I’m asking myself, ‚What do my girls, what do all our children deserve in their president? What kind of a president do we want for them?‘ Well, to start with, I think we want someone who is a unifying force in this country: someone who sees our differences not as a threat, but as a blessing.

Americans want students to get the best education possible. We want schools to prepare children to become good citizens and members of a prosperous American economy.

There’s always an element of self delusion among people who believe they ought to be President. There’s an underestimation of your opponent and an overestimation of your own abilities. This is compatible with being rich and powerful, the idea that we were blessed by God because we deserve to be blessed.

To rule a country of a thousand chariots, there must be reverent attention to business, and sincerity; economy in expenditure, and love for men; and the employment of the people at the proper seasons.

I have no problem yelling at anybody’s kid – free of charge!

The thing I enjoyed most were visits from children. They did not want public office.

To all the positions, I just bring the determination to win. Me being an unselfish player, I think that can carry on to my teammates. When you have one of the best players on the court being unselfish, I think that transfers to the other players.

We must have government that builds stamina into communities and men. That makes men instead of mendicants.

People look at the same passage, and one person will say this is the best thing he’s ever read, and another person will say it’s absolutely idiotic. I mean, there’s no way to reconcile those two things. You just have to forget the whole business of what people are saying.

Clever tyrants are never punished.

I just think you ought to talk straight with your people.

What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined – to strengthen each other – to be at one with each other in silent unspeakable memories.

I believed what my father taught me about the separation of church and state, so when I was President I never invited Billy Graham to have services in the White House because I didn’t think that was appropriate. He was injured a little bit, until I explained it to him.

I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.

My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too.

When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing more to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.

If people lose faith in their government, the result is the same whether or not the loss of confidence is justified.

With every word we utter, with every action we take, we know our kids are watching us. We as parents are their most important role models.

I dream of the realization of the unity of Africa, whereby its leaders combine in their efforts to solve the problems of this continent. I dream of our vast deserts, of our forests, of all our great wildernesses.

A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.

Since it is difficult to join them together, it is safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking.

Political courage is not political suicide.

Those people who develop the ability to continuously acquire new and better forms of knowledge that they can apply to their work and to their lives will be the movers and shakers in our society for the indefinite future.

Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere as long as the policy you’ve decided upon is being carried out.

You have your ideology and I have mine.

I’ve been blessed with talents to play this game and been put on a stage to impact a lot of people. I don’t want to take that for granted.

Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.

I love being American, and I love family. I love having a family, and I feel so blessed, and I feel like God gave me exactly what I wanted, so now I have to do the right thing in God’s eyes also. Just follow what God wants me to do.

The memory of that scene for me is like a frame of film forever frozen at that moment: the red carpet, the green lawn, the white house, the leaden sky. The new president and his first lady.

My mother always used to say, ‚Well, if you had been born a little girl growing up in Egypt, you would go to church or go to worship Allah, but surely if those people are worshipping a God, it must be the same God‘ – that’s what she always said. The same God with different names.

Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.

When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.

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.

All religions must be tolerated… for every man must get to heaven in his own way.

Except for the title ‚father,‘ there is no title, including ‚vice president,‘ that I am more proud to wear than that of United States senator.

Couples are wholes and not wholes, what agrees disagrees, the concordant is discordant. From all things one and from one all things.

People want to listen to a message, word from Jah. This could be passed through me or anybody. I am not a leader. Messenger. The words of the songs, not the person, is what attracts people.

I don’t mind how much my Ministers talk, so long as they do what I say.

No foreign policy – no matter how ingenious – has any chance of success if it is born in the minds of a few and carried in the hearts of none.

I have no further use for America. I wouldn’t go back there if Jesus Christ was President.

There is always another way to say the same thing that doesn’t look at all like the way you said it before. I don’t know what the reason for this is. I think it is somehow a representation of the simplicity of nature.

When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people.

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

He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled.

My aim is to create a happy society with genuine friendship. Friendship between Tibetan and Chinese peoples is very essential.

If proud Americans can be who they are and boldly stand at the altar with who they love then surely, surely we can give everyone in this country a fair chance at that great American Dream.

What Washington needs is adult supervision.

Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.

To such an extent does nature delight and abound in variety that among her trees there is not one plant to be found which is exactly like another; and not only among the plants, but among the boughs, the leaves and the fruits, you will not find one which is exactly similar to another.

Never give an order that can’t be obeyed.

I break ground. I trailblaze.

A house divided against itself cannot stand.

The topic of leadership is a touchy one. A lot of leaders fail because they don’t have the bravery to touch that nerve or strike that chord. Throughout my years, I haven’t had that fear.

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.

History reminds us that dictators and despots arise during times of severe economic crisis.

Come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness.

Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.

To supervise people, you must either surpass them in their accomplishments or despise them.

My children, to the extent that they have found religion, have found it from me, in that I insist on at least a modicum of religious education for them.

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.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood.