If I think too hard about a relationship, I’ll talk myself out of it.

The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all.

I think that a president needs to have a variety of views presented. But also, there has to be a team effort, because otherwise, I think it creates a dissonance and difficulty.

It is often said that before you die your life passes before your eyes. It is in fact true. It’s called living.

For a young person, it is almost a sin, or at least a danger, to be too preoccupied with himself; but for the ageing person, it is a duty and a necessity to devote serious attention to himself.

When making your choice in life, do not neglect to live.

If you make up your own mind, you can only blame yourself.

It is only to the individual that a soul is given.

Life becomes harder for us when we live for others, but it also becomes richer and happier.

Chaotic action is preferable to orderly inaction.

I think and that is all that I am.

Secrets are things we give to others to keep for us.

As president, you can get all kinds of advice from all kinds of people. But at the end of the day, when it comes time to make that decision, as president, all you have to guide you are your values and your vision and the life experiences that make you who you are.

If you are the kind of person who is waiting for the ‚right‘ thing to happen, you might wait for a long time. It’s like waiting for all the traffic lights to be green for five miles before starting the trip.

When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself.

I don’t really plan. I’m almost intuitive about things.

I have no delusions about my likability in every scenario. I know that in order to get things done the way you want them, oftentimes your position will be unpopular.

I love to flirt, and I’ve never met a man I didn’t like.

I believe a marriage is between a man and a woman.

Sin, also for those who don’t have faith, exists when one goes against one’s conscience. To listen to and obey it means, in fact, to decide in face of what is perceived as good or evil. And on this decision pivots the goodness or malice of our action.

Understanding is a two-way street.

Plant and your spouse plants with you; weed and you weed alone.

Remember that a gesture of friendship, no matter how small, is always appreciated.

When I was into my 30s, I became increasingly depressed by rejection letters. I had had the feeling that by the time I was 30, I would be established. But I was not at all. By the time of ‚Lives of Girls and Women,‘ I was into my 40s and I had become more thin-skinned.

Most people would rather give than get affection.

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.

Sisters are brittle things. God was penurious with me, which makes me shrewd with Him. One is a dainty sum! One bird, one cage, one flight; one song in those far woods, as yet suspected by faith only!

It was weird to be married; you kind of lose your identity. You’re suddenly somebody’s wife. And you’re like, ‚Oh, I’m half of a couple now. I’ve lost me.‘

One of life’s terrible truths is that women like guys who seem to know what they’re doing.

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

I owe my solitude to other people.

I’m not sure if it’s good to have freedom or not. I’m really confused now.

The die is cast.

One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.

In each action we must look beyond the action at our past, present, and future state, and at others whom it affects, and see the relations of all those things. And then we shall be very cautious.

I always wanted to be a father and thought it would be great, but it just took the right woman and the right time to make it all happen.

Being prime minister is a lonely job… you cannot lead from the crowd.

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

Here’s something that’s contrary to popular belief: I actually don’t like thinking. I think people think I like to think a lot. And I don’t. I do not like to think at all.

Leadership is a choice, not a position.

Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.

Compromise used to mean that half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to mean that half a loaf; is better than a whole loaf.

Don’t get the impression that you arouse my anger. You see, one can only be angry with those he respects.

Basically, when you get to my age, you’ll really measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you.

I am the only person in the world I should like to know thoroughly.

Any man can call time out, but no man can say how long the time out will be.

I have a family, loving aunts, and a good home. No, on the surface I seem to have everything except my one true friend. All I think about when I’m with friends is having a good time. I can’t bring myself to talk about anything but ordinary everyday things. We don’t seem to be able to get any closer, and that’s the problem.

Treat your kid like a darling for the first five years. For the next five years, scold them. By the time they turn sixteen, treat them like a friend. Your grown up children are your best friends.

Love is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves without any insistence that they satisfy you.

I think that there is never an indispensable leader, you know? I think that there is a time with dignity that one needs to leave.

Relationships based on obligation lack dignity.

It no longer bothers me that I may be constantly searching for father figures; by this time, I have found several and dearly enjoyed knowing them all.

Knowledge of the self is the mother of all knowledge. So it is incumbent on me to know my self, to know it completely, to know its minutiae, its characteristics, its subtleties, and its very atoms.

Childhood was very nice. The only thing wrong was that I was so introverted, everything became a big deal… ‚Oh, no, here comes the bus. Where am I gonna sit on the bus?‘

Brad was a huge surprise to me. I think we were both the last two people who were looking for a relationship. I certainly wasn’t. I was quite content to be a single mom with Mad.

He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.

Hiding places there are innumerable, escape is only one, but possibilities of escape, again, are as many as hiding places.

Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.

To conceal anything from those to whom I am attached, is not in my nature. I can never close my lips where I have opened my heart.

It’s annoying, but justice and equality are mates. Aren’t they? Justice always wants to hang out with equality. And equality is a real pain.

My music seems to have a bigger mission than I have, which is very soothing but also very strange because people see more in me than I see, which can be terrifying.