If you have to control people, you have to have an administrative force that does it. So in U.S. industry, even more than elsewhere, there’s layer after layer of management – a kind of economic waste, but useful for control and domination. And the same is true in universities.

But even the President of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked.

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.

Our enemy, the devil, wants to control us, and his target is our will. The main way he tries to influence our will is through lying to us.

I break ground. I trailblaze.

If you are a leader, you should never forget that everyone needs encouragement. And everyone who receives it – young or old, successful or less-than-successful, unknown or famous – is changed by it.

This President is going to lead us out of this recovery.

I think with the Romans, that the general of today should be a soldier tomorrow if necessary.

In business, if you realize you’ve made a bad decision, you change it.

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

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

When I was elected President nobody asked me to negotiate between Israel and Egypt. It was not even a question raised in my campaign. But I felt that one of the reasons that I was elected President was to try to bring peace to the Holy Land.

The President is not only the leader of a party, he is the President of the whole people. He must interpret the conscience of America. He must guide his conduct by the idealism of our people.

Never forget that no military leader has ever become great without audacity.

I have learned from personal experience that putting trust in God means there will be some unanswered questions. That was a hard lesson for me because I naturally want to understand everything… to know what’s going on so I can feel like I’m in control.

We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.

You know I vowed when I became President not to talk about the loneliest toughest job in the world and I didn’t.

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.

Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.

You’re president, if you conclude my judgment is not the right judgment, I abide by that, but I want an opportunity to have an input.

Many years ago, I concluded that a few hair shirts were part of the mental wardrobe of every man. The president differs from other men in that he has a more extensive wardrobe.

I had never been in charge of anything. I’d always worked for someone. I worked for a furniture warehouse. I did masonry. I always had a boss yelling at me. So I’d never been in charge of an organization.

Romney and Ryan would do a much better job running the country, and that’s what everybody needs to know.

I’ve been a mogul and executive since the beginning of my career. People are just born with that skill.

Show me a poorly uniformed troop and I’ll show you a poorly uniformed leader.

If one has the answers to all the questions – that is the proof that God is not with him. It means that he is a false prophet using religion for himself. The great leaders of the people of God, like Moses, have always left room for doubt. You must leave room for the Lord, not for our certainties; we must be humble.

Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.

Man is not the creature of circumstances, circumstances are the creatures of men. We are free agents, and man is more powerful than matter.

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.

I don’t want to tell President Obama how to make a speech. He’s a much better speech maker than I am. But I think always to tell the truth in a sometimes blatant way, even though it might be temporarily unpopular, is the best approach.

From a young age, I learned to focus on the things I was good at and delegate to others what I was not good at. That’s how Virgin is run. Fantastic people throughout the Virgin Group run our businesses, allowing me to think creatively and strategically.

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.

In America the President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs forever and ever.

Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country? If you are the first, then you are a parasite; if the second, then you are an oasis in the desert.

I’m more than comfortable just sitting back and scoring 21, 22 points or whatever and getting 10, 11 assists whatever the case might be. More than comfortable with that. It’s just a matter of the pieces that you have around you and what you can do to elevate everybody else.

The colonel replied that he didn’t care how my men had got the job done. He was happy that it had been accomplished. He said that, obviously, no matter how much or how little I knew technically, I was able to get the best out of people I worked with.

All good leaders are connectors. They relate well and make people feel confident about themselves and their leader.

My job is to play quarterback, and I’m going to do that the best way I know how, because I owe that to my teammates regardless of who is out there on the field with me.

I notice that young men go to the universities in order to become doctors or philosophers or anything, so long as it is a title, and that many go in for those professions who are utterly unfit for them, while others who would be very competent are prevented by business or their daily cares, which keep them away from letters.

The Scoutmaster teaches boys to play the game by doing so himself.

I think our democracy has it exactly right: two terms, eight years. It’s enough. Because it’s important to have one foot in reality when you have access to this kind of power.

When you want a thing done, ‚Don’t do it yourself‘ is a good motto for Scoutmasters.

Don’t blame the marketing department. The buck stops with the chief executive.

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.

All gods are homemade, and it is we who pull their strings, and so, give them the power to pull ours.

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

Control is the source of strategic power.

I can die a happy man never having been president of the United States of America. But it doesn’t mean I won’t run.

Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth’s surface relative to other matter; second, telling other people to do so.

If I had chosen the populist course, it would have been a breach of the trust placed in me by the people.

To lead people walk behind them.

Some single mind must be master, else there will be no agreement in anything.

It isn’t generally the case that liberals dominate entire hierarchies. That isn’t generally how it works, because the hierarchies are usually set up so that conservatives fill up the hierarchies; it’s in the nature of hierarchy.

Leaders in all spheres who are living with HIV should be encouraged, not coerced, to lead by example and disclose their HIV status.

When the best leader’s work is done the people say, ‚We did it ourselves.‘

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.

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

Anybody who tells you that a two-day conference, you’re going to turn into the General Patton of leadership, they’re not telling you the truth. But you can learn the fundamentals; you can absolutely understand the fundamentals.

As president, I’m committed to making Washington work better and rebuilding the trust of the people who sent us here.

Clever tyrants are never punished.

Every sentence spoken by Napoleon, and every line of his writing, deserves reading, as it is the sense of France.