I’ll be judged on the body of work and not the popularity of any one decision.

Some people are making music just for numbers and views.

I was planning to go into architecture. But when I arrived, architecture was filled up. Acting was right next to it, so I signed up for acting instead.

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

I second-guess and overthink and rethink every single thing that I do.

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

All my life, whenever it comes time to make a decision, I make it and forget about it.

I think that most of us would prefer to be popular than unpopular.

I just hate meetings. Though it’s true that once you’ve made a lot of money, people around you might be full of ideas about ways to make lots more money and might be disappointed that you don’t want to seize every opportunity to do so.

I don’t care whether you’re driving a hybrid or an SUV. If you’re headed for a cliff, you have to change direction. That’s what the American people called for in November, and that’s what we intend to deliver.

A president either is constantly on top of events or, if he hesitates, events will soon be on top of him. I never felt that I could let up for a moment.

Experience does not err. Only your judgments err by expecting from her what is not in her power.

Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions – Why am I doing it, What the results might be and Will I be successful. Only when you think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions, go ahead.

I am always wary of decisions made hastily. I am always wary of the first decision, that is, the first thing that comes to my mind if I have to make a decision. This is usually the wrong thing. I have to wait and assess, looking deep into myself, taking the necessary time.

Wise leaders generally have wise counselors because it takes a wise person themselves to distinguish them.

In order to govern, the question is not to follow out a more or less valid theory but to build with whatever materials are at hand. The inevitable must be accepted and turned to advantage.

Nothing is worth doing unless the consequences may be serious.

Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what’s right.

It is a fine game to play – the game of politics – and it is well worth waiting for a good hand before really plunging.

It is only in our decisions that we are important.

If we must not act save on a certainty, we ought not to act on religion, for it is not certain. But how many things we do on an uncertainty, sea voyages, battles!

I can honestly say that I was never affected by the question of the success of an undertaking. If I felt it was the right thing to do, I was for it regardless of the possible outcome.

I didn’t always have 14,000 people wanting to hang out with me on a Saturday night.

Solutions are not the answer.

I never worry about action, but only inaction.

It’s OK to have your eggs in one basket as long as you control what happens to that basket.

If I want to do well in racing I need to be more focused so I stopped going to school. If I wasn’t a very good driver it would not be a wise decision, but it gives me an advantage over my competitors.

The dangers of not thinking clearly are much greater now than ever before. It’s not that there’s something new in our way of thinking – it’s that credulous and confused thinking can be much more lethal in ways it was never before.

I’m not a marketing person. I don’t ask myself questions. I go by instinct.

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.

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.

Conscientious people are apt to see their duty in that which is the most painful course.

I was never a boy magnet at school. There was always the girl all the guys liked and wanted to date, but it was never me.

I bought a company in the mid-’90s called Dexter Shoe and paid $400 million for it. And it went to zero. And I gave about $400 million worth of Berkshire stock, which is probably now worth $400 billion. But I’ve made lots of dumb decisions. That’s part of the game.

You know how advice is. You only want it if it agrees with what you wanted to do anyway.

If you are part of a religion that very strongly insists that you believe then to decide not to do that is quite a big hurdle to jump over. You never forget the thought process you went through. It becomes part of your whole intellectual picture.

When Nirvana became popular, you could very easily slip and get lost during that storm. I fortunately had really heavy anchors – old friends, family.

In crises the most daring course is often safest.

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.

People are getting smarter nowadays; they are letting lawyers, instead of their conscience, be their guide.

A man is usually more careful of his money than he is of his principles.

I usually make up my mind about a man in ten seconds, and I very rarely change it.

I just know what is right and I want to do what is right.

Who shall decide when doctors disagree, And soundest casuists doubt, like you and me?

Undeserved praise causes more pangs of conscience later than undeserved blame, but probably only for this reason, that our power of judgment are more completely exposed by being over praised than by being unjustly underestimated.

If you want to be a good strategist, you can never just go off a principle you read in a book. You need to adapt what you do to the situation; no rule of thumb is true all the time.

The intention and outcome of vulnerability is trust, intimacy and connection. The outcome of oversharing is distrust, disconnection – and usually a little judgment.

It is always your next move.

Of two evils, choose neither.

The common question that gets asked in business is, ‚why?‘ That’s a good question, but an equally valid question is, ‚why not?‘

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

An act has no ethical quality whatever unless it be chosen out of several all equally possible.

To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies. So it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects.

There are some people who need to wear a label round their necks to show that they are Christians at all, or else we might mistake them for sinners, their actions are so like those of the ungodly.

There are horrible people who, instead of solving a problem, tangle it up and make it harder to solve for anyone who wants to deal with it. Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.

I’m interested in that drive, that rush to judgment, that is so prevalent in our society. We all know that pleasurable rush that comes from condemning, and in the short term it’s quite a satisfying thing to do, isn’t it?

Necessity never made a good bargain.

Unless a president can protect the privacy of the advice he gets, he cannot get the advice he needs.

You can’t have a value structure without a hierarchy. They’re the same thing because a value structure means one thing takes precedence over another.

A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.

I don’t ever make moves under pressure.