I will only hire someone to work directly for me if I would work for that person. It’s a pretty good test.

I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end… I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.

The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.

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.

The presidency has many problems, but boredom is the least of them.

If you watch me during the game, I celebrate when we press the ball and it goes out.

In other words, don’t expect to always be great. Disappointments, failures and setbacks are a normal part of the lifecycle of a unit or a company and what the leader has to do is constantly be up and say ‚we have a problem, let’s go and get it‘.

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.

It is pretty ironic that the so-called ‚least advanced‘ people are the ones taking the lead in trying to protect all of us, while the richest and most powerful among us are the ones who are trying to drive the society to destruction.

Just as discipline and freedom are opposing forces that must be balanced, leadership requires finding the equilibrium in the dichotomy of many seemingly contradictory qualities between one extreme and another.

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

I vividly remember a conversation I had many years ago in 1974, which marked a turning point in my leadership journey. I was sitting at a Holiday Inn with my friend, Kurt Campmeyer, when he asked me if I had a personal growth plan. I didn’t. In fact, I didn’t even know you were supposed to have one.

In a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.

Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.

When a team takes ownership of its problems, the problem gets solved. It is true on the battlefield, it is true in business, and it is true in life.

I keep working because I learn something new all the time.

High office teaches decision making, not substance. It consumes intellectual capital; it does not create it. Most high officials leave office with the perceptions and insights with which they entered; they learn how to make decisions but not what decisions to make.

It has so happened in all ages of the world that some have labored, and others have, without labor, enjoyed a large proportion of the fruits.

Synergy is what happens when one plus one equals ten or a hundred or even a thousand! It’s the profound result when two or more respectful human beings determine to go beyond their preconceived ideas to meet a great challenge.

My observation is that whenever one person is found adequate to the discharge of a duty… it is worse executed by two persons, and scarcely done at all if three or more are employed therein.

You can’t hire someone to practice for you.

How can we help President Obama?

A revolution can be neither made nor stopped. The only thing that can be done is for one of several of its children to give it a direction by dint of victories.

No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.

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.

Example is leadership.

People who add value to others do so intentionally. I say that because to add value, leaders must give of themselves, and that rarely occurs by accident.

You can live within the institutions and work hard to change them.

You know, one of the things I think you understand as president is you’re held responsible for everything, but you don’t always have control of everything, right?

We walk together, we move together, we think together, we resolve together, and together we take this country forward.

Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.

The British people know that, given strong leadership, time, and a little bit of hope, the forces of good ultimately rally and triumph over evil.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

I don’t create companies for the sake of creating companies, but to get things done.

I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone – and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward.

Chavez, who came out of the ranks of the Venezuelan Army, is methodical and tireless. I have observed him over the course of 17 years, since his first visit to Cuba. He is an extremely humanitarian and law-abiding person; he has never taken revenge on anybody.

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.

Only the guy who isn’t rowing has time to rock the boat.

Through the right people focusing on the right things, we can, in time, get on top of a lot if not most of the problems of this world. And that’s what a number of us are trying to do.

I think we understand that for the Court to work well, we have to not only respect but genuinely like each other.

Teamwork makes the dream work, but a vision becomes a nightmare when the leader has a big dream and a bad team.

No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern.

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

In the long-run every Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom; we have to say, Like People like Government.

Among us, who is above must be in service of the others. This doesn’t mean we have to wash each other’s feet every day, but we must help one another.

To me, football is so much about mental toughness, it’s digging deep, it’s doing whatever you need to do to help a team win and that comes in a lot of shapes and forms.

We named the book ‚Extreme Ownership‘ because we really found that when we looked at not only at leaders but at teams that were the most successful, we found that the ones that had this attitude of extreme ownership were the ones that did the best, and it’s definitely an attitude that I had.

If you lead a country like Britain, a strong country, a country which has taken a lead in world affairs in good times and in bad, a country that is always reliable, then you have to have a touch of iron about you.

A President cannot always be popular.

Whoever won’t fight when the President calls him, deserves to be kicked back in his hole and kept there.

A President’s hardest task is not to do what is right, but to know what is right.

I don’t think the government should be in the trailer-park business. I don’t think they know how to run a trailer park.

To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle.

Practice Golden-Rule 1 of Management in everything you do. Manage others the way you would like to be managed.

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.

First, how do we give everyone a fair shot at opportunity and security in this new economy? Second, how do we make technology work for us, and not against us – especially when it comes to solving urgent challenges like climate change? Third, how do we keep America safe and lead the world without becoming its policeman?

Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing.

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.

I never did anything alone. Whatever was accomplished in this country was accomplished collectively.

I always tell people that you should only hire people to be on your team if you would work for them.

The best leaders are readers of people. They have the intuitive ability to understand others by discerning how they feel and recognizing what they sense.