If I’m going to get you to do stuff, I need to lead you. I can’t just order you to do it.

Do what nobody else can do for you. Omit to do anything else.

A politician is a man who understands government. A statesman is a politician who’s been dead for 15 years.

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

I want to represent… to the kids to draw strength from me. So they can see that everybody goes through something, but you can rise up and do your best. Just try.

If you start by promising what you don’t even have yet, you’ll lose your desire to work towards getting it.

You will find men who want to be carried on the shoulders of others, who think that the world owes them a living. They don’t seem to see that we must all lift together and pull together.

It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.

Barack knows the American Dream because he’s lived it, and he wants everyone in this country to have that same opportunity, no matter who we are or where we’re from or what we look like or who we love.

We live in a culture that relishes tearing others down. It’s ultimately more fulfilling, though, to help people reach their goals. Instead of feeling jealous, remember: If God did it for them, He can do it for you.

We also can’t try to take over and rebuild every country that falls into crisis. That’s not leadership; that’s a recipe for quagmire, spilling American blood and treasure that ultimately weakens us. It’s the lesson of Vietnam, of Iraq – and we should have learned it by now.

You cannot let where you are today cause you to get stuck. I’m going to be my best right now. That’s what faith is all about.

We will move forward, we will move upward, and yes, we will move onward.

I believe in Coach Louis Wong. He is so much more than just a football coach.

This ain’t fun. But you watch me, I’ll get it done.

When you are president, being able to clearly articulate detailed plans to help the people of this country is a good thing. Knowing what you’re doing is a good thing. And let me tell you, Hillary Clinton absolutely knows what she’s doing.

Political courage is not political suicide.

Just remember, you can’t climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.

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.

If you are lucky enough to find something that you love, and you have a shot at being good at it, don’t stop, don’t put it down.

The leaders come up from the volunteers that do the work, and it’s amazing because then they do these incredible things in their community that they never thought they had the power to make that happen.

Seventy percent of success in life is showing up.

If you leave the smallest corner of your head vacant for a moment, other people’s opinions will rush in from all quarters.

Certainly in the next 50 years we shall see a woman president, perhaps sooner than you think. A woman can and should be able to do any political job that a man can do.

There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.

Aim for the highest.

Talent without working hard is nothing.

A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights.

Everybody wants to be famous, but nobody wants to do the work. I live by that. You grind hard so you can play hard. At the end of the day, you put all the work in, and eventually it’ll pay off. It could be in a year, it could be in 30 years. Eventually, your hard work will pay off.

I can easily imagine Obama sitting down and talking to any leader – or any person – in the world, with no baggage of past servitude or race supremacy to mar their talks.

Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.

The events of October 1962 are widely hailed as Kennedy’s finest hour.

We were poor. But my mom never accepted that. She worked hard to become a residential contractor – got her master’s with honors at the University of New Orleans. I used to go to every class with her. Her father was my paternal figure.

My dear friend, clear your mind of cant.

If you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won’t see why we go.

No pressure, no diamonds.

The wisest have the most authority.

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

Control your own destiny! Control your own destiny!

It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.

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

You can’t die with an unfinished book.

Are you bored with life? Then throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could never be yours.

The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation.

The first step on the way to victory is to recognize the enemy.

The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows where he is going.

I’ve learned over the years that when I go to that place of passion within me, there’s no force in the universe that can interfere with my completing a project.

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

Action may not bring happiness but there is no happiness without action.

Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.

I would hear stories about Steve Jobs and feel like he was at 100 percent exactly what he wanted to do, but I’m sure even a Steve Jobs has compromised. Even a Rick Owens has compromised. You know, even a Kanye West has compromised. Sometimes you don’t even know when you’re being compromised till after the fact, and that’s what you regret.

When I inspire myself, I want to spread the word because its important to be healthy. I don’t think they’re teaching us enough about that. I think we should eat better and exercise. Look who’s saying that – a guy who was 300 pounds – but I’m doing a lot better than I used to. I’m letting people know its important because it makes you feel better.

I just figured out that if I gave my all into this game – if I put everything into the fight business – then I would eventually run the fight business.

It constitutes a superhuman effort to lead any people in times of crisis. Without them, the changes would be impossible.

Teamwork is so important that it is virtually impossible for you to reach the heights of your capabilities or make the money that you want without becoming very good at it.

I’m responsible for starting a whole new school of pretension.

If you’re doing your best, you won’t have any time to worry about failure.

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

If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.

It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.

Decisiveness is a characteristic of high-performing men and women. Almost any decision is better than no decision at all.