To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.

If you wish to achieve worthwhile things in your personal and career life, you must become a worthwhile person in your own self-development.

It’s very difficult to regulate yourself, and if you learn to do that, well, it starts to spill over.

I don’t follow all the 48 laws. Like, I’ve never crushed anyone totally.

I am not deeply involved in Australian politics but I know there are prime ministers, governments around the world who are not acting responsibly in relation to climate change.

Either you think, or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.

We’ve persevered because of a belief we share with the Iraqi people – a belief that out of the ashes of war, a new beginning could be born in this cradle of civilization. Through this remarkable chapter in the history of the United States and Iraq, we have met our responsibility. Now, it’s time to turn the page.

Man can alter his life by altering his thinking.

Many shoulder heavy burdens of righteous responsibility which, on occasion, seem so difficult to bear. I have heard those challenges termed impossible.

What is a fear of living? It’s being preeminently afraid of dying. It is not doing what you came here to do, out of timidity and spinelessness. The antidote is to take full responsibility for yourself – for the time you take up and the space you occupy. If you don’t know what you’re here to do, then just do some good.

To try to become happy is to try to build a machine with no other specifications than it shall run noiselessly.

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.

The most important thing for a director is being able to communicate.

We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on.

The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.

Politics is not bean bags. It’s serious, tough stuff.

Our brand of democracy is hard. But I can promise that a year from now, when I no longer hold this office, I’ll be right there with you as a citizen – inspired by those voices of fairness and vision, of grit and good humor and kindness that have helped America travel so far.

What you put into life is what you get out of it.